Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power

4. Catholics in the Political Arena: How Faith Should Inform Catholic Voters and Politicians

61 4 CATHOLICS IN THE POLITICAL ARENA How Faith Should Inform Catholic Voters and Politicians Kristin E. Heyer Speculation about how the “faith factor” will transform the American political landscape in the 2008 presidential election began nearly two years in advance, in a race that included Catholic hopefuls as diverse as Sam Brownback, Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, and Rudy Giuliani.We recall 2004, however, as the presidential election that reportedly turned on “moral values” and was marked by wellpublicized threats to deny Communion to John Kerry and other Catholic politicians whose voting records conflicted with church teaching. These sanctions generated extensive debate over the precise obligations of Catholic politicians and voters, the appropriate role of the Church vis à vis politics, and the relative significance of various political issues with moral dimensions. On the one hand, the stance denoted by what has come to be known as the“Cuomo doctrine,”which says,“I am personally opposed but,”justifies too airtight a compartmentalization between personal and public morality . On the other hand, Eucharistic sanctions based on single- or select-issue politics risks inappropriate politicization. Helping politicians navigate between each inadequate extreme is the larger Church’s task, yet what will be suggested here is that fostering moral formation and genuine dialogue offers more promising means of equipping Catholic politicians for prophetic and conscientious leadership. Ordinary Catholic citizens also encountered threats of excommunication depending on how they cast their ballots and came upon competing “voter guides,” each trumpeting the authentically Catholic platform. This chapter suggests that the fullness and depth of the Catholic tradition oblige believers to promote the comprehensive range of issues on which the tradition touches, as challenging at that may be, given the contemporary state of American politics and culture. This chapter begins by briefly articulating the core elements of Catholic communitarian personalism; it next argues that the consequences of this vision demand attention to a broad and interconnected range of social issues; and, finally, it concludes with directives for Catholic voters’ and politicians’ prudential discernment. CATHOLIC COMMUNITARIAN PERSONALISM Broadly understood, Catholic social thought and action are grounded in a theology of the fundamental goodness of creation,the mediation of the divine through the human, and an insistence on the universality of God’s concern. The Catholic tradition affirms the link between faith and civic responsibility and the moral function of government in protecting human rights and securing basic justice for all citizens. The gospel imperative to defend human dignity requires the Church to relate positively to the political order and engage social and economic institutions, “since social injustice and the denial of human rights can often be remedied only through governmental action.”1 More fundamentally, the Catholic social tradition grounds its essential commitment to human life and dignity in a vision of the human person as created in God’s image, social and political by nature, and endowed with inviolable dignity and human rights. This notion is rooted in “a philosophical anthropology that regards human beings as naturally embodied, intelligent, free and social,” grounded, in turn, in a “theological anthropology of human beings as created in God’s image, wounded by sin, and redeemed by grace.”2 Catholic beliefs about Creation and Incarnation ground the tenet that every human life is sacred from conception to natural death, yielding a commitment to protecting life at its vulnerable stages and promoting universal human rights. The Catholic articulation of human rights encompasses not only civil and political liberties, but also“thicker”social and economic rights such as housing, health care, education, and employment. The social anthropology grounding Catholic thought indicates that human rights are primarily realized in community, and rights are matched by corresponding duties to contribute to the common good. This social emphasis is theologically grounded in the Christian belief in a Trinitarian God, for humans created in the image of that God are thus inherently social; to be a person is to be in relationship with other persons. Catholics also stress the mutual implication of mutuality and relationality : God is love, and to the degree that humans actualize their capacity for love, mutual communion, and solidarity, their goodness becomes more like God’s.3 Thus, the marginalization of persons from participation in the life of community becomes the ultimate injustice. The significance of human interdependence is expressed in teachings on the most intimate sphere of family life outward to Catholic calls for institutional solidarity amid globalization. In this context, human rights are not...