Reagan moves to counter Ferraro factor

As the Democratic ticket woes the Catholic voters, Louis Jebb reports on the importance of pro-life issues in the presidential campaign.
PRESIDENT Ronald Reagan last week made his first determined attempt to match the attraction to American Catholic voters presented by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate Mrs Geraldine Ferraro.
At the same time it became clear that the policies of Democratic presidential nominee, Walter Mondale., have been warmly received. by Catholic groups, with the exception of his advocacy of abortion.
Apparently stung by the publicity that has been given to Mrs Ferraro's sex, religion and Italian immigrant background, President Reagan spoke at St Ann's Catholic Church, Hoboken, New Jersey and later attended a spaghetti dinner in honour of St Ann, patron saint of women.
One of the President's campaign assistants, Mr Jim Lake, said: "We are not going to let the Democrats take the ethnic Italian and Catholic votes by default". Addressing the women of Hoboken on the day they carried a six foot statue of St Ann through the streets for five hours, the President emphasised his opposition to abortion, his support for tax credits to help parents to pay parochial school fees and his backing for voluntary prayer in public schools.
In an attack on the Democrats' plan .to halt American support for Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua, the President told the meeting that Pope John Paul had been made to stiffer by the regime's "leftist thugs" during his visit there last year.
"He was forced to stand in the brutal sun as Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista junta, delivered a long and hatefilled diatribe against the West."
The President recalled that the Pope had silenced the Sandinistas' boos and jeers by uttering the single word "silenzio"; and two weeks ago he had spoken in Rome against Oppression of the Catholic Church of Nicaragua.
Walter Mondale's stands on disarmanent, civil rights, family and anti-poverty issues have been well received by Catholic groups in America but, like his running mate Mrs Ferraro, he has been strongly criticised for favouring abortion. Mr David O'Steen, director of the National Right to Life Committee, said that this was the first election where Americans had been presented with "an out-front, no apologies pro-abortion position being taken by the candidate of a major party".
At last month's party convention in San Francisco, the Democrats adopted a motion Opposing "government interference in the reproductive decisions of Americans".
NRLC say Mr Mondale has been consistently in favour of abortion, with a six-out-of-ten pro-abortion voting record in the Senate, while in Congress Mrs Ferraro voted five times out of five in favour of abortion in 1982 and 1983.
In a letter to supporters in January 1983, Mr Mondale said "we must not let anyone assault the United States Constitution by eliminating the right of a woman to choose an abortion or some forms of birth control. Without that right her other liberties are violated".
Mrs Ferraro has said that she would never have an abortion herself but would not dictate the tenets of her religion to others. "As a member of congress, I cannot dictate by religion".
In terms of social justice Mr Mondale has scored highly on voting records for the Senate kept by Network, a lobbying group founded by nuns, and Bread for the World, a citizens' lobby group concerned about world hunger. Mr Mondale is known to support nuclear arms control measures such as a nuclear freeze, a comprehensive test ban treaty and an anti-satt elite warfare agreement, and a stronger conventional deterrent in Europe to reduce the pressure to use nuclear weapons.
Some of his positions on arms control mirror those taken by the American Bishops' Conference in their 1983 pastoral Jester The Challenge of Peace: God's promise and our response, which called for reduced reliance on nuclear weapons in the European theatre,
Mr Mondale is known to support the Equal Rights Amendment and opposes a constitutional amendment to bring daily prayers back to public schools.
He has opposed tax credits for parents who send their children to fee-paying, non-public. schools, but as Mr Carter's vicepresident from 1976 to 1980 he helped to draw up legislation allowing children at private schools a share of federal aid for textbooks, library books and audio-visual materials and aid for disadvantaged students. He intervened to allow the use of public service in church-run schools.
While vice-president Mr Mondale also worked on family issues with bodies such as the National Conference of Catholic Charities and now says that the Carter administration gave families notable help on tax and welfare reform, employment and foster care.
In his approach to social justice, Mr Mondale's :supporters have emphasised that he is a religious minister's son who believes in the ten Commandments, but who believes that there is another kind of sin, "failing to have compassion — the sins of omission".
In an interview with National Catholic News in 1976, Mr Mondale said that Christianity is not an antisceptic religion: 'It's a kind of thing where we're supposed to love each other and care about each other and cry, not just about our own problems, but also the problems that others face".