Oct. 10, 2021
I don’t like to do this,
but as an exception, I am including these two articles which ai think are
worthy of reflecting upon. Then I will add my own things for the last month.
Backing Biden,
John Carr calls out political misuse of bishops' voting guide
Sep 28, 2020
This article appears in the Election 2020 feature series. View the full series.
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FORUM-556503.JPG
John Carr, director of the Initiative
on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, takes part
in a forum on economic justice hosted by the Jesuits of Arizona and the
Monsignor Edward J. Ryle Fund Jan. 6, 2015, at Brophy College Preparatory in
Phoenix. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)
When the U.S. Catholic bishops
updated their official voting guide ahead of the 2008 presidential election,
one bishop suggested striking language from the document that named racism as
an "intrinsic evil."
"We'll never have a
president who says racist things," the bishop said, recalls John Carr, who
was a part of the discussion.
While Carr told NCR that the
suggestion was made "in good faith" and sincere belief that the
country had made serious progress on fighting racism, it's now that very issue
that is one of the primary reasons Carr penned an essay saying there are "morally grave" reasons why he's voting
for former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
"Mr. Trump demonizes
immigrants, fans the flames of race and division, refuses to denounce racist
groups or actions and seeks to divide the country by overt appeals to racial
fears. Mr. Biden condemns racism and seeks national healing, speaks for voting
rights and against systemic racism," wrote Carr. "At this moment of
national reckoning on racial injustice and clear disparities in the impact of
the coronavirus crisis, electing a president who will fight racism, not
exacerbate it, is a moral imperative for me."
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John Carr, director of the Initiative
on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University and an
abuse survivor, speaks during a Feb. 1, 2019, panel discussion at the
Leadership Roundtable's Catholic Partnership Summit in Washington to put forth
possible solutions to the church's sex abuse crisis. (CNS/Ralph Alswang,
courtesy of Leadership Roundtable)
John Carr may not be a household
name for most U.S. Catholics in the pews but for the church's bishops and those
following any issue at the intersection of faith and public life, for a quarter century as the top policy advisor for the U.S.
bishops, he's been a dominant force working on everything from the Affordable
Care Act to the church's response to the clergy abuse crisis to food stamps and
paid family leave.
In his essay published in America
magazine on Sept. 17, Carr recalls working as a young staffer and helping to
write the first voting guide adopted by U.S. bishops in 1975 ahead of the 1976
election. Eventually the document morphed into its current version known
as "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," and Carr likes to use the
now much quoted line from the smash Broadway musical "Hamilton" that
he was "in the room where it happened," for almost every iteration of
the document over 12 presidential election cycles.
Not once in that time has Carr —
who describes himself as "politically homeless" and faults the
Democratic Party for their "abortion extremism" and the Republican
Party for their disregard for migrants and the poor — ever publicly said how he
intends to vote.
Until now.
"Racism and character are
the decisive issues for me," he told NCR of his decision to go public this
election. "The stakes are so high," he said, noting that the country
is facing crises on four fronts: economic, racial justice, climate and in
character.
A sense of "the common good
is disappearing," said Carr.
"People
are throwing around the principles of our faith and the moral criteria of
faithful citizenship in a way to simply score political points."
—John Carr
After leaving the bishops'
conference, Carr founded the Initiative for
Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University where he also
teaches undergraduates. Given that he spends his days as a Catholic layperson
encouraging others to participate in public life, he felt he should practice
what he preaches and speak out.
"I'm not a priest, I'm not a
bishop and I'm not a church official anymore," he said.
Yet since his retirement in 2012, Carr says it's been especially
disappointing to see a document that he first proposed the bishops draft and
helped retool every four years become used as a partisan tool and reduced to a
single issue.
"People are throwing around
the principles of our faith and the moral criteria of faithful citizenship in a
way to simply score political points," he says.
"The greatest controversy
concerned whether the statements adequately reflected distinctions among issues
and priorities among different moral claims. 'Faithful Citizenship' was
criticized on the one hand for making opposition to abortion the defining
criterion for voting and on the other for minimizing abortion's moral gravity
by including it in a list alongside other election issues. Both could not be
true, and neither claim was accurate," he writes in the original America
essay.
Carr remains an apologist for
"Faithful Citizenship," telling NCR that "while it's too long,
it has provided a moral framework that has been useful to pastors and people
for 12 elections."
20170629T1039-HEALTH-CARE-INTERFAITH-RALLY-579756.jpg
John Carr, director of the Initiative
on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, speaks
during a 23-hour prayer vigil June 29, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The
vigil focused on preserving Medicaid and was organized after the Senate delayed
a vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, its health care reform bill.
(CNS/Jaclyn Lippelmann)
Ahead of this current election,
the U.S. bishops voted last November not to update the document but to instead write a new introductory
letter to better reflect the priorities of Pope Francis. The decision not to
provide an overhaul of the full document was already controversial among some
bishops, and adding to the contentious debate surrounding it was a vote to
reject including a full passage from Pope Francis' recently published apostolic
exhortation Gaudete et Exultate that enumerates a range of
justice issues that Catholic voters should consider. Further, language was
adopted that said "the threat of abortion remains our preeminent
priority," again inciting criticism that the document was too narrow in its scope.
Carr is one of those critics who
says that the language of "preeminent priority" is an
"incomplete and overly narrow moral criterion."
"The priority should be
human life and dignity," he told NCR, which he believes would be more
expansive and better reflect Pope Francis' approach to political life.
"It's a very rare document that can make Pope Francis boring," he
added, with the implication being that the latest version of "Faithful
Citizenship" had accomplished just that.
When the bishops voted to adopt
the language of "preeminent priority," it was suggested by Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, with the
justification that "we are at a unique moment with the upcoming election
cycle to make a real challenge to Roe v. Wade,
given the possible changes to the Supreme Court."
Carr, whose essay was published
prior to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, told NCR that despite
wanting to see an end to abortion in this country, the open seat on the court
hasn't changed his calculus or how he intends to vote.
He said that the current efforts
to rush to fill Ginsburg seat has "in some ways, reinforced my sense of
homelessness."
"Supreme
Court fights bring out the worst in all of us."
—John Carr
"Supreme Court fights bring
out the worst in all of us," said Carr. "They become symbolic battles
between the extremes that diminish politics, diminish the courts, and in some
ways, diminish the church."
He also thinks that for those who
believe that Trump's court picks will be the silver bullet that pro-lifers have
been seeking in overturning Roe v. Wade, they may
be disappointed.
"When Roe was
decided by all men, mostly Republican appointees, Joe Biden was a pro-lifer and
Ronald Reagan was pro-choice," he said. "Abortion has become a litmus
test without really changing substantially. People project onto nominees all of
their hopes and their fears when we should be considering whether they will be
good judges or not."
Carr, who grew up Catholic in
Minnesota — in what he describes as a "mixed marriage" with a mother
who came from committed Republicans involved in state politics and a father
whose family, also involved in state politics, were "die-hard
Democrats" — says that being Catholic should make it difficult to ally
oneself with a particular party.
"I learned at an early age
that you can act on our faith in different ways," he said.
Yet in surveying the country
ahead of this presidential contest, he cites the 200,000 Americans dead from
the coronavirus, African Americans being killed by law enforcement officers,
the reinstatement of the federal death penalty and the disproportionate health
and economic disparities people of color are facing due the pandemic, and is
quick to reject the notion that either party is sufficiently pro-life.
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c.jpg
President Donald Trump and Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden are seen during their respective 2020
nominating conventions. (CNS composite/Photos by Carlos Barria, Reuters; Kevin
Lamarque, Reuters)
While he's casting his vote for
Biden in this election, he believes that Catholics who do likewise still need
to be willing to challenge a potential Biden administration.
"If people like me vote for
Biden because of who he is and what he can do despite his position on abortion,
we should be clear there's no mandate to wipe out the Hyde Amendment and remove
all abortion restrictions or to impose requirements on Catholic Charities and
Catholic Relief Services that make it impossible for them to serve the
poor," he says.
"The test for faithful
citizens is not whether you're willing to challenge your adversaries, it's
whether you're willing to challenge your friends," he said.
"Where have Catholic
Republicans been who say, 'Extreme immigration policies and racist rhetoric
doesn't represent me'?" he asks. "I think that's the test. Part of
the reason I'm homeless is that we're not called to be cheerleaders or
chaplains. We've got to challenge ourselves and both parties."
Last spring when President Donald
Trump convened a call of Catholic leaders — including Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New
York, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, and U.S. bishops' president Archbishop
José Gomez of Los Angeles — under the stated auspices of aiding Catholic
education during the pandemic, he turned it into a pitch for his reelection,
telling them that he was the best president in the history of the Catholic
Church.
"I really regret that they
were on that phone call because I think they were used whether they intended to
be or not," Carr told NCR. "I think there's a real danger for
religious leaders to be used and that danger is growing in Washington."
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Looking back on his time at the
bishops' conference, Carr takes pride in his work of "building bridges
between the social justice and pro-life camps" within the church. Yet
while he says he doesn't dare tell anyone how they must vote in this election,
he remains deeply skeptical that voters throwing their support behind Trump
over abortion have chosen a strategy that will help the movement long term.
"If you were to choose the
person least likely to persuade people to join the pro-life movement, it would
be an old white guy who treats women terribly, treats immigrants and people of
color terribly and wants to cut health care," he told NCR. "Trump,
maybe short term has resulted in some victories for the pro-life cause, which I
share, but long term he is terrible trouble. Ultimately we're going to have to
persuade people rather than use the force of law to protect life."
Carr also cites Trump's interview with EWTN in August where he describes
the pro-life cause as being "your big thing," referring to Catholics.
The "relationship is transactional," he says.
While some priests and bishops have taken to social media in recent weeks to
tout that you can't be a faithful Catholic and vote for a Democrat — and even
used "Faithful Citizenship" to bolster their argument, Carr's reply
is direct: "Integrity and character was a part of the document 46 years
ago."
"It has always been a part
of the criterion,'' he tells NCR, "and in my judgment, it has never been
more important of a criteria for Catholic voters."
Christopher White is NCR national
correspondent. His email address is cwhite@ncronline.org. Follow him on
Twitter: @CWWhite212.]
CHURCH
A new outlook on confession, the sacrament of joy
At
the center of forgiveness, there is God who embraces us, not the list of our
sins and our humiliation.
By Andrea Tornielli
Confession is a "sacrament of joy",
indeed a "feast", in Heaven and on earth. On Tuesday, September 14,
in the stadium of Košice, it was as if Pope Francis were looking into the eyes
of each of the young people who had come to welcome him, in order to invite
them to live the sacrament of penance in a new way. And what the Pope said to
them was comforting, not only for those present, but for anyone who followed
that meeting on television or on the internet, and even those who simply read
the papal address.
It is not the sacrament, scarcely frequented these
days, that is changing. What the Pope proposes is a completely different
outlook on confession, different from the experience of so many Christians and
different from a certain historical legacy.
First of all, the Pope indicated that within the
sacrament lies "the remedy" for the moments in life when we are down.
And to the question of a young lady, Petra, who asked him how her peers could
"overcome the obstacles on the path to God's mercy", he responded with
another question: "If I ask you: what do you think about when you go to
confession? I am almost certain of the answer: sins. But are sins really the
focus of confession? Does God want you to approach Him by thinking about you,
your sins, or about Him?"
The Christian way, Pope Francis had said two days
earlier in Budapest, begins with taking a step backward, with removing oneself
from the center to make room for God. This same criterion, this same outlook,
applied to confession, can provoke a smaller or greater Copernican revolution
in the life of each person: I am no longer at the center of the sacrament of
penance, humiliated with my list of sins — perhaps always the same
ones — to be told with difficulty to the priest. At the center is the encounter
with God who welcomes, embraces, forgives, raises up.
"One does not go to confession," the Pope
explained to the young people, "as chastised people who must humble
themselves, but as children who run to receive the Father's embrace. And the
Father lifts us up in every situation, He forgives our every sin. Hear this
well: God always forgives! Do you understand? God always forgives!" One is
not going to a judge to settle accounts, but "to Jesus who loves me and
heals me".
Pope Francis advised priests to "feel" in
God's place: "Let them feel themselves to be in the place of God the
Father who always forgives and embraces and welcomes. Let us give God first
place in confession. If God, if He, is the protagonist, everything becomes
beautiful, and confessing becomes the Sacrament of joy. Yes, of joy: not of
fear and judgment, but of joy".
The new outlook on the sacrament of penance
proposed by the Pope, therefore, asks us not to remain prisoners of shame for
our sins — shame which "is a good thing" — but to overcome it,
because "God is never ashamed of you. He loves you right there, where you
are ashamed of yourself. And He loves you, always". To those who still
cannot forgive themselves, believing that not even God can do it "because
I will always fall into the same sins", Pope Francis says, "When does
God take offence? When you go to ask Him for forgiveness? No, never. God
suffers when we think He can't forgive us, because it is like telling Him, 'You
are weak in love!' Instead, God rejoices in forgiving us, every time. When He
raises us up, He believes in us as He did the first time, He does not get
discouraged. We are the ones who are discouraged, He is not. He does not see
sinners to label, but children to love. He does not see people who have erred,
but beloved children; wounded, perhaps; and then He has even more compassion
and tenderness. And every time we confess — never forget this — there
is a celebration in Heaven. May it be the same on earth!"
From
shame to celebration, from humiliation to joy. This does not come from Pope
Francis, but from the Gospel, where we read of the father who anxiously awaits
his sinful son, constantly scanning the horizon, and even before the son has
time to humble himself by meticulously detailing all his faults, he embraces
him, lifts him up and celebrates with him and for him.
