Posted on 08/28/2008 5:56:19 AM PDT by NYer
Yet another catechetical moment arrives. This from today's Christian Science Monitor:
Against long odds, Senator Biden aims to be No. 4. He sees faith and values, as well as his own deep experience in public policy, as a key to that race.
"The animating principle of my faith, as taught to me by church and home, was that the cardinal sin was abuse of power," he said in an interview with the Monitor. "It was not only required as a good Catholic to abhor and avoid abuse of power, but to do something to end that abuse."
The issues that have most engaged Biden in public life draw on those teachings, from halting violence against women to genocide. At a personal level, his faith provides him peace, he says. "I get comfort from carrying my rosary, going to mass every Sunday. It's my time alone," he says.
But the interface of faith and policy has long been problematic for Catholic presidential hopefuls. Governor Smith faced withering criticism over whether Catholic politicians are obliged by their church to take policy orders from Rome. John F. Kennedy famously disavowed "outside religious pressures or dictates," swept the Catholic vote, and won the presidency. By the time another J.F.K. from Massachusetts ran for president in 2004, the ground had shifted. Sen. John F. Kerry lost the Catholic vote because many of his faith questioned whether he was Catholic enough, given his strong support for abortion rights.
But Biden believes he can bridge much of that divide. "My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine," says Biden, a six-term Democratic senator from Delaware. "There are elements within the church who say that if you are at odds with any of the teachings of the church, you are at odds with the church. I think the church is bigger than that."
If abortion isn't an abuse of power, I'm not sure what else qualifies. Who are more powerless than unborn children in the womb who, in the poignant words of Cardinal Egan, "smile and wave into the world outside the womb"? And does it really need to be pointed out that the Church is not bigger than the One who founded her? And that the Church was not founded as some sort of political "big tent," but is the household of God, and as such adheres in love and obedience to the teachings of her head, Jesus Christ, and to those He granted authority to teach, shepherd, govern, and guide?
As we well know, anybody trying to find where the Church says that abortion is morally acceptable, or can be allowed in certain situations, or is just another issue open to debate, is going to fail miserably. Which is probably why Biden and Co. don't bother to quote from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which leaves no doubt about the Church's stance on the issue of abortion:
155. The teachings of Pope John XXIII,[314] the Second Vatican Council,[315] and Pope Paul VI [316] have given abundant indication of the concept of human rights as articulated by the Magisterium. Pope John Paul II has drawn up a list of them in the Encyclical Centesimus Annus: “the right to life, an integral part of which is the right of the child to develop in the mother's womb from the moment of conception; the right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the growth of the child's personality; the right to develop one's intelligence and freedom in seeking and knowing the truth; the right to share in the work which makes wise use of the earth's material resources, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself and one's dependents; and the right freely to establish a family, to have and to rear children through the responsible exercise of one's sexuality. In a certain sense, the source and synthesis of these rights is religious freedom, understood as the right to live in the truth of one's faith and in conformity with one's transcendent dignity as a person”[317].
The first right presented in this list is the right to life, from conception to its natural end,[318] which is the condition for the exercise of all other rights and, in particular, implies the illicitness of every form of procured abortion and of euthanasia.[319]
The CSM article provides some helpful hints as to why Biden thinks of himself as a good Catholic who has no problem denying core Catholic social teachings:
"My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion. It's not so much the Bible, the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, or the prayers I learned. It's the culture," he writes.<snip>
"I was raised at a time when the Catholic Church was fertile with new ideas and open discussion about some of the basic social teaching of the Catholic Church," Biden says. "Questioning was not criticized; it was encouraged."
<snip>
"I don't think I have the right to impose my view – on something I accept as a matter of faith – on the rest of society," he writes in his autobiography.
<snip>
Without taking a position on how Catholics should vote, Biden makes a case for staying connected to the church and its culture. "If I were an ordained priest, I'd be taking some issue with some of the more narrow interpretations of the Gospel being taken now," Biden says. "But my church is more than 2,000 years old. There's always been a tug of war among prelates and informed lay members."
As if all Catholic priests believe and preach exactly what the Church teaches while "informed lay members" are restless free-thinkers pushing at the rigid boundaries of traditional doctrine. Hardly. This is both simplistic and misleading. The line of tension lies elsewhere: between those who accept and understand that certain matters of faith and morals are settled and those who think that it is one's all-powerful conscience that makes the final decision about such matters, even while paying lip service to loving the Church and so forth. The Catechism is quite clear that the latter approach is not the one taken by Catholics seeking to be disciples of Christ and loyal sons and daughters of His Church:
Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct. ...
A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith." (CCC 1792, 1794)
Perhaps Biden, Pelosi, and others do suffer from invincible ignorance. Or perhaps they are simply denying or ignoring what they know the Church does clearly teach. Regardless, any child receiving decent catechesis and anyone capable of reading the English language should recognize that Senator Biden's beliefs are not "totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine." One suspects, however, that the approach taken by Biden, Pelosi, and Co. will continue, which means the issue of abortion, Catholic politicians, and Church authority will continue to be a major story throughout the 2008 election.
• What Is "Legal"? On Abortion, Democracy, and Catholic Politicians | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• What Is Catholic Social Teaching? | Mark Brumley
• The Case Against Abortion | An Interview with Dr. Francis Beckwith, author of Defending Life
it would appear that they sold out their church for power on this earth......the rest of us are hanging on to our church in search of God, eyes firmly planted on the afterlife.....
This issue is going away - no time soon.
Holy Spirit working here?
Yeah, and I wear a red cape whenever I fly around Metropolis.
“”The animating principle of my faith, as taught to me by church and home, was that the cardinal sin was abuse of power,” he said in an interview with the Monitor. “It was not only required as a good Catholic to abhor and avoid abuse of power, but to do something to end that abuse.”
Sorry, that’s as far as I could stomach....how about ‘bearing false witness’ as a US Senator...that’s a remarkable abuse of power if you ask me.
Sen. Joseph Biden - Bearing false witness...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2069846/posts
This is a patently false statement! Neither Biden nor his fellow Democrats hesitate to "impose" their views on the rest of us regarding a wide variety of fundamental issues.
For instance, a so-called "woman's right to choose" to destroy the life of her unborn child is off limits, according to this "rule." At the same time, Biden and the others refuse to allow that same woman a "right to choose" the school of choice for her other children. They find no problem with imposing their views.
Biden finds no problem with "impos{ing}" his view on those who work their way up to certain income levels by using his coercive political power in government to "take" part of their earnings in order to transfer those earnings to others--under the guise of benevolence and doing good.
Private charity is commendable. Gathering his fellow politicians together and challenging all of us to share our earnings reflects the philosophy of Judeo-Christian teachings. But, imposing the power of office in order to take that which cannot be done otherwise without breaking the law cannot be called benevolence.
These are only a few examples of the hypocrisy of his statement.
There are many our there who are redefining Christianity based on social currents. Christianity has always been a thorn in the side of many and many don’t have the guts to follow the path so Christianity is being watered down on a daily basis because the teachings of Christ are now considered offensive.
Communism is alive and well. These are the NEOCOMS.
Not on U tube. Need source material of the family gathering after the speech.
I’m pretty sure the church is against lying too.
Biden lies on a regular basis - he did it again last night.
He also stabbed his “friend” McCain in the back when he had to gall to credit success in Iraq to Barak.
I’m pretty sure stabbing a friend in the back isn’t acceptable either.
Biden has excommunicated himself from the Catholic Church. The best thing that could happen would be for his bishop to proclaim it formally and publicly. This would be an excellent opportunity for the Shepherd to teach and correct the flock (and the gen. public) on the life issues. It would probably save many lives and souls. Perhaps even Biden would get set straight and repent, which is the general purpose of a formal excommunicated in the first place.
100% agree. It’s time to start separating the wheat from the chaff.
Try this on, Senator: how is abortion not the ultimate abuse of power?
I couldn’t agree more!
When he pictures "choice," I'm betting he doesn't picture a tiny head, hand, and liver on the edge of a surgical curette.
“The best thing that could happen would be for his bishop to proclaim it formally and publicly.”
And it might help Biden save his soul, as it would be a wake-up call.
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Abortion and Euthanasia |
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| Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) | Catholic politician who votes for abortion in contradiction to Church teachings. One of American Life League's "Deadly Dozen." |
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