PRESIDENTIAL RACE Catholic groups counter ad on issue of abortion

A New Castle doctor was among those advertising.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The newspaper of the city's Roman Catholic diocese is experiencing a pre-election advertising boom from groups opposing an earlier ad by Pax Christi, which said Catholic voters shouldn't make abortion a single-issue litmus test for candidates.
"We are SCANDALIZED that many Catholics, including local priests and religious, have joined with Pax Christi USA in what we believe is their veiled, backdoor endorsement of an adamant pro-abortion candidate for the presidency," says one ad scheduled to appear in The Pittsburgh Catholic on Friday.
A group called Catholics United for Integrity in Voting placed that ad. The diocese said four other groups opposing Pax Christi have placed ads. Plus, four statewide candidates and two voter guides also are scheduled to appear in Friday's edition.
Pax Christi USA, an Erie, Pa.-based group of more than 200 Catholic organizations, has run full-page newspaper ads in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, urging Catholics to consider more than abortion before casting a ballot. Pax Christi says Catholics also must consider war, poverty, health care, capital punishment, immigration, racism and other issues because "life does not end at birth."
Bigger issue
Dr. Daniel Callaghan of New Castle said he bought a 3-by-5-inch ad to counter the notion that so-called "womb-to-tomb" social issues trump abortion. "Because of abortion, 44 million unborn American girls and boys went directly from the womb to their tomb," Callaghan's ad says.
Most of the ads don't mention candidates by name, but a full-page ad from LIFEPAC does. It says all Catholics must oppose five social issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and homosexual marriage.
"The only major party candidate for president of the United States that meets the above five non-negotiable issues is George W. Bush," the ad says.
The Pittsburgh Catholic accepts partisan political ads as long as they don't oppose church teachings or attack an opposing candidate.
"We believe that this is for the informational purposes of our readers," Robert Lockwood, communications director of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Financially, it's been a great assistance to our apostolate."