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catholicnewsherald.com | January 29, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD
Fred Gallagher
Father Peter Ascik
An example of Catholic integrity in public life
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n Jan. 20, Joe Biden was inaugurated as president of the United States. About two weeks earlier, on Jan. 3, Congressman Dan Lipinski, the representative from Illinois’ 3rd District, ended his last term in Congress after being defeated in his party primary in March 2020. Both men are baptized Catholics. Both men are members of the Democratic Party, which has historically enjoyed broad Catholic support. Yet in the same month the political career of one man reached its height while that of the other came to an end. An important reason for the difference in the political fortunes of Joe Biden and Dan Lipinski is the different choices each politician has made about how to live his faith and moral beliefs in public life. Lipinski has been a consistent and principled pro-life voice in the U.S. Congress. He was one of two Democrats to support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and recently signed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. He voted against federal funding for abortion and research which destroys human embryos. He voted to ban abortions based on sex or race, and to ban the transportation of minors across state lines for abortion, a concern in combating sex trafficking.
‘We are obliged to stand firm on the fundamental demands of the moral law, rejecting the legalization of direct attacks on the human person.’ Biden, on the other hand, has been a vocal supporter of Roe v. Wade throughout his career. A vociferous opponent of appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, he has affirmed on many occasions his support for the “right to choose.” As president he has vowed to codify Roe in federal law – which would transform Roe’s limit on government’s power to ban abortion into a positive “right” to end the life of the child in the womb. The 2020 election found Biden moving even further away from the pro-life position of the Catholic Church as he reversed his long-standing support for the Hyde Amendment, a budget rule which prohibits using taxpayer funds for abortion. It is no secret that Lipinski’s pro-life stance contributed to his primary defeat at the hands of activists in a Democratic Party increasingly dedicated to abortion-on-demand. Pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood endorsed and funded his opponent, who characterized Lipinski as an “extremist.” News outlets cast him as a lonely pro-life voice increasingly out of step with his own party. But in a press conference the morning after
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his primary loss, he said, “I could never give up protecting the most vulnerable human beings in the world, simply to win an election… My faith teaches, and the Democratic Party preaches, that we should serve everyone, especially the most vulnerable. To stand in solidarity with the vulnerable is to become vulnerable. But there is no higher calling for anyone.” On the other hand, Biden has long lived by a compromise that has allowed him to rise in his party. At the heart of this compromise is his separation of personal principles from his public life. In the 2012 vice presidential debate, he said that he accepted the teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion: “Life begins at conception. That’s the Church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.” Yet he continued: “I just refuse to impose that on others… It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court – I’m not going to interfere with that.” In this approach he follows prominent Democrats like Tim Kaine and Nancy Pelosi who profess the Catholic faith yet disregard the Church’s call for legal protection for the unborn. When asked why he did not similarly adopt the approach of politicians who separate their personal morals from their public life, Lipinski responded, “if you believe life exists in the womb, you have to support policies that protect that life.” This expression of consistency between personal belief and public life harmonizes well with the teaching of the Church. St. John Paul II reminded Catholics that even as they live in the world, “There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life,’ with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture” (“Christifidelis Laici,” 59). Catholics can legitimately debate a variety of concrete options for pursuing the common good through politics. Yet we are obliged to stand firm on the fundamental demands of the moral law, rejecting especially the legalization of direct attacks on the human person. As St. John Paul II wrote: “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.” He clarified the obligations of Catholics with respect to these laws: “In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it” (“Evangelium Vitae,” 73). Biden has crafted a position on abortion that is acceptable to his party and to many voters. It helped him to win the presidency. Lipinski’s pro-life principles cost him his position in Congress. His efforts to protect the vulnerable made him vulnerable. Yet in obeying God rather than men, he has given us a lasting example of Catholic integrity in public life.
very year at this time I have an overwhelming desire to write about “Tempus Per Annum,” what the Church refers to as “Ordinary Time.” Ordinary Time is sandwiched between celebratory and penitential seasons of the liturgical calendar. And so, our current iteration of it, right after the Christmas Season and right before the Lenten Season, can be a strange time, in that the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child, especially in a year so burdened with unrest, pestilence and chaos, is a great reminder of the peace to be had when we come down out of the hills to greet Our Savior in His manger. We also gaze upon the Virgin Mother, who will know heartache as none other; and we glance just out of the lamplight to feel the quiet, protective presence of Joseph, who got them all to that cave on the outskirts of Bethlehem. And we will soon begin the penitential silence and beauty of Lent. We will soon anticipate in our spiritual cleansings the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah. The starlight of Christmas has passed, and the contemplation of Easter is anticipated. So, what is this present moment in the life of the Church? It is Ordinary Time – yet anything but plain or routine, commonplace or humdrum. There are beautiful but unusual connotations to the word ordinary that bear mentioning. As a noun, an “ordinary” can be one who has been ordained and bears authority to perform certain liturgical and ecclesiastical functions. It can also be an order or form for divine service, as in the “Ordinary of the Mass.” “Ordinal” numerals are ones that follow in a sequence or series and express degree or position in an orderly fashion. And of course, there is “Ordinary Time.” All of these particular references harken back to the root word: “order.” In Ordinary Time we look to each day not linked to any season but in a sequence of days that follow and days that lead up to. Might the Church be asking me to look and see what is before me, the “stuff” of everyday life that holds in it the possibility of sanctity? A medieval writer referred to it as the “sacrament of the moment.” See the single rose my wife put in a little vase on the windowsill in the kitchen, watch how our dog comforts herself on the lap of any willing family member or friend, pray that the daily activities of our children might hint to them of the glory of the God who holds them in the palm of His hand (whether they know it or not), find the right word for the right person and express it with a smile…or a tear if that is what the situation calls for. Find the sacred in the profane. Give order to the chaos by recognizing how beauty often resides in the hidden places of our lives. Explore the virtuous and sweetly diminutive steps of St. Therese, the Little Flower. Let St. Anthony of Padua find something for you that you didn’t know you were looking for. Ask St. John Paul II to help you celebrate your own personhood in each sacrament of each moment, even the harsh and difficult ones – especially in the harsh and difficult ones. If the theme of the season just past is embracing the Child who came into this world to save us, and the theme of the season upcoming is to prepare us for the great miracle of Our Lord’s rising from the dead to His Father’s loving arms, perhaps the theme of the season at our feet is plumbing the depths of God’s love for us in the everyday gifts He puts before us, one right after another. He is gifting us with family we love so deeply it astounds us. He is gifting us with co-workers and friends who have become “like family” in our growing affection and care for them. He is gifting us in those who might need us, whether we know them or not: the cry of the sick and the poor. He is gifting us with His creation, every leaf and stem, every hillock and dip, every crash of wave and splash of faces. He is gifting us with difficulty and doubt and confusion and anger so that we will surrender more forthrightly to His love and His Presence. He gifts us with Himself for the calling, at any moment of any day in any season. These are the absolute glories of Ordinary Time. How extraordinary they are! Let us treasure them dearly in this, the season of the “sacrament of the moment.”
FATHER PETER ASCIK is parochial vicar of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte.
FRED GALLAGHER is an author and editor-in-chief with Gastonia-based Good Will Publishers Inc.
