The Need to Catechize Catholics

This post from a Kerry Catholic demostrates a profound need to catechize the faithful - those who are professedly Catholic, but seem to be confused about the Church's teachings.

Now, here's a study in contrasts, New Mexico, in which the Catholic vote was 32% of the vote, higher than the national average, gave Kerry 61% of the vote to Bush's 38%. Kerry got about 45% of weekly attendees. Obviously, it was more of a Latino and Native vote.
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In PA, Catholics were 35% of the electorate, and Kerry won in 51% to 49%, in an electorate with only 3% Latinos. So those were mostly White Catholics. Even more interesting is that Kerry gets 45% of weekly church attendess and 38% of more than once a week church attendees. Looking for silver linings, those are interesting numbers.
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But then, here's a good one: Maryland is a Blue state and Catholics are 24% of the electorate. Well, Bush trounces Kerry in the Catholic vote, 57%-41%, that is a stunning number. No easy explanation for that.
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As for Minnesota, Kerry won the Catholic vote and got 41% of weekly Church attendees. Bush won the Catholic vote in Missouri by one point, which is interesting since St Louis was ground zero for Archbishop Burke's interventions. Kerry won IA Catholics 53-46, that's awesome! (I'm grasping for silver linings here!)He also got 45% of the Catholic weekly attendees.
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The Catholic vote overall was 27% which is far higher than the percentage in the general population. I think one reason is that all the political talk keyed Catholics into the process and led to a higher Catholic turnout. We can say defintely that the Catholic swing vote is not dead by a long shot. 2004 shows that the Catholic vote is still crucial and can be decisive. Although, at this point, it is still not clear how to manipulate it. The Catholic vote was a factor in OH, it is not clear why and why not PA or MO, or WI or MN, which were all battleground, hotly contested states with Catholic emphasis.
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I happen to think that wherever there was focus by Kerry and Kerry Catholics, we muted the Catholic right and Kerry did well among White Catholics. But where we did not turn up the heat, we lost. Like I said earlier, I don't think we targetted OH in a Catholic sense and that was costly.

Not only are there divisions in this country, ideologically and morally, but also in the Church, particularly in the U.S. We must do all we can to teach and counsel those Catholics. It is especially disturbing to see that so many professed Catholics are confused about good and evil, right and wrong.

As the commentary for today's Gospel states:

"They should be mindful that by their daily conduct and solicitude they display the reality of a truly priestly and pastoral ministry both to believers and unbelievers alike, to Catholics and non-Catholics; that they are bound to bear witness before all men of the truth and of the life, and as good shepherds seek after those too who, whilst having been baptized in the Catholic Church, have given up the practice of the Sacraments, or even fallen away from the faith" ("Lumen Gentium", 28). However, every member of the faithful should show this same kind of concern--expressed in a fraternal way--towards his brothers and sisters, towards everyone on the road to sanctification and salvation.

There is much work to do and it can be accomplished if we allow ourselves to be used as the instruments of the Holy Spirit, in true humility and charity, to present the truths of Christ and His Church to others who are in such a desperate need.