Carl Limbacher
Friday, Dec. 15, 2000

Cuomo's statement has drawn the ire of New York's powerful Catholic Church.

Cuomo, one of the country's most prominent Catholic politicians, said on several TV interviews that members of the Electoral College who are pledged to support President-elect Bush could change their minds before the College's Dec. 18 deadline and vote for Gore instead as a matter of "conscience."

In a letter dated this past Wednesday, and obtained by NewsMax.com, Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn, pastor at Cuomo's East Side parish, St. John the Evangelist Church in New York City, counseled Cuomo:

"I believe that as your pastor, I should write to you regarding your recent statements with reference to the Electoral College ....

"If the word conscience is used in the traditional sense to refer to one's best judgement about what one ought to do," then Cuomo is right about what electors might be able to do, Wrenn advised.

"But if conscience is used in the popular contemporary sense to refer to one's preferences, which may well be incompatable with moral truth, then of course, the answer is no," warned the New York priest.

Next, Father Wrenn upbraided the one-time presidential contender with a lecture on the duties and obligations of electors.

"Nobody is required to serve in the Electoral College. People freely undertake to do so. ... Therefore, in undertaking to serve as an elector, a person assumes a grave moral responsibility to vote for the candidates of a particular party."

In a direct rebuttal to Cuomo, Wrenn told Cuomo that any elector who failed to accept the "only morally acceptable solution" – of voting for the candidate they agreed to – had no alternative but "to resign."

Wrenn added that any elector who failed to uphold that responsibility would engage in "a betrayal of trust," comparing the job to that of an executor of an estate duty-bound to follow the deceased's wishes.

After Gore's concession, Cuomo has been trying to do some fast backpedaling.

Criticized by radio host Don Imus for interfering in the Electoral College, Cuomo blasted a fax off to Imus which the shock jock read on the air this morning.

Cuomo claimed to Imus that media reports indicating he was leading an effort to have electors change their votes is "untrue."

He did admit that he talked at length to the media about the right of electors to change their votes.

But Cuomo's actions regarding the Electoral College apparently ticked off New York Archdiocesan officials.

A source in the Archdiocese suggested that Wrenn's letter, which begins with the serious introduction of "as your pastor," suggested that higher Church officials were not pleased with Cuomo or his claim that electors had a "moral" duty to vote for the candidate they wished to.

"Cuomo's sermonizing is really getting too much," a source said.

NewsMax.com reported in October that Cuomo was the focus of criticism of new New York Archbishop Edward M. Egan.

In his speech, Egan told Catholic youth that Cuomo was a bad example, though he didn't mention him by name.

Cuomo has been writing letters to Egan, some of which have not been responded to.

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