Duc in Altum

Fr. Frank Pavone, in his bi-weekly column, emphasizes the idea that although officially the two major political parties in the United States have completely opposite platform positions on abortion, it is the position of the individual candidate that matters:

The commitment to defend the weakest and most vulnerable human beings does not arise from a political party or platform, nor from any kind of personal or communal agenda. Nor does it arise from bishops, priests, or pastors. Rather, it arises from our humanity itself, fashioned as it is by the hand of God. God, who is life, writes upon our hearts its value, and He bestows on us both the gift of life and the privilege and duty to defend it. Nobody needs any kind of permission to defend life, nor can anyone excuse himself from that duty. Nobody has a monopoly on the defense of life, nor is the pro-life task a means to an end. Defending life is an end in itself, and has in itself all the justification it ever
needs.

As we know, there are pro-life Democrats, and there are pro-abortion Republicans. Those who are pro-life, no matter what party affiliation, should be supported, and those who are pro-abortion, no matter what party affiliation, should be encouraged to change their position.
My own observation about Catholics and party affiliation is that there is strong tendency for Catholics to place their party affiliation ahead of their Faith. The ones who identify themselves as Democrats often have a family history of Democrat party affiliation which leads them to support pro-abortion Democrats despite this obvious conflict with the Church's clear teaching against abortion. More often than not it seems that these Democrat Catholics do not even consider the abortion question in their political calculus either out of naivete or a wholesale acceptance of the package of lies that have been promulgated by the abortion industry. Their focus is on other traditional Democratic positions which arguably are much more in line with Catholic teaching than the Republican positions.

On the other side of the fence, I find that the Catholics who identify themselves as Republicans tend to proudly note that for the most part, Republican candidates are at least in official position pro-life. These Catholics often ignore the many other positions which the Republican candidates have which are out of step with Catholic teaching. Also, there is a certain degree that these Republican Catholics embrace the Republican party more for its traditional economic positions than for its positions on life. In other words, they really want to be Republicans, and thank goodness the Republicans have the better end of the life issues so they can look orthodox while maintaining their preferred party affiliation.

The fact is that many pro-life Republicans are only mildly pro-life. They hold a pro-life position on many issues because it is politically expedient to do so; it is not a deep conviction of their own. Evidence for this is found when the life issue becomes complex, such as embryonic stem cell research. The fact that there is no long history of debate in this country about the complex issues of life means that for the politician it is not easy to see where the political battle lines are drawn on these complex issues. Abortion is easy because there has been debate about this for decades. Consequently, you see pro-life politicians supporting embryonic stem cell research without understanding how naive, if not hypocritical such support is given their "clear" stand against abortion. Unfortunately, these politicians often lack the understanding of why abortion is wrong. They understand that it is taking life which is wrong, but they do not have the full understanding that human life starts at conception. Consequently, anything but protection of human life beginning with conception is wrong.

The problem is that there are years of misinformation to overcome. The Roe vs. Wade decision set in motion a whole slew of efforts that have changed the climate in the United States into what John Paul the Great called the Culture of Death. Reversing that atmosphere of lies is the true effort of the pro-life movement.