In an interview in today’s Boston Globe, Cardinal Sean O’Malley suggests that Catholic voters in Massachusetts turned against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 because of his pro-choice stand on abortion:

It was interesting, if one considers Massachusetts, which is so overwhelmingly Democratic, and eight years ago [Vice President Al] Gore got 75 percent of the Catholic vote and, four years ago, [Senator John] Kerry, who is Catholic and from Massachusetts, got 50 percent of it, so they lost 25 percent of the vote in four years, and I think a lot of that was the influence of people’s concerns about life issues and things like that.

That would be an interesting fact if there were any proof of it. I can’t find where those numbers came from, and it’s hard to figure out how Kerry could run 2 points better than Gore overall in Massachusetts (62 percent vs. 60 percent) while running 25 points behind Gore in the religious group that includes almost half the population. Did he really make up the difference by getting three-quarters of the Protestant vote?

Nationally, exit polls suggest that 49 percent of Catholics voted for Gore in 2000 and 47 percent voted for Kerry four years later (with 54 percent voting for Obama this time around). It’s doubtful that Massachusetts Catholics swerved to the right while Catholics in other states stayed pretty much the same.

The American Catholic population is a meaningless political category anyway, as the group rarely deviates much from trends in the national electorate. The Catholic magazine America refuted the idea of a cohesive voting bloc a few weeks after the 2004 election:

“The idea that there is a Catholic vote was simply not borne out in this election,” said John K. White, a professor of political science and head of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America, in a program on Nov. 4. “The gap seems to be between regular attendance at church and less regular attendance.”

The America piece then cited AP exit polling from the 2004 race:

In this election, people of all faiths who go to church more than once a week, 16 percent of voters, voted for Bush by 64 percent to 35 percent. Those who described their church attendance as weekly, 26 percent of voters, voted for Bush by 58 percent to 41 percent.

Those who attend church monthly, 14 percent of voters, voted for Bush by 50 percent to 49 percent. Those who said they go a few times a year, 28 percent of voters, supported Kerry by 54 percent to 45 percent. People who said they never go to church, 15 percent, supported Kerry by 62 percent to 36 percent.