Inside the Capitol

For many Catholics, the most troubling aspect of the presidential campaign season is the feeling of political homelessness. Just when one of the candidates begins to sound sensible, something completely outrageous emerges out of his or her mouth. No single candidate seems to be addressing the many important policy questions of our day.

Put simply, there are no prominent candidates for president of the United States who have a campaign platform that significantly reflects a consistent ethic of life or the principles of Catholic social doctrine.

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Pope Francis’ recent speeches to Congress and to the United Nations were models of Church engagement in the public arena. By re-framing the task of politics and anchoring policy debates to the natural law, both messages were radical critiques of the prevailing culture of each institution and should serve as an examination of conscience for public officials at all levels of government.

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As people from around the world gather in Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families, it is important to take stock of one of the deepest challenges to the family today: moral relativism. Relativism is a powerful challenge to nurturing healthy families because it harms the moral ecology of society.  It is hard for family life to flourish in a toxic moral, cultural and political ecosystem.

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If a decline in the percentage of people who vote is any indication, people are disheartened with our political system. There seems to be a collective feeling that politics is nothing more than a partisan power struggle that serves special interests instead of the common good. People do not believe that their one voice makes a difference amidst a cacophony of competing voices.

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Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’” is a great gift to the Church and the world, calling everyone to an ecological conversion that embraces an ethic of right relationships with God, our bodies, our neighbors and all of creation. Recognizing, with St. Francis of Assisi, that the sun is a “brother” and the water a “sister” requires first embracing God as father.

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Pope Francis has been talking a lot lately about what he is calling “gender theory.” He has called it an “anthropological regression” that “does not recognize the order of creation.”

But what is gender theory and why does it matter?

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In a 2012 retreat to Caritas aid workers, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) told those present that truth is like a precious stone: Offer it in your hand, and it draws others to you; hurl it at someone, and it causes injury.

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School choice opponents often argue that creating more options for parents will allow non-public schools to skim the cream of students from public schools, leaving everyone else behind. But a recent study underwritten by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice shows that a majority of Minnesotans do not agree that school choice is an “us vs. them” issue. Rather, Minnesotans believe that everyone can benefit from more choice in education.

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