Catholic experience:
A vital asset in the public square

		Eye on the  Capitol  John Huebscher

In his 1987 encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, (On Social Concern), Pope John Paul II observes that the church is "an expert in humanity."

This expertise is the accumulated wisdom and insights nurtured over two millennium of ministry to human beings of all stations in life. It is this wisdom borne of our faith history that the bishops of the U.S. have in mind when they identify "Everyday Experience" as one of the three assets Catholics bring to the public life of our nation.

As the USCCB document, Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility reminds us, every day Catholics in the United States live out a broad array of experience of service to other people in need.

Catholic educators teach in schools and universities. Other Catholics care for the sick, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and assist needy families. Still others welcome refugees, minister to those in jail and prison, and reach out to others marginalized by chance and circumstance.

Broad vision

Our experience of direct service and ministry allows us to see the human faces one cannot see by looking at position papers. We see the flesh and blood that cannot be conveyed by statistics and reports. For us, the issues are not abstract and theoretical. They touch the fabric of every day life.

Those who approach policy as members of an occupation will tend to view policies in light of how they affect their work place. Those who define policies in terms of their impact on an economic group will tend to assess issues in light of how they touch their pocketbook. Those who define things in partisan terms will assess issues in light of their impact on vote totals and election outcomes.

The faithful citizen, on the other hand, assesses issues and policies with a broader vision, framed by the collective Catholic experience of ministry to those in need.

God's design

For example, where most citizens weigh questions of public safety as a parent and homeowner, the faithful citizen is also informed by the insights of those who heal victims, perform prison ministry, and teach values. Or, many will assess economic questions through the prism of a business owner who takes risks in order to create wealth or that of a worker who earns his pay by meeting another person's expectations.

A Catholic will measure those same issues in light of their impact on employer and worker alike. The faithful citizen will consider, as well, the Church's vision that weighs economic activity in light of its impact on the human person and its effect on the person's role in fostering God's creative design.

Will of the Creator

Finally, a faithful citizen is not discouraged by failure. Rather he or she takes to heart the words of the Holy Father that "Anyone wishing to renounce the difficult yet noble task of improving the lot of man . . . because the struggle is difficult and that constant effort is required, or simply because of the experience of defeat and the need to begin again, that person would be betraying the will of the Creator." (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, #30)

The tempered wisdom of such an "expert in humanity" is yet another asset for those seeking something better than politics as usual.

John Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

The Kerry challenge:
Are some issues sectarian?

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

During his campaign for the presidency, Senator John Kerry has tried in various ways to square his self-description as a "believing and practicing Catholic" with his unalloyed record of support for abortion-on-demand, including partial birth abortion.

Perhaps the senator's most succinct statement of his case came in St. Louis this past January: "What I believe personally as a Catholic as an article of faith is an article of faith . . . [But it is not] appropriate in the United States for a legislator to legislate personal religious beliefs for the rest of the country."

Sectarian position

In other words, Senator Kerry believes that the Catholic Church's pro-life position is a sectarian position, whose imposition on a pluralistic society would be constitutionally unwarranted - something like the Catholic Church trying to force all Americans to abstain from hot dogs on Fridays during Lent.

This is simply not true. For the past 31 years, the Catholic bishops of the United States have made public arguments that can be engaged by any serious person on behalf of the right to life. You don't have to believe in Petrine primacy, seven sacraments, or the two natures of Christ to engage the Catholic pro-life argument; you don't even have to believe in God.

You simply have to be willing to take elementary embryology and elementary logic seriously. For the senator to suggest that the church's position is sectarian is either woefully ignorant or deliberately mendacious.

Serious consequences

The bishops of the U.S. must address this misrepresentation of their teaching - soon, crisply, and preferably as a united body.

Leaving this distortion of the nature of the church's pro-life position unchallenged would have several serious consequences.

It would further corrupt the public debate, which would decay into a non-argument between mis-named "sectarians" and misguided "pluralists." The bishops have done the entire country a great service these past 30 years by using a vocabulary in defense of the dignity of life that everyone, irrespective of religious convictions, can understand.

If that genuinely ecumenical, public approach is successfully labeled "sectarian" - and by a Catholic, no less - lasting damage will be done to our political culture.

The future of the Democratic Party is also at stake. If Senator Kerry's misrepresentation of the church's pro-life position as sectarian is allowed to go unchallenged, the bishops will further marginalize pro-life Democrats like Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, who will be de facto sectarians in their own party.

What slim hopes there are for transforming the Democratic Party into a party where pro-lifers can be comfortable will be dashed, perhaps for good.

Judicial nominees

Leaving Kerry's misrepresentation unclarified and unchallenged will put Catholic judicial nominees of both parties in jeopardy.

It was precisely the spurious charge of sectarianism that Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) tried to hang on pro-life Alabama attorney general Bill Pryor last year in order to stall Pryor's nomination to the federal appellate bench. More of this sort of Catholic-bashing is inevitable.

Question of credibility

Finally, there is the question of the bishops' own credibility. The last two and a half years have taught us that faithful Catholics want clear episcopal leadership and courageous episcopal teaching.

If the bishops fail to challenge Kerry's misrepresentation of a position in which the bishops' conference has invested 30 years of hard and effective work, the damage to the conference's already eroded credibility will be very bad indeed.

Most important issue

The bishops of the United States in a 1998 pastoral letter made unmistakably clear that the pro-life issue carried more weight than other issues because it involved the moral foundations of American democracy.

The bishops must insist that descriptions of the church's pro-life position as sectarian are false and unacceptable. And sooner rather than later, please.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.