Inside the Capitol

To bring the Gospel to all men and women, not to just the wealthy or intellectuals, Christianity must be incarnated in every aspect of civilization, including politics. This requires that the Church be free to cultivate the life of prayer needed to nurture discipleship in people who can, in turn, be leaven in society.

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Not every political issue is a battle between good and evil. In fact, most are not. But more and more issues at the Capitol are being framed that way because we continue to lose a sense of the dignity of our political opponents.

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Today, people working to advance Catholic social teaching often find themselves in opposing camps, divided along party lines. But the Church’s political work is about putting back together what has been torn apart by a highly partisan culture. In his encyclical “Laudato si’,” Pope Francis proposes integral ecology as a new framework for reunifying the Church’s mission of public engagement.

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When I came back to the Catholic Church 20 years ago, it was due in large part to the Church’s public witness defending the sanctity of life in the womb. Since then, my experience of the Catholic faith has broadened my pro-life convictions into a concern for human life at every stage.

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The annual papal message for the World Day of Peace (Jan. 1, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God) — one of the best glimpses into the minds of the popes regarding social and political issues — offers specific counsel, rooted in the Gospel and Catholic social teaching, about how to work for peace in our time in light of current events.

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In the aftermath of this past summer’s revelations of sex abuse and cover-up in the Church, there is a tendency for Catholics to slip into an either-or way of thinking about how to respond: Either we cannot “get back to work” until we have adequately addressed the crisis, or, we cannot spare the time to respond to the scandals because the Church’s mission is too urgent.

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In politics today, people have fallen into the habit of condemning the evil in other persons, groups, structures or oppressor classes, while they themselves embrace the role of victim.

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When you read this, the 2018 elections will have passed. The anger will continue to boil, and new opportunities for outrage will undoubtedly abound. The demonization of political opponents will persist, and the saddling of the American presidency with criminal investigations and threats of impeachment will likely become a permanent feature of our politics.

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