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Some reflections on Catholicism and American political life:
Pope John Paul II warned in Evangelium vitae that when a state denies the right to life, “democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism” ( http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html). …
Pope John Paul II warned in Evangelium vitae that when a state denies the right to life, “democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism” ( http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html). …
… Without a right to life, John Paul II added, the state becomes "a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members ... in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part."…
… Here in the United States, those words of John Paul II gave fuel to the GOP. The party convinced many Catholics that, because it opposed abortion and euthanasia, it was the pro-"culture of life," anti-totalitarian party, and that this differentiated it from the Democrats. …
… But that was a patent lie, as the GOP blatantly ignored John Paul II’s reiteration of Vatican II’s clear teaching against other evils such as torture, capital punishment, deportation, and unbridled capitalism (Evangelium vitae §3), leaving Democrats to lead on those issues. …
… Still, some Catholics claimed the GOP was the only option for “creating a culture of life.” They said since the right to life undergirds all rights, the way to convert the culture was to protect the unborn by law; with that, by a domino effect, a culture of life would arise.…
… What we’re now seeing under Trump is that those who portrayed the GOP as the party that would build a culture of life, and who said voting GOP was the only way to safeguard against totalitarianism, were in fact operating under a fundamentally flawed and anti-Catholic logic. …
… John Paul II’s understanding of the right to life as a safeguard vs. totalitarianism operated _only_ within the context of the entire culture of life that he envisioned in Evangelium vitae—a culture that cared for the poor, for migrants, for workers, and for inmates. …
... It's safe to say that John Paul II never envisioned his words would be used to defend a government that, although opposing abortion and euthanasia, would actively pursue policies of deportation, executions, torture, and willfully ignoring public-health experts. …
... … But there’s yet another error in the logic of those who claim that electing politicians who are anti-abortion but pro-death penalty, pro-deportation, etc., is the only way to build a culture of life. They mistake a consequentialist brand of activism for evangelization. …
… But JP2 was not a consequentialist. He wanted pro-life laws, certainly, but he had no illusions that such laws would, of themselves, produce a godly culture. On the contrary, he saw such laws as “the fruit of the culture of truth and of love”--not the cause of it. ...
… So yes, we _should_ promote pro-life laws—but do so from a foundation of truth and love, which requires promoting laws that protect the _whole_ of human life. To pick & choose who’s worthy of life, granting it to unborn but denying it to others, is neither true nor loving. …
… I’ve said before and I’ll say again that neither major-party presidential candidate is perfectly acceptable for Catholics. Each Catholic voter is responsible to form his or her conscience according to Church teaching and to vote accordingly. https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1314775547235495937 ...
… But don’t tell me the only way to build a “culture of life” & prevent totalitarianism is to vote for the party that protects the unborn. Trump disproves the pro-life domino-effect theory. A culture of life can’t happen without a leader who’s pro-life for the _whole_ life. …
… Trump’s had four years to promote a pro-life culture. Instead, he’s shown a callous indifference to human lives, be they COVID sufferers, migrants, or poor, particularly those of color. He's tried to reshape the culture in his own image, not in the image of the God of life. …
… As for Joe Biden, his position on abortion is obviously opposed to what John Paul II intended with regard to a culture of life. If he’s elected, Catholics and all of good will should raise their voices against him when he attempts to permanently encode Roe v. Wade into law....
… Yet, from the standpoint of evangelization, under a Biden presidency it would be possible for those promoting pro-life policies to draw a sharp distinction in the public mind between the culture of life and the culture of death, in a manner that’s impossible under Trump. …
... And that's because, although Biden highlights his Catholic faith, he's quite careful not to market himself as a Christian savior or as a representative of orthodoxy. Many of his supporters like him precisely because they think he'll protect them from religious interests. ...
… But as long is Trump is the face of the so-called (but actually inauthentic) “JP2 Culture of Life,” Catholics and other Christians are greatly challenged in winning hearts for life--for it's patently obvious that Trump harbors distaste for lives that are inconvenient to him...
... Bottom line:
-- Neither major-party candidate is perfect from a Catholic perspective. Both have serious flaws.
-- Yet Catholics, as with all citizens, have a duty to form their consciences (prayer helps) and vote for the candidate most likely to promote the common good.
-- Neither major-party candidate is perfect from a Catholic perspective. Both have serious flaws.
-- Yet Catholics, as with all citizens, have a duty to form their consciences (prayer helps) and vote for the candidate most likely to promote the common good.
