Even though polls indicate approximately half of U.S. Catholics follow Pope Benedict XVI’s magisterial decrees on how Catholics should evaluate voting issues, that half is a rather large bargaining chip for the present church-state alliance in which Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan engages a certain political party.

Although the Catholic vote is now almost evenly divided between opposing political parties, half of the 51 million adult Catholic population distributed nationwide still represent a large bargaining chip for the present U.S. Catholic Church. A much-needed bargaining chip, indeed, as the U.S. Catholic bishops struggle to avoid large-scale legal prosecution for past clerical abuses in pending court cases nationwide.

While striving to avoid parish and diocesan bankruptcy, the U.S. bishops are also making every effort to save the Church’s approximately 6,000 Catholic schools serving close to 2 million U.S. students (20% of whom are not Catholic).

The present situation of the U.S. Church-state alliance with the GOP, though embarrassing for some bishops, claims justification in the magisterial teachings of Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and even early Church Fathers as cited and propagated by Eternal Word Television Network, EWTN Global Catholic Network.
https: //www.ewtn.com/vote/download/moralguide.pdf

Meanwhile, the GOP is determined to pack the court and do whatever it takes to over-turn Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision that protected a woman’s right to privacy under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Imagine what other rights to privacy can be overturned if this one passes Supreme Court muster! Genetic testing? Doctor-patient confidentiality? Business trade secrets? Lawyer-client privilege? Financial confidentiality?