House vote on new chaplain delayed as charges of anti-Catholic bias leveled
against RepublicansBy BOB FRANKEN/CNN
January 14, 2000
Web posted at: 11:12 a.m. EST (1612 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The vote for a new chaplain for the House of Representatives, originally scheduled for January 27th, will be delayed until some time in February, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois).
CNN has obtained a copy of internal documents scheduled for release later Friday that report the selection of Rev. Charles Wright, a Presbyterian minister, to become the new House chaplain. The current chaplain, the Reverend James Ford, is retiring.
Sources tell CNN that Wright will be given extra time to lobby for final approval by the full House.
The release of the documents comes after weeks of accusations by some members of Congress that the House's majority Republican leaders, who made the final choice, were influenced by an anti-Catholic bias.
The documents show that of the top six finalists, it was a Catholic priest, Father Tim O'Brien, who received the most votes from the House search committee charged with finding a replacement for Ford.
Wright placed third. But it was then up to Hastert, Majority Leader
Dick Armey (R-Texas) and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) to choose a candidate from the top three.
Hastert and Armey decided on Wright, a Presbyterian minister. Gephardt's
office said he told the leaders he would have voted for O'Brien, the
Catholic priest.
Since then, a number of Democrats have charged the GOP leaders with being biased against Catholics. But Hastert's spokesman said the speaker and Armey decided on Wright "because he gave the better interview." O'Brien, the spokesman went on, "was not very warm."
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