America Undecided: Catholic, Independent and Social Justice Perspectives on Election 2012

Before he was a devoted husband and father, or a U.S. Senator, or a presidential candidate of historic accomplishments, Barack Obama took a job working as a community organizer for a group of eight Catholic parishes in one of the nation’s largest cities. With funding from the U.S. Bishops and working for three years out of an office in a Catholic church rectory, he embarked on a campaign to empower the lives of thousands of people who were suffering through economic circumstances not unlike what has befallen our country today.

Law professors Edward Gaffney and Douglas Kmiec teamed up with Dr. Patrick Whelan, a pediatric specialist, to address the "religious liberty" issue that has been roiling the Church in 2012. It combines the medical perspective on the whole contraception controversy with the constitutional and religious freedom issues raised by some of the bishops. But at the heart of the story are a series of interviews with the Catholic priests who hired President Obama in 1985, when he was just out of college, to help improve the lives of Catholics on the South Side of Chicago.