EDITORIAL

Catholic politicians must follow moral truths

Posted

We very much appreciate receiving letters to the editor and hope that readers will continue to write. In our last edition George Weigel’s article on President Biden garnered significant response. One response deserves particular attention. It argues for a widely held, but erroneous, understanding of what it means to be a Catholic politician. Namely, that being a politician exempts one from the demands of the moral law. We often hear it phrased in this way: “I am personally opposed to moral evil x, but publicly I support x due to the demands of a pluralistic society.”
Catholic politicians cannot impose doctrinal truths of the faith into law such as “all must believe that Jesus is God.” Yet we can distinguish moral truths and evils from doctrinal truths. Moral evils can and must be opposed by legislators to the extent that they are able. Anyone of sound intellect can understand through moral reasoning alone, moral truths or evils. For example, marriage, euthanasia, murder, and abortion are moral issues that do not fall under revelation. A politician, Catholic or not, who positively supports or legislates for moral evils would be acting immorally and deserve condemnation. A politician who is Catholic would be doubly at fault considering that he or she not only has natural faculties for reasoning, but also the light of revelation to aid such reasoning.