A WebEx reply I spent like an hour authoring, rather than actually doing work, that was way too long
During our men's Christian fellowship hour this morning at work their had came up a question of how I, as the only Catholic in our group, deal with the whole abortion thing and Church teaching and our big-government President.
I am a procrastinator, quitting Facebook only helped that for a while. So I wrote a lengthy response to the guy in question who had asked this, and Cisco was just like "nope, that is way too long"
So...copy/pasta and all can enjoy
So I get this sense that President Biden is actually probably the most spiritual POTUS we have had in my lifetime. Though I don't think anyone else has ever held a light to Jimmy Carter. I read a great article a while back, maybe it was Christianity Today, that detailed his faith journey and his religious practices, particularly focusing on the time between having been Vice President and having been President when he had more free time, indicating that he continued to attend the same parish his family had joined when they moved to Delaware, usually attending daily mass and whenever he attended he always visited the grave of his late wife for a time, on Sundays usually bringing her flowers. Joe Biden comes from a more old-school Catholic background (I mean the guy is what, 79?) where American Catholics where taught to more-or-less keep their religion as a private matter and to avoid discussing their faith in mixed company. My understanding is such practice came about, at least in part, because of the anti-Catholic bigotry that was rampant in the states in the 19th century. Most Americans looked up being Catholic as a "foreign" faith that had no place in Protestant America, not too different from how now-a-days, and in particularly 20 years ago, how most Americans have looked upon Islam as a "foreign" faith that has no place in Christian America. Now-a-days the Church, particularly outside of Western Europe, is strongly encouraging evangelism. Discourage evangelism, what at the time was more commonly referred to as proselytizer, was killing the Church. If your faith was only for you, wouldn't practicing it be selfish? I believe that President Biden is personally pro-life but doesn't believe it is the governments job to regulate morality. This is not an uncommon viewpoint among individuals who hold a pro-choice position, this is one reason why they call themselves pro-choice as opposed to pro-death/pro-abortion/ant-life etc.
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I was raised in a Christian home and taught that Christians are conservative and conservatives vote Republican. I joined the Coast Guard when I was 18 in part because I wanted to "serve my country." I didn't want to be in the Army because I felt the whole reason the Army existed was to kill people, while the main reason the Coast Guard existed was to save people, so I felt that was the only way to fulfill my personal desire and my Christian responsibility. However, not long after I started my "service" I began to feel completely different about our country, or at the very least the federal government of our country. A big part of that was seeing government waste first hand. The USCG at the time was by far the smallest branch of the military (I don't know how it compares to the Space Force today) and yet it was still the world's third largest navy, after only the USN and Russia. (I know China has been growing since than so I'm not sure how it compares either anymore). That's even failing to mention how I felt once I met other Coasties, particularly self-described Christians, from other regions of our country who were often incredibly mean. The Christian Nation they spoke of was not the same Christian Nation I had learned of growing up in Northwestern Wisconsin.
Before I cast my first vote I began to question that whole Christians need to be right-wing Republicans notion. At the time I felt we needed a political solution, so I went looking for a better political Party. I knew I couldn't be a Democrat because Democrats kill babies. I eventually joined the Libertarian Party as they were the only ones I found that where in line with the issues that mattered to me most, a consistent life ethic even if you join the Army, and support of the right of migration (i.e. open borders). It took me a while to convince myself that joining the LP was the right thing for me. They had I a whole bunch of really out there stuff in their platform, at least I felt it was out there at the time, like the privatization of roads.
Eventually I decided that if they were the only guys right on war and migration, I could deal with the rest. I have continued to be a Libertarian Party member now for 21 years, including having been our party's nominee for US senate in 2014 where I receive 62,897 votes state wide, losing to current Senator Gary Peters. Heck I've been a Libertarian longer than I've been a Catholic.
Over the years I have become much more libertarian than I was way back in 2001, not only "dealing with" the "wacky" stuff in our Platform but realizing the Libertarians where right, even on the privatization of roads. (As I like to say "if governments weren't making so many roads Ford would have given me a Jetsonmobile by now".) Yet while I was becoming more radical, our Party was becoming more milquetoast. A lot of the "leadership" in the mid 00's-mid '10s where of the impression that the only reason why after over 40 years in the game we still weren't consistently winning at least 10-30% of the elections we ran candidates in, it must be all these libertarian positions that are scaring away people from us being able to vote for us as the the "Middle-of-the-road" party, economically conservative and social liberally, rather than distinct libertarian positions based on the philosophy of individual liberty and personal responsibility.
I have been taught that part of our personal responsibility as believers is to ensure that we protect those who cannot protect themselves. I see no one more worthy of protection than the very young, including the pre-born. My pro-life position is the primary reason why I have only considered myself a "radical" libertarian (I'm actually wearing a T-Shirt right now that says "Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, the libertarian Wing of the Libertarian Party") and never an anarchist (the Party has history that anytime we bothered to study our own members, about a third self-identified as anarcho-capitalists). My understanding of Church teaching is that it is considered a mortal sin to knowingly vote for someone who is pro-abortion. Some pro-choice Catholics have tried to argue that voting for a Democrat like Biden doesn't count because being pro-choice in policy but pro-life IRL is different than being pro-abortion. I couldn't align with that, and that's one reason why, while I understand and can empathize with the traditional libertarian position of being "pro-choice on everything," I am a much more "Pro-choice on everything else" Libertarian.
One of the complaints among fellow radicals in the Party is that the LP hasn't been promoting a hard core "women's rights" message. Even back before the "Portland Massacre" when at our 2006 national convention the delegates voted to eliminate basically the entire platform and its promotion of "wacky" positions, the official abortion plank of the 2000 Party platform I had been prayerfully reviewing prior to signing "The Pledge" was trying to split the middle indicating that there should be no public funding for abortion including that it is particularly egregious for someone who believes abortion is murder having to pay for someone else's abortion. I was comfortable with joining them when I was looking for a Party, and not another generally anti-war, generally less immigration restrictions Party like the Greens. I went on to author most of the LPM's (Libertarian Party of Michigan) platform plank on “health care” which I believe was the first ever distinctly pro-life position by a Libertarian state affiliate in the country.
Of course, I need to remember that most of the abortion “debate” really comes down to when people think life begins. If it begins at conception, murdering a pre-born child is about the most reprehensible thing you can do, if it begins at nobody certainly not the government, should tell a woman what is right to do with her own body. Since our plank specifically out the protection of the "very young, the very old and the mentally handicapped" those that don't recognize a fetus as an individual who is "very young" they may well read it as actually a pro choice plank. Mrs. F is certainly of the later position.
She joined the Church pretty much just for me. A short time after joining she began to regret it. Her experience was that Catholicism isn't all roses, good-deeds, good feelings and intimate relationships with a higher power, as I had painted it to be. The way she experienced it Catholics were of little difference than the Southern Baptists she grew up with in wanting to legislate morality, and use their religion as a weapon to prop up the patriarchy. Suzanne is not a Libertarian, but a straight up anarchist (and not the an-cap kind, but a black flag waving anti-capitalist; some would call her a bomb thrower, but she is far too introverted to ever actually through a bomb like anarchists had done during the late 19th - early 20th century labor struggles). She doesn't vote because voting is immoral by placing your will upon the lives of others through the force of government. This prop 3 stuff and the Church very publicly, not only informing believers on the issue, but promoting an exact political action, has her back to intending to write a letter to our Archbishop requesting to be excommunicated so that no one can attempt to claim she backs up this stuff.
I didn't vote for Joe Biden, and in fact have never voted for a Democrat in a top of ticket election (President or Governor) though I have for positions lower on the ballot like state senate and county commission). Each election I make sure to at least try to learn about every candidate whose name is on the ballot in every race and learn their personal political positions relevant to the seat they are seeking (sometimes I'm still amazed that the first time I ran for public office, 2004 Polk County Wisconsin Register of deeds, the most common question I was asked by potentiate voters was my position on abortion, even though the Register of Deeds has 0 influence on anything other than registering deeds), usually through their websites or a questionnaire like that printed by the League of Women's voters. I have never cast a straight ticket, and probably wouldn't even if our party had enough members to actually run a candidate in every race on the ballot. In each race I vote for the candidate whose political positions are most similar to my own, regardless of any other personal feelings on the dude, or their chance of "winning" the election. Granted that is usually the Libertarian candidate, but not always. In 2016, for example, I voted for the Constitution Party (U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan) nominee, Darrel Castle, for President. The '16 Johnson/Weld campaign was the only Libertarian Presidential ticket in my adult life that had made a so-called women's right to choose a central part of their campaign.
I know that a number of Bishops have made orders direction their priest to refuse to administer communion to Catholic politicians who are pro-choice, some even specifically calling out individuals like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. I'm not sure about San Francisco, but I know Biden's own Bishop in the diocese of Dover has indicated that he will not be forbidding Mr. Biden from receiving the sacraments. Many of my friends and fellow parishioners had really expected that when Biden and Pope Francis met privately for the first time that the pope would straighten out Joe and get him to show pro-life values in public and promise to veto any legislation that would make it easier for someone to terminate their pregnancy. When all the media reports came out indicating that the private conversation included notes of assuring Joe he was a good Catholic and appreciation for his dedication to attempting to be a good steward and protect the environment God gave us, it only further enraged the far-right Catholics in my circles.
There have been a number of American Catholics who claim that Pope Francis isn't even the legitimate Bishop of Rome. Everything from claims Benedict XVI is still the real pope and Francis is just there to keep the liberal media off-track while we reestablish Christ's True religion, to some claiming that Church is no longer the Church Christ founded when he appointed St. Peter the first pope (which is my understanding of what many Christians had believed that led to the Reformation), and the all too common (I think it used to be a joke, but I am not so sure anymore) "Francis isn't a Catholic he's a Jesuit." Of course, St. Francis is a member of the Society of Jesus, the first of that particular religious order to ever have been elected pope. I suspect it is because they have always promoted a formal well-rounded academic education, including learning of other religions, there has been a long history of anti-Jesuit notions within certain circles both inside and outside of the Church, particularly around times that it was believed by many that Satan's World was gaining ground on Christ's Church (like the promulgation of atheistic Communism in the early 20th century, and the current "Culture War"). For example up until fairly recently the constitution of Switzerland, a majority Catholic nation, arguable the most Catholic in Western Europe even today, actually forbid Jesuits from residing within their borders.
I disagree with such retractors. I honestly believe that the election of the Pope is what the Church teaches it to be, not a popularity contest like a City Council, but a selection of Christ's chosen individual to lead His Church on Earth for the time, with the fervent prayer of the College of Cardinals' members requesting the direction of the Holy Sprit, and reflecting to the call thereof, is how that selection is obtained. I believe that Christ chose both Benedict XVI and Francis I, because they were the leader we needed at the time. Perhaps, though I can't be certain, Benedict was selected by God to get the Church back on track, to return more fully to the call against modernism by St. Pius X, pope during the early 1900s. The Church became much more welcoming to believers who had continued, or at least attempted to, to follow the old traditions of the Church, such as the Latin Mass, even after the reforms of Vatican II. During the decades since V2 such rad trads (radical traditionalist) had caused much separation among believers. With many Catholics all but excommunicating rad trads, and with some rad trads coming to believe that they were the only true Catholics with the others having chosen to separate themselves from the path God had put forth. Under Benedict many of those wounds where healed. He specifically promoted the ability, that they never lost, for priests to say the Tridentine Mass in Latin facing the alter as had been done for several centuries previously.
Personally I have come to believe that perhaps we believers took to that message from Pope Benedict very quickly, and God saw the need for a leader of his Church like Pope Francis, who would focus on another teaching of the Church that had been lost recently, and perhaps the welcoming back of the rad trads didn't help. I'm speaking of the teachings of love and forgiveness, that of treating others the way you want to be treated, and being good stewards of what God gave us. Pope Benedict the XVI resigning was one of the most difficult times in my faith journey. I felt like he was abandoning us. As recently as December of 2019 I had a very similar feeling when it appeared, at least to me, that our pastor left our parish to become an Air Force chaplain completely out of the blue leaving us high and dry with no warning.
Benedict XVI is only the second pope in history to have resigned, the first having been Celestine V in the 13th century. Celestine was a hermit monk who had been living a solitary life away from all others save he and God prior to his selection. He resigned to go return to his hermitage. With Benedict staying on as Pope Emeritus, maintaining a Vatican apartment and all that, I was fearful that this would be a new change, that popes would chose when they want the benefits of being the pope without the sacrifices and they'd all start ending their service when they felt like it, rather than waiting for God to make that decision by calling them home. The Spirit just told me to Trust. To trust is hard to do when feeling abandoned, as some of our brethren have mentioned themselves in our Thursday morning call. That feeling even had me wondering if it was the Spirit, or a demon, speaking to me. It took me time to give up my own pride and look to the Word to determine whether the voice was His or the evil one's. His Word confined that nothing He said was outside of the Traditions of Church teaching, such as those laid out in the Bible, so I gave in to His will and trusted.