In previous posts I’ve given an overview of my article in American Catholic Studies “Defeating ‘Death with Dignity’: Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum” (gated) and a review of my findings of the money advantage enjoyed by opponents, who relied upon Catholic funding. In politics he who pays the piper names the tune. But in this case, although Cardinal Sean O’Malley involved the Church based upon the moral issue raised by assisted suicide, the campaign’s messaging was almost entirely secular.
I analyzed messaging used on television and web videos released by the Catholic funded Committee Against Physician Assisted Suicide (CAPAS) and in articles that appeared in the archdiocesan newspaper The Pilot about Question 2 from Labor Day to Election Day 2012. I also analyzed tweets about the topic from the account of @CardinalSean. I categorized the messages within three broad types of legitimations of Catholic messages developed by Prof. David Yamane in The Catholic Church in State Politics: religious, cultural, and secular legitimations (and subcategories within each one, if you want to read the article).
First, let’s look at legitimations in TV and video ads.
Legitimations Presented by CAPAS, Television Advertisements and Videos
Type Frequencies
Religious
Scripture
Church Tradition & Teaching
Cultural
Moral Norms 2
Societal or Professional Norms 4
Secular
Scientific Authority 11
Legal Flaws 3
Socioeconomic 2
Personal Experience 5
As we see, there are no cultural legitimations offered in the TV or video ads. They were remarkably effective though, as anyone will attest who remembers the advertisement of the woman whose husband was given a prognosis of six months to live, but who “lived longer than any doctor ever thought he would.” He might have made a terrible decision and lost all that extra time with his wife and daughters.
Well, television is a broadcast medium. Wouldn’t we expect to see religious messaging in The Pilot, a widely disseminated newspaper of most interest to archdiocesan Catholics? Let’s see:
Legitimations Presented by Opponents of Question 2 Death With Dignity, The Pilot
Type Frequencies
Religious
Scripture 3
Church Tradition & Teaching 9
Cultural
Moral Norms 23
Societal or Professional Norms 26
Secular
Scientific Authority 19
Legal Flaws 42
Socioeconomic 2
Personal Experience 2
Indeed, we do see some religious arguments, but the overwhelming number of messages sent to the Catholic community were not religious but cultural or secular. The religious legitimations all appeared in articles written by Cardinal Seán O’Malley or attributed to him in articles written by Pilot staffers.
Cardinal O’Malley assuredly is among the first if not the first Catholic cardinal to take to Twitter during a public policy campaign, so let’s look at a summary of his Twitter messages:
Twitter Messages from @CardinalSean
Type Frequencies
Religious
Scripture
Church Tradition & Teaching 7
Cultural
Moral norms 1
Societal or Professional Norms 1
Secular
Scientific Authority
Legal Flaws
Socioeconomic
Personal Experience
Transmission
Linked Religious 8
Linked Cultural 17
Linked Secular 45
Directive Statement 32
We do see seven religious legitimizations in @CardinalSean’s tweets and eight tweets that link to religious arguments. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of tweets were non-religious in nature.
None of the 2012 ads are my favorite Catholic ad of all time though. That would be the billboards in 1948 opposing liberalized birth control laws and featuring a happy infant and the legend “It’s still against God’s law.”
How times change. In 2012 the Church found the right messaging for the times.