Catholic politicians can’t have it both ways.
We don’t need any more Catholics in public office who like the title but don’t walk the walk. Secretary Clinton’s choice for potential vice president, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, is another one of those. He claims his Catholic faith is central to all he does but his public voice and policies on pivotal issues are contrary to the Catholic faith. Like many in public office who are trying to straddle the faith-fence, he says he is personally opposed to abortion but defends the killing of unborn. He claims he wishes to reduce but not eliminate the numbers of abortions as if taking fewer innocent lives somehow justifies his position. To hold his position is to deny the very premise of what it means to be a baptized Christian which is to evangelize — spread the Gospel message, making new Christians along the way, and defending and protecting all human life from the moment of conception to natural death.
Mr. Kaine calls himself a “kind of traditional Catholic,” but clearly he does not live like one. In the tradition of the Catholic Church, abortion is gravely contrary to moral law and those who formally cooperate in the procurement of the same suffer the penalty of excommunication. It can be argued that those who support and vote for legislators who are known promoters of abortion contribute to the grave sin. Though clearly not directly assisting in the procurement of abortion to the level of excommunication, they are all accountable in some way to the continued presence of legalized abortion in our midst. In the political arena, a grave danger of men and women who claim to be Catholic is that many devoted but perhaps misdirected Catholics will vote for these candidates and justify they are doing a good thing by voting for a self-proclaimed Catholic.
