Compromised Leaders

For John, BLUF:  Voting is a compromising action.  Not eveyone we vote for has the same moral standards we aspire to.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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PRESIDENT BIDEN AND A CATHOLIC INFLECTION POINT

Here is the sub-headline:

I agree with those who argued last year that the primary responsibility for effective Catholic witness in public life rests with lay Catholics. Lay Catholics are to be salt and light in society, including politics.

From The Pilot, by Professor George Weigel, 20 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female:  for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28).

Catholics who take this apostolic teaching seriously will understand that our first obligation toward our brother in Christ, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is to be in Christian solidarity with him through prayer.  We pray for his health, strength, and courage.  We pray that he be granted the gift Solomon asked of God: wisdom in governance.  We pray for his deepening conversion to Christ.  Solidarity in prayer is the first duty of American Catholics toward the new president today.  That is bedrock Catholicism.

There is no doubt, however, that the inauguration of President Biden, the second baptized Catholic to attain the presidency of the United States, creates an inflection point for Catholicism in America, as we strive to be a communion of disciples in mission.

Were he to follow through on campaign promises to bring the Little Sisters of the Poor to heel over the provision of contraceptives, some of them abortifacients, to their employees; were he to support federal funding of abortion, at home and internationally through U.S. foreign aid; were his administration to promote the practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; if, through his Department of Health and Human Services, he were to hollow out religious freedom by repealing the federal regulations that now protect the conscience rights of Catholic doctors, nurses, and other health-care workers -- then Mr. Biden would have demonstrated, as president, that he is not in full communion with the Catholic Church, because he would have deliberately facilitated what the Gospel and the Church teach are grave moral evils and injustices.

That is one very long sentence, but it hangs together.  The rule of thumb I learned was 20 words, unless you are an excellent writer, a writer in the same class as Shakespeare or Milton.

In the end, he notes how the President, and other Catholics, support actions that deviate from Catholic moral teachings.  Then he puts it upon lay persons to uphold those moral standards.

Regards  —  Cliff