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The Faithful and the Faithless
 If
elected in November, John Kerry would be our third Catholic
president. John Kennedy was of course the first. Who was the second?
 Give up? Ronald Reagan. As I
understand it, he was baptized a Catholic in infancy, though he was raised
as a Protestant. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, if you’re
baptized in the Church you remain a Catholic all your life.
That’s one of the many
things even most Catholics don’t realize anymore. There’s a
general impression that the Second Vatican Council suspended the old
rules and left everything up for grabs. This is not so; the Council actually
reaffirmed all the Church’s traditional teachings, but it also
managed to create confusion about them and, especially, about the rules of
discipline.
Which brings us to John Kerry. A
few American bishops, including the archbishop of Boston, are warning
that pro-abortion politicians should not receive Communion. This could
result in an embarrassing scene if Kerry goes up for Communion, the
Church’s holiest sacrament, and is refused.
Kerry favors abortion, but with
the usual dodge that he is “personally opposed” to it and that
“the separation of church and state” permits him to espouse
its legalization. Sure.
What does personally
opposed mean in practice? Does Kerry agree with the Council (whose
authority he vaguely appeals to) that abortion is “an unspeakable
crime”? Would he ever say this publicly, even while maintaining
that the state should never interfere with feticide?
Of course not. Kerry’s
wife has expressed her moral disapproval of abortion in interviews, but he
wouldn’t be caught dead saying that. As an ambitious Democrat, he
can’t afford to. You can oppose Prohibition while vehemently
disapproving of drunkenness, but in the Democratic Party you must not
only favor legalizing abortion; you must regard feticide as a desirable
thing, a positive good, a sacred right.
![[Breaker quote: Time for the laymen to pipe up]](2004breakers/040506.gif) So Kerry wants to have it both ways: to be an ardent supporter of
abortion while being regarded as a good Catholic.
Unfortunately, Kerry’s
visible failings as a Catholic go beyond his feticide-friendly politics. In
recent weeks he has attended Protestant churches instead of the Sunday
Mass Catholics are obliged to attend. Worse yet, he has taken communion
in those churches, which is strictly forbidden for Catholics. Vatican II
didn’t change that.
You might say that Kerry is a
frequent communicant, of sorts: He has received communion in more
churches than any other Catholic politician. If he doesn’t know, or
care about, the essential difference between the Catholic and Protestant
conceptions of the rite, why should he insist on taking it in a Catholic
church? To Catholics, the Eucharist is the actual Body of Christ, not just a
symbol. To receive it unworthily is a grave sin. It’s a holy rite, not
a civil right.
Whether the Catholic bishops
should deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians is a good question. But
Catholic laymen don’t have to wait for the bishops to act. They
should object strenuously to Kerry’s advertising himself as one of
them. His record and conduct say otherwise.
Like Reagan, Kerry is a Catholic
owing to circumstances beyond his control: As a helpless infant, he was
carried to a baptismal font. If the decision hadn’t been made for
him, there is no reason to think he would ever have become a Catholic
voluntarily. Nothing in his career suggests the guidance of Catholic
principle. On the contrary, he seems proud that his record is
indistinguishable from that of a thorough secularist.
He’s hardly alone. Many
pro-abortion but nominally Catholic pols have also been having it both
ways, making a mockery of faith while hoping for Catholic votes. The
American Catholic bishops, fearful of the charge of
“interfering” in politics (an inhibition that doesn’t
stop the Protestant clergy from exercising their right to speak out), have
tolerated this. But there is no reason for the laity to be passive.
A wag once said of Kerry’s
mentor and role model, “Senator Kennedy’s religion is so
private he won’t even impose it on himself.” America’s
foremost Catholic family, on the whole, has set a sorry example of
American Catholicism. Kerry has followed suit.
Kerry’s election would be
a misfortune for faithful Catholics. Catholic laymen should tell him what
they should have been telling every phony Catholic pol all these years:
“If you’re going to call yourself one of us, you’d better
act like one of us.”
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2004 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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