By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
At various times in my life, I have been both a Republican and a Democrat. With this bipartisan (some might say confused) background, I read with great interest when New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently published a Wall Street Journal Op Ed expressing disappointment with the current Democratic party (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-abandon-catholics-1521761348). Perhaps what the good Cardinal really meant to say is what I often have felt– members of both political parties have disappointed me, but sometimes they have given me hope too.
Of all people, an evangelical named Michael Gerson explains how difficult it is to align today’s political tribes and ideologies with Catholic social thought and teaching. Gerson is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and his recent article in The Atlantic magazine discusses the interesting and complex relationship today between Evangelicals and President Donald Trump. (See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/04/the-last-temptation/554066/)
On Catholics, Gerson wrote: “Catholic social thought includes a commitment to solidarity, whereby justice in a society is measured by the treatment of its weakest and most vulnerable members. And it incorporates the principle of subsidiarity—the idea that human needs are best met by small and local institutions (though higher-order institutions have a moral responsibility to intervene when local ones fail). In practice, this acts as an ‘if, then’ requirement for Catholics, splendidly complicating their politics: If you want to call yourself pro-life on abortion, then you have to oppose the dehumanization of migrants. If you criticize the devaluation of life by euthanasia, then you must criticize the devaluation of life by racism. If you want to be regarded as pro-family, then you have to support access to health care. And vice versa. The doctrinal whole requires a broad, consistent view of justice, which—when it is faithfully applied—cuts across the categories and clichés of American politics. Of course, American Catholics routinely ignore Catholic social thought. But at least they have it.” (Emphasis added)
This is exactly what my friend and fellow blogger Jean Welch Hill has said for years. For example, before the 2016 presidential election, she lamented: “One political candidate appears to oppose abortion, but would leave thousands of refugees to die in war-torn countries and send thousands more back to countries plagued by violence. One would care for the refugees, but is an adamant supporter of the “right to choose.” For whom should Catholics vote?” (see Intermountain Catholic http://icatholic.dioslc.org/article/in-upcoming-election-for-whom-should-catholics-vote-9389289).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, of which Cardinal Dolan is a part, has said: “Unfortunately, politics in our country often can be a contest of powerful interests, partisan attacks, sound bites, and media hype. The Church calls for a different kind of political engagement: one shaped by the moral convictions of well-formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable…. As citizens, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group….The Church is involved in the political process but is not partisan. The Church cannot champion any candidate or party.” (http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship-part-one.cfm)
In other words, both major American political parties always will disappoint Catholics in one way or another. It is never easy to escape from tribal instincts, and today politics is nothing if not tribal. In response, one of the best things we Catholics can and should do is not add insult to injury, i.e. we should refrain, as we move about our various church and non-church communities, from adding our own lighter fluid to the already-burning political ideological bonfire. We can focus on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable while also remembering the hymn I was taught in Catholic schools and sang as a child: “Where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found, brought here together by Christ’s love, by love are we thus bound.”
