Catholic VP Versus Catholic VP

This article is from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League :

In many respects, the Catholic community today is divided into pro-life and social justice camps. That is unfortunate, and while this division can be overstated, it remains true that most Catholic activists sit in either one camp or the other; cross-over Catholics are a rare breed.

Paul Ryan represents the pro-life wing, and Joe Biden represents the social justice wing. Indeed, both exemplify the differences, and not just on the issue of abortion. For example, Ryan’s idea of freedom of choice commits him to supporting school vouchers; Biden’s notion of choice commits him to abortion rights. Ryan is opposed to reinventing the institution of marriage; Biden wants to expand marriage to include two people of the same sex.

The Catholic Church opposes abortion and gay marriage. On both of these issues, Biden disagrees with the Church. Biden’s defenders, e.g., Catholics who identify with social justice concerns, argue that Ryan’s budgetary prescriptions make him the dissident Catholic; his ideas are said to hurt the poor. This assumes, however, that there is a clear Catholic teaching on what constitutes the bestmeans to conquer poverty. There isn’t. For instance, fidelity to the Church’s preferential option for the poor can be realized by making a serious case to raise taxes, or to lower them. In effect, both Biden and Ryan can plausibly maintain that he is a champion of the poor. But only one, Ryan, can be identified as the champion of the unborn.

Not all policy issues are equal. Abortion is regarded by the Catholic Church as “intrinsically evil.” Moreover, the bishops’ conference has explicitly endorsed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. This puts Biden at a decisive disadvantage in making the case that he better represents Catholic teachings.

I am really looking forward to seeing the VP debate in October.  

Principle of Subsidiarity Over Welfarism

One of the key principles of Catholic social doctrine is subsidiarity but for some reason many Bishops in the USCCB dissent from this main tenet of Catholic social teaching and promote the welfare state all for the "common good" or in the name of social justice.  David A. Bosnich points out that Pope John Paul II took the "social assistance state" to task in his encyclical, Centesimus Annus and that in Monsignor George Higgins defense of the Welfare States leads him to make serious distortions of the principle of subsidiarity, as well as in his mischaracterization and treatment of Alexis de Toqueville. 

Here is the what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states on subsidiarity:


 "Socialization also prevents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which 'a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.'


"God . . . entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of government ought to be followed in social life.


". . . Subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits for state intervention" (nn. 1883-1885).

Social justice subverters like to minimize the gravity of the abortion issue and pretty much keep it out of sight and out of mind or ignore it in order so they may promote any type of assistance that helps the poor even if it endangers and costs unborn childrens' lives.  This needs to change.  We must not sacrifice our pro-life principles when helping the poor. 

Here are quotes from Pope John XXIII and Pope Leo XIII on subsidiarity and the welfare state. The welfare state as promoted by many in the Democratic Party goes against the social teachings of the Catholic Church.  The Democratic Party both subscribes to and advocates Keynesian economics which is opposed to the principle of subsidiarity.  When one advocates and votes for welfarism, one also votes for the extermination of our unborn children via supporting pro-abortion politicians.  Both abortion and the welfare state goes against Catholic Church's teachings and if a person votes for a politician that supports either one or both of these policies then that person is dissenting from Church teaching.

The Vortex: The Great Equalizer