A Faithful Catholic cannot vote for Biden. Or any other Democrat. This is one gold nugget of Political Wisdom from the Catholic Wise Guy, offered free of charge.
Perhaps you think this an extreme position, especially since Biden self-identifies as a Catholic. Why should a faithful Catholic not vote for a Catholic? Sounds like the Wise Guy has gone off the deep end and forsaken Wisdom, his stock in trade.
Let me explain.
This Wisdom is not based on the Wise Guy’s personal opinion but on the teaching of the Church.
What is a Faithful Catholic? A Faithful Catholic is one who believes Church teaching and tries to follow it.
Mr. Biden has proudly proclaimed his dissent from Church teaching on three critical moral issues with clear church teaching.
I will return to these issues but first I will address government policy in general. Most public policies are issues of Prudential Judgment. This includes the economy, defense, foreign policy, immigration, health care, etc. The Church does not propose specific teachings in these areas but offers extensive guidance on seeking the common good. For example, the Church does not teach that the national economy must be capitalist or socialist. Rather it proposes that the economy should serve all people and provide the greatest good to the greatest number.
Most unbiased observers would conclude that the policies of both candidates in areas of Prudential Judgment fall within the bounds of Church teaching. Catholics may fiercely debate the moral and practical merits of each candidate’s policies and one, may in fact be better than the other, but neither falls outside Catholic teaching.
Now the second part of Public Policy involves moral issues with clear Church teaching.
So where has Mr. Biden fallen short? In three critical areas with clear Church teaching: abortion, gay marriage, and religious freedom. The Wise Guy notes that not only has Mr. Biden dissented from Church teaching, but he has enthusiastically supported policies against that teaching.
The Church has labeled abortion an “intrinsic evil,” which is an action that is always and everywhere wrong. Put another way, abortion is never morally valid. Furthermore, to support abortion in any manner, especially as a politician, is immoral. Mr. Biden has not been shy about supporting abortion and as a Catholic shows no sense of shame (or irony) in doing so. Strange. And he has upped the ante in the current campaign by promising to codify Roe v. Wade in federal law. And to repeal the Hyde Amendment.
Gay marriage is another issue with clear Church teaching. Not only is the Church dead set against it, but it argues “gay marriage” does not exist; it’s a misuse and mangling of the English language. Marriage is between one man and one woman, period; in the Catholic tradition it is elevated to the level of a sacrament, meaning the couple receives special grace from God to maintain their love and union. The Wise Guy notes that related issues have crowded under the gay marriage umbrella, including undermining the nuclear family and advancing the LBGT agenda.
A family of a man, a woman, and children is the “domestic church.” The Church is the sum of its domestic churches. And the nation is the sum of its’ families. As the family goes, so goes the country. And Mr. Biden is not just riding merrily along in the Democratic Party anti-family train but is now at the controls in the locomotive.
Our third critical moral issue is religious freedom. This is (or should be) important to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The Democrats and Mr. Biden have been working for years to undermine religious freedom of both Catholic institutions and individuals.
How are Mr. Biden and his party limiting religious freedom? By marginalizing faithful Catholics and institutions, by driving them out of the public square. Mr. Biden and his party do not want our beliefs to extend beyond the walls of our Sunday worship space. Examples of this include forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to include abortifacients and contraceptives in their health care plan; coercing Catholic businesses to participate in gay “marriages;”. and pressuring Catholic hospitals and Catholics working in non-Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, transgender procedures and other immoral medical procedures. And remember: this soft persecution can easily morph into hard persecution. Oh, the irony of Catholics supporting a man and party who seek to undermine the Church! Is it an exaggeration to say we are voting to be persecuted?
We pray the Lord’s will be done in this election! We know He will be faithful to us. Let us be faithful to Him.