Politics vs. Salvation: Catholic Priorities? by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic  Culture, March 31, 2023

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.

Yesterday I received a USCCB Alert text, warning me that the “HHS Contraceptive Mandate is Back—Make Your Voice Heard Now!”, followed by a handy link. On the one hand, I signed up for this and I was glad to get it. But on the other hand, I suddenly realized that the Church (in the United States, at least) is far more active in alerting people to fight politically against laws that would make us pay for other people’s contraceptives than it is in alerting people to fight against the sin of contraception in their own lives. The percentage of those who self-identify as Catholics while contracepting as a matter of routine is extremely high.

This observation raises a very important question. Is the Catholic Church today as a general rule more active in politics than she is in the moral formation of the baptized? Or let me put this another way: It is a far greater evil that we should contracept than that we should be forced to pay for contraceptives for others with our tax dollars. Yet we hear about the political issue far more often than we hear about the moral issue. …