34th City Council District candidate Maritza Davila consults with Assemblyman Vito Lopez at services, left; 33rd District candidate Steve Levin shoots the evil eye, center; 34th District incumbent Diana Reyna preaches to her constituents. — Photos by Aaron Short

In the final weekend before the Democratic primary, Bushwick and Williamsburg City Council candidates trafficked Catholic parishes with a religious fervor not seen since the Second Great Awakening.

Three council candidates, Maritza Davila, Steve Levin, and Diana Reyna, attended a September 11th memorial mass at Transfiguration Roman Catholic Parish at 263 Marcy Avenue on Friday night, before their supporters fanned out on Saturday night and Sunday morning throughout the 34th District to visit St. Barbara’s, St. Brigid’s, Most Holy Trinity, St. Martin of Tours, St. Peter and Pauls, Our Lady of Pompeii, Epiphany, and Transfiguration, handing out campaign literature to parishioners as they left mass.  (Levin mostly visited the parishes that sit on the border of the 33rd and 34th District, where he is in a close seven-way race to replace Councilmember David Yassky.) 

The candidates know what is at stake and have been concentrating their resources on the Catholic vote.  In the 34th District (Williamsburg, Bushwick, Ridgewood), Reyna and Davila count large numbers of non-profit staff members and the residents they assist among their base of support.  Davila will receive a boost from the Bushwick-based Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council while Reyna retains a wide network of Williamsburg-based non-profits such as St. Nicholas NPC and United Neighbors Organizations, dedicated to her campaign.  Gerry Esposito, another candidate in the race, counts his most visible support from the primarily Italian section of Williamsburg and Community Board One constituents, whom he has served for more than thirty years.  The parishes represent the largest swath of undecided voters concentrated in one area in the district and the strategy for success on the primary follows a simple well-worn precept: win the churches, win the race.

Individual pastors in Bushwick and Williamsburg have largely refrained from wading into the election, beyond praying for all politicians to help the poor once elected and urging parishioners to vote on Tuesday.  Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, head of the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese, recognized Assemblymember Vito Lopez (D-Bushwick) for attending the memorial mass Friday night, when noting the elected officials at the service and thanked him for being helpful to the church in many ways.

"We must seek peace in this world," said DiMarzio during his sermon.  "In the second reading of the Gospels, the shepherd who takes care of his sheep knows each one of us by name.  Tonight we come to remember the past, pledge ourselves to the future and seek peace and justice in this world."

However, Diocese leaders have been quietly leaning towards Lopez and the candidates he is backing in the primary, which include Davila and Levin.  Lopez and DiMarzio have enjoyed a close working relationship even prior to Lopez’s strong advocacy for a sex abuse bill in the State Assembly this past session, which the Church favored over a more punitive bill proposed by Assemblymember Marge Markey (D-Maspeth) that would have eliminated the statue of limitations for abuse victims for one year (that bill died in session and remains stalled).  Beyond that bill, Lopez has been instrumental in helping facilitate a gun buyback program with Catholic Parishes, the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office that exchanged 474 weapons for $200 bank cards, as well as assisting with a grant-funded gang prevention program at St. Peter and Paul’s Church.  Over the past year, several editorials from The Tablet, the Diocese’s official newspaper, have praised the myriad ways that Lopez has been helpful on Church policies and Lopez has been eager to assist his constituents, many of whom are Catholic.

"I need people to help other people.  You get stressed out and you get burned out and when you put your two cents in, you get beaten up.  Some people say I made a deal with the Church, in order to go to Heaven," said Lopez, at a public safety town hall meeting in St. Francis of Paola Church two weeks ago, dismissing any quid pro quo arrangement with the Diocese.

Lopez’s opponents, particularly in the Diana Reyna camp, disagree.  They point to the dissolution of Churches United, a coalition of North Brooklyn religious organizations that fought for affordable housing, and the Church’s tacit support of the Broadway Triangle rezoning as evidence of the political ramifications of the Church’s foray into Brooklyn politics.

"Historically, there has been a divide between white Greenpoint Churches and Spanish Southside Churches in Williamsburg and Bushwick, and what Churches United did was declare that we are united for affordable housing. It’s not only about dissolving the board, it’s about disbanding the community that came together in an unprecedented way," said Luis Garden Acosta, Founder of El Puente, and a Reyna volunteer.

Sometimes support from local pastors has been more blatant.  Several Williamsburg and Bushwick pastors attended a political rally earlier this summer in front of Lopez’s District office on South 5th Street. The event was planned in order to rally around Lopez’s work advocating for the sex abuse bill, and it included a panoply of supporters ranging from Bushwick constituents living in housing developments constructed by RBSCC, non-profit staff members from RBSCC, United Jewish Organization members, and sympathetic Hasidic constituents who will likely be helped by the construction of housing in the Broadway Triangle. 

Several religious leaders attended as well, including Father Rick Beuther of St. Peter and Paul’s Church, Father Tony Hernandez of Transfiguration (who were honored by Assemblymember Lopez at an awards dinner last month at Giando’s restaurant), and Father Fulgencio Gutierrez, pastor and head chaplin of St. Barbara’s Church in Bushwick.  Most prominently, Monsignor Kieran Harrington, the Church’s communications officer, spoke at the rally, in praise of Lopez’s years of service to the Church.  A small counter-protest occurred across the street, leading to uncomfortable situations.  At one point, a group of nuns supporting Markey’s rival bill passed literature (hard copies of a BushwickBK story) to Transfiguration Father Anthony Hernandez, who advocated for the Lopez bill. 

Shortly thereafter, the sex abuse debate spilled into the churches themselves, as some pastors began speaking out about the legislation and, according to several sources, one pastor urged parishioners to not vote for Diana Reyna or take her campaign literature.

The announcement jolted the Reyna camp, leading volunteers to distribute a letter outside Transfiguration and St. Peter and Paul’s Church in July, in reaction to the announcement.  Several pastors, including Monsignor Joseph Calise of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (where Esposito attends church) chastised Reyna’s supporters for distributing the letter outside Mass, on the day when parishioners were mourning the one-year passing of beloved pastor Monsignor Agustin Ruiz. The episode left many parishioners confused and further divided the Reyna-Davila camps.

Frustration from Reyna supporters regarding the actions of church leaders had been simmering for several months, but a recent column in the Tablet has brought their anger to a full boil.  Two weeks ago (the Spanish version ran on Sunday), Harrington wrote a column entitled "Catholics Need to Vote in Tuesday’s Primary," which noted that politicians would pay attention to Catholic issues if Catholics voted in high numbers in the Democratic primary.

"Would it mute the voices that cried out that John Heyer was an unacceptable candidate for the City Council because he was a Catholic?  Or would it shield Steve Levin, who is Jewish, from attacks that he is an unacceptable candidate for the Council because he helped the Church to build affordable housing?" queried Harrington in his column. "Can any of us imagine elected officials attacking a religious leader in the press without provocation?  If Catholics voted, is it conceivable that Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez and Councilwoman Diana Reyna would insult our bishop with impunity?"

That last line catalyzed Reyna volunteers and Churches United for Fair Housing leaders, which distributed a letter signed by Father Steven Lynch, Father John Powis, and Rob Solano, Executive Director of Churches United, urging people to "take a strong stand for honest, good government," and vote on September 15.  Reyna declined to comment on the letter.

In response to the column, Lynch drafted a letter to the editor to the Tablet, while Father James Kelly of St. Brigid’s Church proposed guidelines for the Church to follow when it comes to religious leaders speaking at mass and politicking on Church grounds.

"It is my feeling that we shouldn’t do this," said Kelly, who believed that the Church should have dealt with the Reyna-Velázquez letter in a different fashion.  "Other Church groups support candidates more aggressively, but Catholics haven’t.  Canon law says you can’t run for school board or public office (if you are a Catholic leader).  That would not be part of this tradition."

Both Reyna and Davila believe they are close to earning victory Tuesday, and anticipate a race where the winner will emerge with a small margin (there is no runoff so the winner could earn in the 40 percent level).  Esposito shares that belief, and his line of thinking is that the conflicts between both women will turn off voters from their camp and onto his.  The race may not even be over Tuesday night, as Davila has the option of running on the Working Families Party line in November’s general election if she does not win on Tuesday.  Steve Levin has the same opportunity, and the winner of the highly competitive 33rd District race may not even crack 30 percent. 

Parishioners, pastors and public officials are nervously watching the polls — Tuesday will be a day that promises suspense.  While the result will soon be determined, the political ramifications of tomorrow’s victory remain unknown and the long-term consequences for the Church remain unclear.

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