January 12, 2000
House divided on selection of chaplain
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--The normally non-controversial post of chaplain to the House of Representatives has become decidedly controversial. Catholics say a priest who appeared to be the frontrunner for the post did not get the job simply because he is Roman Catholic.
___An 18-member House committee screened almost 50 candidates for the job, which has become vacant with the retirement of James Ford, a Lutheran who held the post 21 years. In secret balloting, the committee named its three top contenders --the first being Timothy O'Brien, a Catholic priest and Marquette University political science professor.
___However, House Republican leaders selected Charles Parker Wright, who came in third in the balloting. Wright, a Presbyterian minister long associated with Washington's National Prayer Breakfast, also trailed Robert Dvorak, an official with the Evangelical Covenant Church.
___Several Democratic House members said they believe Wright was selected because the GOP leadership either wanted to placate the mostly Protestant Religious Right or was simply uncomfortable having a Catholic in the post.
___The House chaplain opens House sessions and performs other ceremonial duties. He also counsels House members and families, if they seek him out.
___Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., a member of the selection committee, said she was angered by the House Republican decision. "As a member of the House and a member of the committee and as a Catholic, I'm offended and resentful," she said.
___O'Brien told the New York Times he believed that if he had belonged to "any mainline Protestant denomination" he would have won the job.
___"I hope and pray that the 1960 presidential election (of Catholic John F. Kennedy) did do away with the idea of Catholics as not being fully American. I'm not convinced that the prejudicial view is gone, and I do believe that if I were not a Catholic priest I would be the House chaplain," he said.
___Peter Jeffries, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, said Hastert favored Wright because he felt he was the candidate who "would jell the best with the members and their families."
___Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, told Associated Press her boss chose Wright because "he was looking for (someone) who the members were going to feel most comfortable with."
___In a statement, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, replied: "To say that most members of the House would be more comfortable with a Protestant minister than with a Catholic priest ... is to say that Catholic priests need not apply for the post."
___In a Dec. 20 letter to Hastert, Michigan Democrat John Dingell asked for release of records and other materials relating to the chaplain selection.
___Without access to papers relating to the choice, "we have no means by which to evaluate to what degree, if any, the selection process was tainted by religious prejudice," Dingell said.
___The House is set to vote on Wright's selection Jan. 27.Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!