Faith Is A Gift, But We Must Open It

Faith Is a Gift, but We Must Open It

Is a Good Protestant Better than a Bad Catholic?

By Dave Mishur

I am among that select group of people old enough to have been around when Jack Kennedy was elected President. It was 1960, you may recall, and I remember the enthusiasm we felt at the success of the man who would become our first Catholic President. I was in my first year of novitiate with the Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D., for Societas Verbi Divini), a missionary order founded by Fr. Arnold Janssen, who was canonized just a few years ago.

The vote was excruciatingly close; barely a tenth of a percent separated the candidates in an election that was every bit as questionable as some of our recent contests, due in part to the odd last-minute machinations of Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. The Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, to his credit, did not challenge the vote lest he create confusion and controversy in the peaceful transition of power.

Which leads me to the question: was Jack Kennedy a better man than Richard Nixon? Surely he was a better political candidate, with a charismatic presence that capitalized on the new phenomenon called television and made Nixon look shady and evil by comparison.

But Nixon, a California Quaker, was neither evil nor shady; and Kennedy, the Massachusetts Catholic, was not a saint. Yet that night affected their entire careers until Kennedy was tragically assassinated in 1963, and Nixon died in 1994 after a long career as a political advisor and author. Both men had served in the U.S. Senate and Nixon had been Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President. Both were Navy men. They are also the subjects of multiple biographies, so there is no dearth of information on these two very similar, yet strikingly different men.

We seminarians and novices were thrilled that a Catholic had been elected. It was only later that we would learn of Jack's many foibles and dalliances despite his marriage to Jackie, one of the most attractive and stylish women in the country. There were good reasons why his abbreviated presidency was called Camelot.

Kennedy sailed through Harvard. Nixon would have too, but he turned down Ivy League offers to stay home and tend the family business. As a result he both envied and resented East Coast scholars, having graduated from local Whittier College.

After losing to Kennedy in 1960 and failing in his run for Governor of California in 1962, he was presumed politically deceased. Yet he regenerated himself in 1968, defeating Hubert Humphrey in an election almost as tight as 1960. He was re-elected in a landslide in 1972. The subsequent Watergate break in, which precipitated his resignation, seems like a minor event compared to some more recent presidential scandals.

Our Catholic cheerleading was naïve but irrelevant in 1960, for the choice for President was between two very fine, well-qualified men. Either would have done a fine job as president, and, in fact, both did. Sadly, ensuing presidential contests have not always given the American people such high-class choices, despite the fact that many have been nail biters.

Which brings me to our second Catholic President. He has certainly worn his religion on his sleeve, professing to be "faithful," carrying a rosary with him and touting his experience as an altar boy. With fifty years in the political realm, he certainly knows his way around the Washington scene.

Compare that to the presumably irreligious Donald Trump, narrowly defeated in the most recent presidential contest. He brings little political experience to the table, but possesses remarkable business acumen, having amassed considerable wealth with many successful high-profile developments worldwide.

Yet, Biden, with rosary in hand, and receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion with the tacit approval of Washington's Cardinal Wilton Gregory, advocates abortion on demand and at all times, enshrined in our constitution as a basic right. He sees no problem with boys pretending to be girls and competing in athletic contests to the ruination of a young woman's scholarship dreams. Same sex marriage is a no brainer.

Donald Trump was raised Presbyterian and was a friend of Pastor Norman Vincent Peale. While not a Catholic and presumably possessing no rosary, Trump nevertheless is a staunch advocate for life, and the first President ever to address the March for Life in person. Of greater consequence is his nomination of right-to-life justices to our Supreme Court, paving the way for the rejection of the despicable mauling of the constitution known as Roe.

Just recently has the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops made a definitive statement of distress with President Biden, calling his "single minded extremism" on abortion "tragic" and "gravely wrong" in a statement by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the USCCB.

How wrong and tragic? How about allowing abortion drugs by mail with no medical exam required, or providing abortions for military members at taxpayer expense, or forcing military hospitals to do abortions and repealing the Hyde Amendment. Plus the "Abortion Without Limits Up To Birth" act, which would eliminate parental consent for minors and threaten religious doctors and nurses for refusing to do abortions, and which will surely become law with a Democrat majority in Congress.

Behold: The Most Pro-Abortion President in the History of Our Country! A Rosary-Bearing Catholic!

We believe that our Catholic faith is a gift that opens the door to a God-centered life of virtue, service and fulfillment. Kennedy and Biden have been blessed with that faith.

But the door of our faith does not swing open of itself. The believer must make the effort to reveal the treasures within. Sometimes that door swings wide and results in a life led in communion with divine principles.

And sometimes it gets slammed shut.