What the Church Brings to Politics, by Stephen P. White

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, Jan. 16, 2020

Stephen P. White is executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Note: The Papal Posse – Raymond Arroyo, Fr. Gerald Murray, and myself – will appear on EWTN’s “The World Over” tonight (Thursday) at 8 PM (Consult local listing for rebroadcasts. Shows are also available on the EWTN Youtube channel shortly after airing.) We’ll be discussing religious repression in China and the bombshell new book on priestly celibacy by Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah, among other topics. Please tune in. – Robert Royal

The “Catholic vote” is a myth. The notion that Catholics vote as an identifiable bloc of the national electorate hasn’t been true for decades. Still, there are enough Catholic voters – one out of every four or five, nationally – that even a marginal shift in one slice of the Catholic electorate can tip a national election. This being a presidential election year, and with the real possibility of a Catholic on the top of the Democratic ticket, many Americans will be paying close attention to see what the bishops in the United States say (or don’t say) about public policy in the coming months.

Will most of those folks hanging on the bishops’ words be looking for prudent advice about dispensing the responsibilities of Catholic citizenship? Or will they be proof-texting the bishops’ words, searching for rhetorical leverage against their political rivals? This bishop said that about abortion; that bishop said this about immigration; these bishops emphasized those issues; those bishops emphasized these; and so on. ….

Read more here  https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/01/16/what-the-church-brings-to-politics/