Coming to the Table on our own terms

Submitted on March 12, 2009

Send to friendMuch recent attention has surrounded Catholic public officials who openly deny and defy essential Catholic Church teachings. Pope Benedict XVI, meeting last month with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., admonished her that all Catholics — especially legislators and jurists — must protect human life at every stage. Pelosi, long a strident defender of legal abortion, has chosen to remain in defiance of the Holy Father. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, recently nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services by President Barack Obama, has worked to weaken laws restricting abortion on demand and has publicly supported embryonic stem-cell research. Catholics who take public office must never abandon the Church’s teachings for the sake of popularity or approval. They have the opportunity — and utmost responsibility — to use their gifts to proclaim Christ’s truth and to provide the example to all of how to live inspired by their God-given faith, not in denial or rejection of it. The Body of Christ must be united in belief. Jesus’ own prayer for us is "Father, may they be one just as You and I are one" (John 17:11). When Catholics publicly denounce the Church’s teachings, she cannot fail to take corrective action. Together we must publicly embrace and declare the truth. We must stand firm in it. To reject the teaching authority established by Christ is to reject Christ Himself. Catholic public officials who set themselves outside the Church through absolute rejection of essential teaching and authority are not practicing their faith; they are feigning its practice. To live Catholicism requires so much more than merely enacting its external expression. It demands that we fully understand, embrace, embody and live the teachings of Jesus Christ; teachings that have endured for 2,000 years in the Church — far longer than any political party or cultural fad or phenomenon. We rightly demand authentic Catholicism of Catholic public officials. They must also lead by their example. Some have taken positions in violation of Church teachings in less-than-public conversations with friends and through their actions by membership in organizations, attendance at events or support of causes which run contrary to the heart of Christ and His Church. This is not Catholicism. Nor has it anything to do with Christianity.