The Path Of Failed Leadership

This article is in response to a Jan. 22, 2021 post on the Facebook Page of the Catholics For Choice. (Copied below): 

We at Catholics for Choice welcome Joe Biden as the first pro-choice Catholic president & call on him to protect & expand abortion rights in the first days of his presidency. President Biden frequently connects his care for the poor, the sick & the vulnerable to his Catholic faith.

As a longtime champion of women’s rights and the rights of marginalized people, Joe Biden surely understands that policies like the #GlobalGagRule, the #HydeAmendment  & the #HelmsAmendment inflict disproportionate suffering on the poor, the sick, and the powerless.

Joe Biden has dissented from Catholic teaching on issues related to marriage equality, transgender rights, and contraception because he realizes that the church’s teachings on these topics do not reflect the church’s greater call to justice, equality, and human dignity.

We call on the President to use his conscience and his commitment to human rights in the same way by acknowledging that abortion access is a Catholic social justice value and working to improve access for those who need it.

We are unsure why Mr. Biden has delayed signing an executive order on the #GlobalGagRule, something U.S. presidents have done on day one for decades. Overturning this policy is a matter of life or death for the countless women and people of marginalized genders.

As someone formed by Catholic education, Joe Biden should hold in his heart two fundamental Catholic teachings in his approach to abortion rights: 1. The primacy of conscience, which teaches that Catholics must use individual consciences in all moral decision-making.

Mr. Biden should also hold in his heart the Catholic belief in a preferential option for the poor, which states that the well-being of the most disadvantaged must be our first priority.

Access to abortion care is deeply intertwined with & exacerbated by systemic racism, economic insecurity & immigration status. For these reasons, we ask Mr. Biden to prioritize protecting abortion access as part of these other priorities identified by his administration.

We Catholics for Choice understand that abortion can be a complex moral issue. But perpetuating the U.S. bishops’ strategy of making abortion a taboo topic only exacerbates the harmful stigma the church has attached to it for far too long.

As one of the 60% of U.S. Catholics who support abortion rights,

Joe Biden can show a divided nation that people of faith can not only support abortion rights, but they can also do so as an expression of their commitment to justice that is grounded in their religious belief.

I would like to take issue here with several of this person's statements in this article:

First, can you be truly Catholic yet not believe in the teachings of the Church?  CINO- Catholic in name only!  Jesus came to earth to show us a way of life.  The Christian life is hard.  It has never been easy.  G.K Chesterton commented on this when he said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”  Here, the President of the United States is showing his leadership on this issue. He is choosing to go against the teachings of the Church.  Is this because of Chesterton’s words I ask?  Did he find it too difficult to listen to those teachings and left it untried?

Second, can you truly believe that abortion can be a complex moral issue and be a Catholic?  What is complex about doing what is right?  What is complex about doing what is moral?  What is complex about not going against the teachings of the Church? I ask again, is this because of Chesterton’s words I ask?  Did he find it too difficult to listen to those teachings and left it untried?

Third, it is a Catholic belief to help the poor.  However, where they are confused it is our duty to help the poor.  We should not rely on the Government to do it.  Think about it this way- if Moses had relied upon the government would he have gotten out of Egypt?   Did Moses rely upon God or the government?  Which helped him?  Which did not?  If this story is not enough, look at the Maccabees.  Did they rely on the government or did they rely on God?  If they had not done what they did would Jesus still be born in Bethlehem about 160 years later?  Would there still have been Jewish religion?  The answer my friend is NO, NO, NO.

Fourth, there is a reference to the Church’s greater call to justice, equality, and human dignity.  This is where, Church-going, Catholic believing Christians we should begin to make a stand. We believe in social justice.  The problem is we believe in social justice both in this world and the next- it is now and forever. How can you have social justice if you sacrifice the next world with your actions in this one, how can you have social justice when you spend all your life in politics and never realize that you are the cause of the problems.  If the government were the answer why is it that every time the government gets involved the problem does not get solved, more more is spent and more lives are lost or wasted.   This is true in both endless wars (War on Drugs, War on Poverty, as well as wars in Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Iraqi).  If politics were the answer then why did these answers solve the problem?

There is a day coming, and it will come soon, that many people will have to make a stand.  They will be asked to support their faith.  Are you up to this test?  Will you do what politicians do or say?  If you do, will you be on the side of the Lord?  If your answer is no, maybe in America we need to be woke up to the real truth and the real Church.