Cardinal to Deliver Invocation at Convention

Breaking with recent precedent, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony agreed Wednesday to deliver the invocation at the opening of the Democratic National Convention here Monday.

Four years ago, when the Democrats met in Chicago, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin turned down an invitation to address the convention. Similarly, the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York absented himself from Democratic conventions in his city in 1984 and 1992.

Church officials did not publicly say why the cardinals had avoided speaking at those conventions. “It was just something the cardinal decided not to do,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York archdiocese.

At the time, however, the absences were widely perceived as a rebuke to the Democrats for their support of abortion rights. In 1984, O’Connor had sharply chastised Geraldine Ferraro, a Catholic and the party’s vice presidential nominee, for her support of abortion rights.

Catholic leaders have given public prayers at recent Republican conventions. Last week, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia delivered the closing benediction at the GOP gathering, and four years ago San Diego Bishop Robert H. Brom delivered the invocation at the Republican convention there.

Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Los Angeles archdiocese, said Wednesday that Mahony’s consent to deliver the invocation on Monday should not be seen as “fudging” on the church’s--and the cardinal’s--oft-stated opposition to abortion.

“This is not a big speech about abortion. That’s not appropriate for an invocation,” Tamberg said. “An invocation is a prayer.

“It’s at a political convention, but we’re praying to God. . . . It’s not a Catholic prayer or a sectarian prayer, but a prayer asking God to come down to all of us and to be with all of us,” Tamberg said.

Nonetheless, Tamberg said Gore’s invitation was unexpected. “The invitation came yesterday [Tuesday] afternoon from the vice president’s office, and it was quite a surprise, but it was accepted this morning,” Tamberg said.

Several months ago, the nation’s Catholic bishops submitted testimony to both political party platform committees in which the bishops reaffirmed the church’s view that “every human life is sacred from conception to natural death.”

The testimony, titled “Faithful Citizenship,” urged Catholic voters to remember that they “are not free to abandon unborn children because they are seen as unwanted or inconvenient.”

Mahony, who formerly chaired the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, has repeatedly denounced abortion.

In 1996 on the 23rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision, which struck down anti-abortion laws across the country, Mahony delivered an address in Pasadena decrying “the scourge of abortion and euthanasia.”

He was one of the Catholic lead

ers who called for a ban on the type of late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion, and he urged Catholics to “besiege” Congress and the White House urging them to oppose an “immoral bill” that allowed such procedures.

In the 1996 speech, Mahony referred specifically to the party platforms’ stance on abortion.

“The present Republican Platform opposes abortion and supports a constitutional amendment to protect human life from the moment of conception,” Mahony said to applause. “We need to urge the Republican leadership to retain their long-standing platform language--and to challenge the Democrats to return to their own earlier pro-life roots.”

The current Democratic platform continues the party’s support for Roe vs. Wade and abortion rights in general. The Republicans, in their platform, have renewed their call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortions.

When Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, as their presidential standard-bearer in 1960 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles’ then-Cardinal Francis McIntyre delivered the invocation. At the time, however, abortion was not a highly visible issue.

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Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this story.