Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

Ramesh Ponnuru on today’s NRO: (my notes in bold)

Conscientious Voting
Doing injustice.

By Ramesh Ponnuru

The Washington Post has published an angry attack by Joe Feuerherd on this country’s Catholic bishops. (He closes by damning them.) He takes the bishops to be edging up to the proposition that he has put his soul in danger of eternal damnation by voting for Barack Obama (or any pro-choice politician).

Feuerherd doesn’t take the tack that it is wrong in principle for the bishops to suggest that some types of political behavior can endanger people’s souls. It is hard to see how he could take that tack, given that he appears to believe, first, that there is such a thing as an eternal soul that can be damned or saved, and second, that moral choices can affect the outcome. Nor does Feuerherd argue, exactly, that the bishops are wrong to regard abortion as a grave injustice. He says that he is himself pro-life. Evidently, then, he believes that abortion is the unjust killing of innocent human beings, and the “right” to abortion therefore amounts to a license to commit an injustice of the gravest kind.

Feuerherd makes three arguments. First, he writes that other moral issues should matter too. Second, he writes that the bishops’ moral calculus has (pro-Republican) results that are too partisan. Third, he writes that pro-choice Democratic candidates, if elected, might do more to reduce the abortion rate than nominally pro-life Republican ones would.

As to the first argument: The bishops do not suggest that conscientious citizens should be single-issue voters. They do say that voters should will justice for the unborn, which precludes voting for a pro-choice candidate because he is pro-choice and also precludes voting for such a candidate without ascribing to the injustice of killing the innocent the profound weight it is due. The bishops do not deny what is obviously true, that many other political issues have moral dimensions. In almost all cases, however, the moral issues at stake are less grave than those involved in abortion (at least if you accept the premise, as Feuerherd appears to do, that abortion is what pro-lifers say that it is). In almost all cases, as well, Catholics who agree on the relevant moral convictions may legitimately disagree about the correct policy to instantiate that conviction. (People who agree that illegal immigrants are children of God may nonetheless disagree about the implications of that view in practice.) In the case of abortion and related issues, differing prudential judgments are much less a factor. Obama disagrees with pro-lifers on goals (protecting an entire class of innocent human beings against a legal license to kill them), not just methods. (More on that below.)

The second point is true but not persuasive. It angers Feuerherd that the Church says that conscientious citizens may support the Iraq war or “oppose immigration reform.” The argument that legitimate prudential disagreements exist in these cases gives Catholic Republicans “convenient cover,” he thinks. But the reason Catholic Republicans have “cover” on these issues is that their position does not contradict Church teaching. If the Church is wrong to teach what it teaches, then Feuerherd needs to explain why. If it is right, however, then it is not the Church’s fault if Republicans tend to line up better with those teachings than Democrats do.

Finally, Feuerherd asks, “[I]s it fair for a Catholic like me to suspect that the liberal economic policies of the Democratic candidate, whether Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will result in less dire poverty and thus perhaps fewer abortions? And isn’t that supposed to be the goal?” Anyone who wants to cast a ballot on this assumption has a moral obligation to investigate whether it is, in fact, true that 1) Democratic policies would reduce poverty much more than Republican ones would and 2) that abortion and poverty rates correlate in as straightforward a manner as Feuerherd idly (and conveniently) supposes. I am not aware of research that corroborates point two, let alone both of them taken together.

And there is another problem with this argument, which is that a reduction in the number of abortions is not the only goal that pro-lifers should have. Also important is that the law stop treating unborn children as subhuman creatures who may legitimately be denied the protections of the law against unjust killing. Obama himself may be perfectly sincere in willing that fewer women exercise the (supposed) right to abortion even while he supports keeping that option legal and making it subsidized. I have no reason to doubt that he is. But he also wills that unborn children be denied the basic legal protection from homicide that you and I enjoy. The Catholic Church wants voters to take that injustice seriously; more seriously than Feuerherd seems inclined to take it. But of course it cannot (and has no ambition to) force any voter to do anything.

…from the third.
I’m talking about St. Augustine and his Confessions.
Most people that are into classical/theological lit have heard of it. A few of us have read it in its entirety. I tried once, and failed miserably. I just didn’t get it. What was everyone raving about?
Now I know. It’s been two years since I last tried to read it, and now, armed with a new translation, I have discovered the incredible wisdom and richness of Augustinian prose.
Augustine is far from a ivory-tower saint. This is a guy who dabbled with women (having a child with one of them), calling himself a “slave of lust”, while being engaged to a girl (and I do mean girl; he had to wait until she was 12 to marry her. He was over 20 by this time.). He stole, caroused, got drunk, and pursued many other activities familiar to twenty-first century frat boys. His mother, St. Monica, certainly earned her “St.” with him as a son. He left Hippo to go to Rome and Milan, teaching rhetoric to support his high living lifestyle.
Yet, somehow, God found him (in no small matter due to his mother’s unceasing prayers), he became a Christian, and, eventually, Bishop of Hippo (in North Africa).

I haven’t finished this re-through yet, but I am enthralled. This should be required reading. (Nerdy book note: PLEASE get the translation I linked to above, if you’re going to read this. It is readable, elegant and VASTLY superior to the other one I tried, which I believe was published by Signet.)

Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new; late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called out and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put flight to by blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours. (Book X, 38)

Watch this.

It is required Lenten viewing at least once a Lenten season. Tonight’s as good a night as any.
The soundtrack is also excellent.

From Amy Welborn: Papal Posts and Links.

He’ll be at the White House on his birthday. I wonder if he’ll find a piano at the WH and entertain W and Laura.

This, from Fr. Z, made my jaw drop.
What are these people thinking?! Yikes!
I was quite amazed by this part:

Eighth Station: Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem
(Women and Education, Hunger, Poverty and Sustainable Population Growth)

Reflection:
Christ, you look with compassion on women: the birth-givers, the nurturers, and the comforters. May we commit to sustainable world population growth by bringing women out of poverty; by providing adequate nutrition, health care and education, and by honoring the lives of all women.

Point to Ponder:
Unsustainable population growth is a direct result of poverty, hunger and illiteracy, especially for women. Without food, economic security, and education, no amount of family planning programs will curb high birth rates.

This makes me very, very grateful for the traditional stations and benediction that my parish has during Lent.

I’m still here–I haven’t vanished…
Apparently my docs say I have some sort of virus that we’re trying to hit with antibiotics. Or it could just be that we never totally got rid of the flu I had back in January. In any event, my body has been a bit erratic–one day I sleep like the dead, the next I’m up at 6 am and going until 11 (that would be yesterday). As a consequence, my blogging has been equally erratic.
But, since there is lots of snow outside and my plans include hibernation here at ma maison, I am sure new things will be in the offering. Stay tuned.

Bread is the most satisfying thing for me to make, in any incarnation–corn bread, loaves of bread, biscuits. It’s such a basic food, but so vital to out everyday lives. There’s a reason the “Our Father” says “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”
So this weekend I have taken to indulging my bread making side, and am currently making some brioche (my first try!) courtsey of Barefoot In Paris. You can find the recipe here.

Another favorite is Irish Soda bread (here), which is an easy to make bread (no yeast or rising)–great for St. Patrick’s Day! (Also great for breakfast, spread with a nice thick jam.)

Coming either tonight or tomorrow: a post about Catholic voting.

Yup, it’s that time of year again. I’m reading articles about how Catholics could reconcile voting for Obama because he’s good on things like “the environment.”

Sigh.

So, even though it’s only February, the electoral debunking will begin…

So Lent is upon us. What are you doing?

Here’s my plan:

–Daily Bible reading (apart from the Magnificat). I have the CAtholic Women’s Devotional Bible, and I use their daily meditations.

–Lenten Reading plan: The Confessions; On The Passion of the Christ (Thomas a Kempis), and Lent and Easter with John Paul II (meditations and Lenten actions).

–Attend my parish’s Wednesday soup suppers (which are really yummy!) and Stations of the Cross (new this year–I’m excited!).

–Daily rosary (I hope I hope I hope)

–Attend at least one week day Mass per week

–Confession (at this point, it’s just getting there again. I’m not going to set a grand goal of once a week–yet. We’re working on it!)

–And the fast and abstinence requirements.

For a great Lenten primer, go here and download the guide to Lent. It is great!

Nutmeg says that we are 

And if you can’t see the picture, go here.