The National Catholic Register reports that a fund-raising letter on behalf of Catholic Advocate, a project of the Washington-based Morley Institute for Church and Culture, is being distributed “in an envelope that bears [Sen. Sam] Brownback’s signature in a manner similar to official Congressional correspondence.” The letter questions the Catholic bona fides of several other members of Congress:
Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, in a fundraising letter for a new Washington-based antiabortion group distributed under his signature, questioned whether six of his Democratic colleagues and the Speaker of the House are genuine Catholics.
“Real Catholics need a new voice — not the likes of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi who have campaigned as Catholics while voting to undermine the values that we hold most dear,” according to the undated Brownback letter.
NCR received the letter in the mail Feb. 17.
“The same can be said for the five ‘Catholic’ senators sponsoring the Freedom of Choice Act,” continues the letter, which then specifically cites Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as among those who “openly and unabashedly claim to be Catholic — every year at election time” but who then “once in office … willfully cast life-destroying votes at every turn.”
The letter, carried in an envelope that bears Brownback’s signature in a manner similar to official Congressional correspondence, was distributed on behalf of Catholic Advocate, a project of the Washington-based Morley Institute for Church and Culture, publisher of Inside Catholic, a conservative Catholic Web site.
Of course, Brownback’s staff is now denying that they had anything to do with it:
But Brownback spokesman Brian Hart said, “Our chief of staff … had never seen, heard of, or approved it.” Hart said Brownback’s Senate staff has “reached out to both the organization responsible and the mail house [responsible for printing and distributing the letter] and directed them not to use Sam Brownback’s name, signature, likeness or representation in any way moving forward and expressed that we are not pleased with the content of the letter.”
