Editorial: Should Catholics Even Bother with Politics?

By Deacon Keith Fournier
1/13/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

This is no time to retreat from culture; we must work for its conversion by becoming men and women who influence it.

The men and women I met this evening confirmed my decision to recommit myself to helping lay Catholic men and women come to understand the treasury of the teaching of the Catholic Church on faithful citizenship and social responsibility, which includes political participation.Then, to do everything I can to encourage morally coherent people run for public office and help to get them elected.

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - I write from the Washington DC area after having just concluded the first in a series of talks on Catholics and political participation for the Institute of Catholic Culture.

There was a large crowd. Many people stayed afterwards for ongoing conversation. They were eager to grow in understanding the implications of being a faithful Catholic citizen. What was crystal clear to me by the end of the evening was that we have the resources to prepare the kind of future political candidates this nation desperately needs in public office.

Many of my readers have been asking the question, should we even bother with Politics? My answer is a clear - Yes! Please, do not think I have one ounce of me naivet� left in me after all these years. I do not! However, I am convinced that Catholics, above all others, have an obligation to stay involved. To those to whom much is given, much is required.

In his introduction to The Screwtape Letters, a brilliant work exposing the unseen spiritual warfare taking place around us through a series of letters between two demons - the older Screwtape, an instructor and the younger student Wormwood - CS Lewis wrote:

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

In a sense, this is true of politics. Like many of you, I am still in recovery after the last electoral cycle, trying to make sense out of what is happening to this nation which we love. The temptation, so clearly present in our circles, is to fall into two separate approaches, both of which can lead to error.

One is to completely retreat from that area of culture and social responsibility referred to as politics. The other, is to pursue the path of the modern zealot or utopian and believe that politics alone can actually effect enduring change in the hearts of people and thus in the broader culture.

To paraphrase Lewis, The devils, so clearly active in the current political climate, "hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

In 1947, Lewis addressed the decline of his beloved Britain in an insightful book entitled "The Abolition of man: How Education Develops Man's Sense of Morality." He warned of the subjective and relativistic trends in the British educational system of the time. He reasserted the timeless moral truths of Christianity as the solution.

He called for a return to the Christian vision of the human person and the cultivation of virtues as the path to true human flourishing and freedom. He defined what he called "the chest" in this work as the "higher emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments or character."

He wrote that without this "chest", men and women devolve into self-idolatry, losing their human dignity and true freedom. They become slaves to disordered appetites.

Sound familiar?

The West is in a moral mess, just as Lewis warned. With its decline we face the eclipse of true freedom. Lewis' words in that book are timely: "And all the time - such is the tragicomedy of our situation - we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive,' or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity.'

"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."

We are living under what Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, properly called a "Dictatorship of Relativism" in the West. Relativism is a philosophy which says there are no truths. The culture stumbles, drunken on the false notion of freedom divorced from norms to guide the exercise of human choice and govern our behavior.

When there is nothing objectively true which can be known by all and form the basis of our common life then there is no foundation for a truly free society. We teeter on the brink of anarchy precisely because we have lost our moral compass as a Nation.

We are accused of being against progress and anti-science for defending the dignity of every human life - including the lives of our first neighbors in the womb. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are Pro-life because it is right. In an age deluded by the architects of a cultural order of death we must never compromise on the truth concerning the dignity of every human life from conception through natural death. ...

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1 - 10 of 38 Comments

Bill Sr.
4 months ago
Rob
I suppose it is time we ignorant conservatives stopped grumbling among ourselves and take a dose of your wisdom and not vote for crappy candidates, So as a very first lesson would you please name a few good ones or describe the perfect candidate for us? NOTE: it can not be a member of the clergy or a religious leader or even a pro-life Christian because as you have pointed out.. Believe it or not the majority of people out there could care less about abortion, contraception etc. We are waiting.
vance
4 months ago
Rob, I base my charge of lack of leadership from Bishops and priests on their silence on the issues and completely absence in opposing the evils wrought by the Marxist Democrat Party, the Marxist Media Complex, entertainment industry, and higher education. Yes, there have been a few Bishops out there leading Pro-Life Marches and publicly opposing the evils coming out of the Marxist Party. Gov Cuomo anyone? Bishops and priests have the pulpit every Sunday to address issues of today. This past Sunday was the 3rd time I heard the word 'Abortion' mentioned in 40 years. That's right, 40 years. You are always complaining about the Laity not practicing their faith in number of divorces. How many times have you heard the word "Marriage" mentioned in a homily?? I can't remember a time. The pulpit is not silent, it is dead. I am currently working to educate Catholics about the HHS Mandate. Most of the Laity don't know what that is. Why, because they watch ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or MSNBC AND no priest is telling them anything from the pulpit. On the presidential campaign, did you not forget the "War on Women"? It was all about Birth Control and abortion. Remember Sandra Fluke?? Two GOP senate candidates lost their bid for the senate over the issue of abortion. Gee, I thought I heard many Liberals saying that Moderate Romney was electable. Rick Santorum was too conservative and not electable. The GOP has nominated two "Moderates" in a row and they both lost. I hope the Tea Party will over come the GOP establishment and nominate a Conservative who will win. A conservative like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin who won in a Democrat State. In the mean time, your Dear Marxist Leader is about to double down on his persecution of the Church.
vance
4 months ago
We Pro-Life Catholics need to more engaged in politics than ever. We have an aggressive anti-Christian, anti-Catholic President. Senate, and Media Complex that is hell bent on destroying the church and anything they see as opposition to them. The French have demonstrated to us what we need to do. We need to take to the streets and take it to Obama and his Party of Death and Deceit.
Rob
4 months ago
vance, what basis are you making the charge that it's the priest or bishop's role to lead us in shaping secular socieity? It's almost as if you think that since priests aren't out there campaigning, that is the reason we find ourselves where we are at. What exactly do you think their job is versus the laities? There is absolutely nothing keeping the laity from doing the things you speak of.

Obama won this election because the GOP had a couple of really crappy candidates who failed to connect with the American people. I suspect that the majority of people, Catholics included, who voted for Obama, did so because the other candidate did not give them anything to hang their hat on. Believe it or not, the majority of people out there could care less about abortion, contraception etc. when voting. Not because they don't care, but because our politicians have proved to them that this stuff just doesn't matter once they are elected. You don't have 40 years of this stuff with virtually no change and not take note of that. But you are entitled to think what you want.

Guess we'll have to wait and see if the GOP learned anything from this and actually produces a real candidate this time. Too bad they have to have that circus of a primary process. Makes for good tv, just loses elections.
Theresa H
4 months ago
Rob, Very glad to see you haven't given up "Catholic Online!" .... Yes, "it's settled" now--for the next 4 years.... However, though most of us (so I am inclined to think) are all pretty much "fed-up"--we must not "give-up!" There are still things we can and must do to possibly influence decision-making in Washington--The only newspaper I read now is the National Catholic Register (not the N-C-Reporter); I also listen to the news in the evening on the TV. It is truly very sad. But I recall reading somewhere that no governement has lasted as it was founded for more than 200 years. Considering that we're past that age, sad to say, history appears to be repeating itself.... We are becoming something of a mixture of a welfare-totalitarian-dictatorship state. But no State can reject God's Natural Law and expect to survive; so I'm inclined to believe that our days are definitely numbered at this point in any case. What we will become once we have hit bottom--is yet to be revealed! So we must, therefore, "be ready" and "pray: 'Come Lord Jesus!'--in one way or another and deliver us from evil!"
Rob
4 months ago
Theresa, it's funny thing that I noticed what has happed to me over the years. It seems every electin cycle I get broken of more news habits. When Obama first ran, I completely stopped listening to talk radio. Just couldn't take that nonsense anymore. This election cycle absolutely killed all of the cable news for me. I'm back to the news paper and it's nice. I am absolutely sick of talking heads.

Personally I have no need to be informed right now. I just expect the government to srew things up, people to mostly vote against their self interest and fall into a morass of partisianship that makes them check their brains at the door. Given that we seem to be a 50/50 country anymore, I think we've arrived.

I'll just focus on getting closer to Christ, my family and my new job. I really don't have interest in the nonsense anymore.
vance
4 months ago
Rob, I hate to say it but "Wrong Again". "It is not the role of Bishops and priests". Are you saying then that a foottball team should go out on the field and call their own plays and forget the coach? Or when troops go into battle, they plan their own strategy and forget the generals? Why do we have Bishops? Just to stand there with a smile and give us a blessing? Their role and their job is to lead and teach. The majority have not been doing either one. Isn't 52% of Catholics including your own voting for Obama testimony enough?
Theresa H.
4 months ago
I know Catholics who are so disillusioned with politics that they listen to very little if any news anymore. Neither have they read the Catechism about the place of politics and our obligation as Christians. I wonder, then, how we can make "informed" decisions when voting-time comes round? I wonder, too, why so many Catholics voted for our current President and his policies a second time? As for no Party offering a really "good" choice--Who else is to blame except us! But, nonetheless, as the Catechism indicates, when we only have two choices (ultimately--that's what Presidential elections come down to), we may have to choose the lesser of two evils. After all, no vote IS a vote.... And a vote for a third or fourth party is really a vote for the one (of the two) who wins! Certainly, we did have a better choice in this past election than what we got! So now, all we have to look forward to, as another article indicates, is an all out persecution of those who will refuse to conform.... But, Jesus call us "blessed," yet we must "pray for perseverance!"
DLL
4 months ago
As long as Christianity is a house divided against itself it has no serious voice in politics. The political climate will always dictate to Christians because they are confused politically. Protestants accept abortion,contraception,same sex marriage as well as many other left wing agendas. The Catholic churches do not and are orthodox in their instruction but the Catholic laity are divided on what they really believe as politically correct and on what defines Christianity. How many Catholic laity believe contraception and masturbation are mortal sins? Not many but because of the true orthodoxy on the consistent teachings of these matters through the ages it is mortal sin. Catholics must accept this instruction because if they don't then abortion and same sex marriage is re defined as an odd kind of some compassionate type of love,as are multisexual relationships with the same or opposite sex. Mortal sin is formed in ones character when one accepts something seemingly natural like masturbation as something that is normal human behaviour. In fact it may be that masturbation is somewhat normal,but when it becomes a very bad habit it leads to other worse kinds of mortal sins. Masturbation is self destructive because it is a foundational sin that must end,as it becomes bad habit,because the demands for greater sexual gratification result in mutual and pre marital sex sin habits. Sin is the self justification of what is a bad self destructive habit. Abortion and contraception are sexual gratification sins that lead to the denial of God and His ideal of pro creativity. That is exactly where we are in a political perspective these days. That is why Christians are persecuted and even all Americans,as they are such so called free thinkers that they are inconsistent in the beliefs and moral values,because they love and are confirmed in their sins. Knowing this about my self that is exactly why as a Catholic as I must seek to go to the sacrament of reconciliation. Our Church believes that Jesus is the incarnation of God,body,blood,soul and Divinity. In the Eucharist that is how we recieve Christ so sin,even a mortal one that seems innocent enough,is not an option.
Theresa
5 months ago
Been sometime since I have visited Catholic OnLIne...both work and my mother's sickness and subsequent death have consumed my time for several months, but now...,I have a few minutes this AM....

I think it is a mistake to shut ourselves off from national "news," or even a good talk-show program... We must not disengage from awareness of what's going on in government and politics, both in US and world news. I know someone who didn't vote for either Obama or Romney because they didn't believe either were who they thought acceptable for the Presidency. Now, they don't listen to news anymore, either. "No news is good news...?" "Ignorance is bliss"...? I'm not so sure of that logic. Not for nothing have we been called to prayer and penance! Happy New Year everyone!

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