During the 2004 presidential campaign pitting George W. Bush against John Kerry, conservative voices in the hierarchy were dominant, fearless, relentless—in brief, overwhelming. Progressive voices in the Church leadership were, to be charitable, conflicted. It might be said that progressive Church leaders had qualms because of the abortion and stem-cell issues. But the issues of poverty, social justice, and war did not seem to detain the conservative leaders in the Catholic Church from speaking out strongly in a way that left little doubt that they supported the reelection of George W. Bush.E.J. Dionne, Jr., Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2008), p. 167.
