The real title of this column, if we want to get rough (and we do) might be "Dumbed down Catholics voting for dumbed down Kerry." Or, "Welcome to Kerry's party for dummies." Allow me to explain why the dumbing down of U.S. Catholic laity is likely to win the 2004 Presidential Race for John Kerry.

Catholics worldwide numbered 1.07 billion in 2002, and more than half of them are in The Americas, says the 2004 Pontifical Yearbook. In the U.S., 65 million Catholics make up 25% of the nation's population and will result in 27% of the votes in this November 2004 election.

One survey reveals that 70% of all U.S. Catholics are still undecided how they will vote, even though their Pope has warned them that the act of abortion is an act of murder and one cannot vote for abortion. The Kerry campaign is most aware of these statistics of wishy washy or lukewarm Catholics. A significant part of Kerry's support in his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire came from Catholic supporters.

Some pollsters call Catholics the 'swing vote,' meaning they're more diverse in their loyalties, voting less for the Democrat 'abortion' Party than they did 50 years ago when the party was pro life, pro family, pro America. Faithful Mass attending Catholics agree that the party is dead and gone and no longer represents their beliefs.

While Kerry wants Catholics to reestablish their old Democratic ties, his staffers are pulling out all the stops to keep current Catholics supporters from leaving the party.

Statisticians also tell us that it's the Catholic vote that determines who wins presidential races anymore, that the majority of Catholics still have loyalties to the Democrat party. But Andrew Smith of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center said, "Catholics don't vote as a bloc, they are as varied as Protestant voters or any other voters."

The obvious question one next asks is, "How can any 'real' Christian, who truly accepted Christ as the only Savior of the world and is acting accordingly, still be affiliated with the official abortion and sodomite party?" The answer is simply that pro abortion Democrats are successfully wooing dumbed down Catholics into thinking their party is in line with Church teachings. How are the Democrats doing this?

They're doing it with the help, directly or indirectly, of most of the Catholic hierarchy. Let me explain.

There are 71 pro abortion 'Catholics' legislators in U.S. Congress and 415 pro abortion 'Catholic' state legislators. These legislators, week after week, continue to receive the Eucharist (sacrilegiously) in many (not all) dioceses nationwide. Except for two courageous bishops, Archbishop Burke and Bishop Bruskewitz, no other bishops have placed canonical sanctions against these pro abortion legislators. This send the clear message those Catholics in the pews that it's perfectly alright to vote for abortion and still be a Catholic in good standing.

Another way Democrats will try to win, or con, Catholic voters is their preparation a 'Catholic Voting Scorecard' in an effort to show that Catholic Democratic lawmakers have adhered more closely to the position of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy on key issues than their Catholic Republican counterparts. Of course, this will take much chicanery on Kerry's part. The preliminary scorecard does not include any Republican social justice issues such as school vouchers or faith-based initiatives. Are Catholics catechized sufficiently to see through the Democrats' theological deceptions? I predict they are not.

Sadly, most any Catholic, age 60 years or younger, who received a 'Catholic' education in many of the 9,500 U.S. Catholic elementary and high schools, 235 Catholic colleges or universities, suffer the most ignorance of faith due to radically anti-Catholic, pro sodomite curricular studies in place. This is most prevalent at Jesuit institutions of higher education.

In addition, most all other baptized and confirmed Catholics who have gone through typical parish educational courses such as RCIA, CCD programs, Marriage Preparation classes, have not been properly catechized in the Catholic faith due to sorely lacking teachers and programs, with some programs actually teaching heresies. Therefore, the Church has several generations of dumbed down Catholics who are extremely vulnerable to rejecting or doubting revealed truths of the faith out of ignorance. Incidentally, anyone guilty of the crime of teaching heresy incurs excommunication 'ipso facto' ('by the very fact' or automatically).

Catholic author Ken C. Jones' recent book, 'Index of Leading Catholic Indicators' shows that only 10 percent of lay religious teachers now accept church teaching on contraception. Fifty-three percent lay religious teachers believe a Catholic can have an abortion and remain a good Catholic. Sixty-five percent teachers believe that Catholics may divorce and remarry. Seventy-seven percent lay religious teachers believe one can be a good Catholic without going to mass on Sundays. By one New York Times poll, 70 percent of all Catholics in the age group 18 to 44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus. Therefore, if you and I do the math, only 25-30% of the U.S. 65 million Catholics are faithful.

Welcome to the era of proportionalism, or Catholicism 'lite.' Too many Catholics nationwide, and let's not exclude many of our Church hierarchy, suffer the condition of a faith that purports "if it feels good, it can't be morally wrong anymore." Thus, we have the dumbing down of already lukewarm Catholics to the mental level of a Texas armadillo (not that I intend to degrade the hairy bellied armadillo's intelligence).

Many Catholics have out rightly rejected faith, reason and truth, replacing it with false proportionalism preached from modernist bishops/clergy, pro abortion politicians, wealthy sports figures, and sodomite television sitcoms. There is a crisis of faith because there is a crisis of truth. Thus, John Kerry's message of a false Catholicism easily leads the dumbed down astray.

For example, Associated Press reported recently, "Kerry says he is personally opposed to abortion, but supports the rights of others to make that choice. Kerry argues that church doctrine allows Catholics the freedom of conscience to choose that stance." Oh, really?

As a Catholic legislator, Kerry's obligation to stop abortion is clearly defined by Church teachings, contrary to what Kerry falsely claims. Pope Pius XI, in his more relevant than ever landmark encyclical, warns (this will give you chills):

"Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority ... to defend the lives of the innocent ... among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates ... do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors and others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cries from earth to heaven" (Casti Connubii §67).

More recently, Pope John Paul II exhorted all Christians, including Kerry, that they cannot support abortion ever, but instead must do everything to oppose abortion and pro abortion legislation:

"Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good. Consequently, a civil law authorizing abortion or euthanasia ceases by that very fact to be a true morally binding civil law. Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. From the very beginning of the Church, the apostolic preaching reminded Christians of their duty to obey legitimately constituted public authorities, but at the same time it firmly warned that 'we must obey God rather than man'" (Evangelium vitae §72-73).

Dissenting Catholic politicians' false statements, such as John Kerry's, seem to carry more weight with dumbed down Catholics than all of the Popes since St. Peter.