Catholic Democrats and Principles
by Fr. Roger J. Landry - March 17, 2006
Two weeks ago, 55 Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives released a "Statement of Principles," describing what their collective goals are on Capitol Hill. They said they are "proud to be part of the living Catholic tradition" and are "committed to making real the basic principles that are at the heart of Catholic social teaching." They address poverty, education, religious freedom, health care, and the principles of a just war.
But when they came to the elephant in the Catholic Democrats' living room — abortion — they began to equivocate, leaving the realm of the concrete and practical and fleeing to the imaginary. "We envision a world in which every child belongs to a loving family and agree with the Catholic Church about the value of human life and the undesirability of abortion — we do not celebrate its practice."
A much more important concern is what they think should be done in the real world, when not every child belongs to a loving family, when others do not recognize the undesirability of abortion and the value of human life, and when others, in fact, celebrate abortion. One of the most powerful organizations to celebrate and promote the practice abortion is their own Democratic Party, which unabashedly states in its platform, "we stand proudly for a woman's right to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade.… Choice is a fundamental, constitutional right."
On the issue of human life, they stated, "we seek the Church's guidance and assistance, but believe also in the primacy of conscience. In recognizing the Church's role in providing moral leadership, we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas." One might expect that Catholic Democrats, looking at their own party platform, would feel bound to acknowledge and accept a tension that comes from being in disagreement with a party platform that celebrates what they claim is undesirable; instead these fifty five legislators acknowledge and accept the tension of being in disagreement with the Catholic Church. That choice, in their public statement of principles, speaks volumes.
They add that "each of us is committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and creating an environment with policies that encourage pregnancies to be carried to term." It would be great if all of those who made that statement really meant it, but for about sixty percent of them, these words seem nothing but political rhetoric. That's because 33 of the 55 signatories voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2003. It's hard honestly to claim one wants to encourage pregnancies to be carried to term when one votes against a bill that was seeking to ban the abortion of half-delivered children who have obviously already been carried to term. It's also hard to imagine, if one could not vote against this incredibly heinous procedure, what abortions such a Catholic Democrat would ever vote to reduce or eliminate.
Toward the end of the statement, they declared, somewhat ironically, that they were "Catholic Democrats who embrace the vocation and mission of the laity as expressed by John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici." It's unlikely that many or any of them actually read that beautiful 1988 document on the laity, because in it our deceased pontiff exposed as "false and illusory" the very principles they were seeking to affirm. He emphatically declared, "The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination." In other words, all the good things that Catholic Democrats say they wish to do in concert with their faith — like promotion of health care, or education, or family programs — are based on a lie unless they are grounded on the most basic and fundamental right of all, the right to life.
Then he went on to describe the particular responsibility of politicians to secure this right: "If, indeed, everyone has the mission and responsibility of acknowledging the personal dignity of every human being and of defending the right to life, some lay faithful are given a particular title to this task: such as parents, teachers, health care workers and the many who hold economic and political power."
Some commentators have said, cynically, that this statement was a means to try to woo back Catholic voters to the Democratic party, since practicing Catholics, in the past three presidential elections alone, have swung a stunning twenty points in the Republican direction, mainly for value-oriented reasons. These Catholic voters have acknowledged and expressed at the polls a growing tension and rejection of the position of the Democratic party on abortion. Congress Democrats in Congress would be wise to grasp that until they are able to share that tension and rejection, not with the Church but with their party, they will likely see that exodus continue.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
