Senator Rick Santorum: Charge to Revive the Role of Faith in the Public Square

9/14/2010

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known through the exercise of reason against which the positive or civil law must be measured and if needed amended.

Martin Luther King laid out his approach for ordinary citizens in a Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He wrote: "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. ... How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. "

That said it's important to exercise prudence in such matters, particularly concerning matters of private personal behavior. Not all immoral conduct should be illegal. There are many good reasons not to fight such behavior with the coercive tools of criminal law. With the common sense of his classical tradition, Thomas Aquinas said that law "does not forbid all the vices, from which upright men can keep away, but only those grave ones which the average man can avoid, and chiefly those which do harm to others and have to be stopped if human society is to be maintained, such as murder and theft and so forth." So as long as this immoral behavior is not done in public or has significant public consequence it should stand outside civil sanctions. Aquinas was clear and practical: "The purpose of human law is to bring people to virtue, not suddenly, but step by step."

An illustration of this dichotomy is the issue of laws pertaining to certain sexual practices and what is called same sex marriage. In 2003 I expressed concern about the court's decision in a case challenging a Texas sodomy statute. I did so not because I would have voted for the Texas law; following St. Thomas' wisdom I would have opposed the Texas law.
I raised concerns about the consequences of the legal reasoning the court gave for invalidating the statute. They created a new constitutional "right" to consensual sexual conduct. I warned such a right would be used as a basis to create new a right that could have profound public consequences -- same sex marriage.

I have been criticized in the media for daring to speak out on these sensitive moral issues. So be it. I've tried, not always successfully, to approach these issues with the appropriate passion for the important matter at hand, with respect for the other point of view, without malice toward my opponent and with the humility that my judgment in some cases may be in error.

As it has been pointed out to me on numerous occasions, there are moral issues where I have differed from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and even the pope -- welfare reform, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some immigration policies. While all of these issues have profound moral underpinnings none of them involve moral absolutes. War is are not always unjust; government aid is not always just or loving. The bishops and I may disagree on such prudential matters, but as with all people of good will with whom I disagree, I have an obligation to them and my country to listen to their perspective and perform a healthy reexamination of my own position. Let me be clear; I am not arguing here that I have, or our country should, be governed on the basis of religious revelation -- that we should for example have laws against murder, stealing, abortion and polygamy only because the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob decreed it so. I wholehearted agree with C.S. Lewis who said "I love God, but I detest theocracies."

Obviously, not everyone shares the Judeo-Christian moral convictions. All of us have an obligation to justify our positions based upon something that is accessible to everyone irrespective of their religious beliefs. We owe the public arguments based upon reason grounded in truth. In the Encyclical, Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II wrote as his opening sentence: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth -- in a word, to know himself -- so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves."

The principle of the harmony of faith and reason is a crucial contribution that the Catholic Church brings to the debate. Those of us who are Catholic along with a majority of Protestants and Jews believe that God reveals himself through his creation and, as such, moral truths that should govern a just society are accessible to all -- believers and non-believers alike. At the same time, of course, we must hold fast to our convictions of what is right and what is wrong according to our faith, and not fall into the trap of idolizing our own intellects, or trying so hard not to offend that we succumb to a watery political correctness. ...
- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 10 of 10 Comments

John Flaherty
2 years ago
Mr. Carlton:
I wish I could say that your comments ring true with me. Unfortunately, I cannot. While I understand Kennedy's need to assuage the fears of Protestant voters, I think he went about it VERY poorly.

I once thought JFK a great man. War hero, President, Catholic, maybe even a martyr? Regrettably,as I've learned more of him, his family, and my faith, the more my awe and wonder has turned to horror and disgust. One of our own? Uh huh.
When a man hears about the vice of a sin in Church, then sits in his President's chair and encodes that same sin or others into law, what value does his faith truly have?

Kennedy could've used the platform of candidacy to better explain how the Church truthfully works. He could've articulated the ideas that Sen Santorum offered. Certainly he had the intelligence and gumption for it. Instead, he rendered his faith to be a mantel showpiece, a trinket to be hauled out on Sunday and provide some cultural references that many would understand.
I'm glad to see comments like Sen Santorum's. He may be able to undo some part of the ill that Kennedy inflicted.
Peter Carlton
2 years ago
Why would Rick Santorum be so negative about the only Catholic president, and may I say, a mighty good one, that this nation has ever had enough courage to elect.
He very lightly touches on the anti-Catholic sentiment in this country at this time 50 years ago, with very many protestant ministers and lay people actually believing that, if elected, he would be taking his dictates, orders, or whatever you might like to call them, from Rome and the Holy Father. And I might add they would not have referred to him as the Holy Father.
President Kennedy said, and you quoted him," I do not intend to disavow my views or "my" church in order to win this election."
How much stronger or clearer, do you believe he could have made this statement about" his " church and the fact that he intended to wear his Catholic faith in public.
The important decisions he had to make for this country and it's people were outstanding, and this holier than thou stuff you and some of the other supposedly "learned" Catholic scholars are writing about is mostly fodder for those who have always believed that us Catholics are going to hell in a hand basket anyway.
To blame this Catholic president for the moral decay in this country is quite a stretch. If you take a deep look at what this family has done, and continues to do, as well as asking the rest of us to do for our less fortunate brethern. I find your comments very narrow sighted. He was not elected to be our spiritual leader. Heaven forbid if that would have ever been as much as uttered out loud.
We have only had one, for crying out loud why would you continue to bash him.
I wonder if your mother has, or would have enjoyed, reading this article about the president she evidently voted for and loved.
Shame on you and the other Catholics who write this about our own. Leave this to the others who don't drink from the same cup at mass.
Bruce
2 years ago
Very educational article. I, too, was under the impression that the constitution allowed for the separation between church and state. At a time that I have very little respect for politicians, this comes as a breath of fresh air. The government is not by the people and for the people in this age--it is now a separate entity. It has evolved into a few rich people controlling the masses, clearly what our forefathers sought freedom from over 200 years ago. Our constitution does not advocate freedom from religion, but freedom of religion. Our religious beliefs and moral compass should always be part of of the civil law equation.
John Grimes
2 years ago
Jack Kennedy was cynical when he made this proposition 50 years ago. He wanted to be president and he would let nothing stand in his way. But to think that RIck Santorum has the charisma of Kennedy or that he will ever have even a quarter of that man's chance to be president is laughable. Santorum can deliver all the speeches he wants on any subject he wants and with whatever lucidity he can command, but I will bet everything I have that he will never give a speech from the Oval Office. Catholics and others cheering him on and urging him to run for president are simply wasting his and everyone else's time.
Pam
2 years ago
I would vote for Rick Santorum, in a heartbeat, too! However, I would not say that JFK accomplished a "good" in the short term because it helped to put an end to Catholic bigotry because Catholic bigotry is still alive and well. Moreover, JFK expressed a half-truth (at best--or rather, at worst) regarding the role of politics--a corrupt version that's growing in intensity more and more today and is expressed by most of the 161 Catholics in Washington (only about 46 of them voted 100% pro-life and 5-6 more of them 86% of the time). Such heinous moral corruption is literally killing us in matters of "health-care" (?); it's no wonder everything else is collapsing, as well! Mr. Santorum, himself, said: "Unfortunately, its lasting impact not only undermined the essential role that faith has successfully played in America, but it reduced religion to mere personal belief and helped launch a cultural revolution, proclaiming loudly that on matters of moral consequence, reason has no truths it can discern, nothing of moral significance it can claim to know, much less contribute to the public debate....That's the 'faith' that is being offered by those who want to change the time tested Golden Triangle of Freedom. You'll see it in the public square today, and it's popular because it pretends to impose nobody's values on anybody. Yet it's an illusion because it uses a cloak of "neutrality," "objectivity" and "rationality" that results in the imposition of secular values on everybody while marginalizing faith." Sorry for repeating this quote from Mr. Santorum's speech here, but Mr. Santorum "hits the nail on the head," on the reason for the dissolution of the "Beautiful America[n]" dream of our Founders in the new form of government in vogue today--Nevertheless, "we the people," who believe in "religion and virtue" (according to John Adams, et al) can vote to bring it back into the public square this November and in 2012--if only we will!
K.C.Thomas
2 years ago
As an Indian, I feel that in every country catholic leaders should uphold his religious teachings without a feeling of shame or inferiority complex. He has rightly said that having convictions does not mean that we dont understand the complexity of the world .... we should be able to prioritize the pursuit of truth and justice and call evil what it is . We need more dedicated and faithful catholic politicians in every country.
Tom
2 years ago
Such an inspiration. I was going to quickly scan through his speech and then print it out, but I carefully read every word until the last period. If he runs for President I'll vote for him too. Can't get over that speech!!! God Bless Rick Santorum!!!
Diane
2 years ago
If he ever runs for president I'll vote for him!
JeanCatherine
2 years ago
Amen brothers and sisters.
Jennifer
2 years ago
SANTORUM FOR PRESIDENT 2012

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