Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, has sparked controversy — and outrage — by writing that President Barack Obama reflects the views of American Catholics better than the Pope.

In a column for Newsweek magazine’s Web site, Kennedy Townsend — eldest of Robert Kennedy’s 11 children — asserted: “Obama’s pragmatic approach to divisive policy . . . and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists.”

She noted that while Obama and Pope Benedict XVI “disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality,” American Catholics “know Obama’s on their side. In fact, Obama’s agenda is closer to their views than even the Pope’s.”

Among the voices decrying Townsend’s column is Judie Brown, president and co-founder of the American Life League, a pro-life organization.

Writing for CNSNews, she calls Townsend’s views “misguided” and states: “‘Reproductive freedoms,’ for those unfamiliar with the culture of death’s propaganda, is a code phrase for abortion on demand, sex instruction in schools, birth control for kids, and all manner of bizarre propositions that help the purveyors of smut to define the human person as an animal incapable of self-control . . .

“One can easily tell that her thought process has little to do with Catholic identity and, in fact, is contrary to all that is Catholic. There is no other explanation for her inane claim that President Obama is somehow more in tune with American Catholics than the Pope.”

Townsend goes on to say that the Church hierarchy “ignores women’s equality and gays’ cry for justice because to heed them would require that it admit error and acknowledge that the self-satisfied edifice constructed around sex and gender has been grievously wrong.”

She also cites the Pope’s recent encyclical “Charity in Truth,” claiming it gives “moral credence to Obama’s message.”

But Brown counters, “In fact, the encyclical’s message is something else entirely . . .

“Without respect for the human person, it is impossible to bring about a just society, and in a just society, there is no room for heinous crimes such as abortion. This is the underlying theme of the entire encyclical, which Kennedy Townsend apparently overlooked entirely.”

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Kennedy Townsend urges youth to get into politics

By Steve Hinnefeld 331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com

“It’s great that record numbers of young people are involved in community service through volunteer activities”, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said.

But it’s a shame that so many steer clear of another means of civic engagement: political activity and government service.

“Government is where we make our most solemn common decisions,” she said. And when it’s attacked as unworthy, “that hurts our ability to build a strong community.”

Townsend is the oldest child of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy and a niece of John F. Kennedy. She was in Bloomington Thursday to speak at a fundraiser dinner for the O’Bannon Institute for Community Service at Ivy Tech Community College.

She was lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003 and counts as one of her primary achievements that she helped make community service a requirement for high school graduation.

But she said it’s disappointing that students who boast of their volunteerism — planting trees, tutoring children, delivering meals to the elderly — often won’t dirty their hands with politics.

“I think that’s a loss of talent and energy and vision,” she said.

Townsend, a Democrat, attributed the nation’s turn against politics, in part, to strategy by some Republicans. She recalled when Ronald Reagan said government was the problem, not the solution.

“If you’re good and bright and smart, why do you go to the place where the problem is?” she said.

Her new book, “Failing America’s Faithful,” is based on a related theme, she said. It argues that churches have “shrunken God” through a narrow focus on sex and abortion.

She tells how, in 1968, the television interviewer David Frost asked both her father and Reagan, “Why are we on Earth?” Reagan talked about freedom and individual salvation. Robert Kennedy talked about making life better for others.

“There it is in a nutshell,” she said. “Do I care primarily about me? Or do we care about community?”