I'm personally opposed to abortion but ....
It appears likely that we will have a baptized Catholic president who has publicly claimed that he is "personally opposed" to abortion but does not believe it is right to impose that "belief" on others who disagree.
He is not the first baptized Catholic politician to make this claim. American politicians of both parties have tried to hide behind this cover. One can try to twist his reasoning into knots to try to make this justification work, but the argument simply doesn't hold water.
There's a good article from the National Catholic Register that sums up why this argument fails, as well as briefly detailing the history of this argument.
One line from that stands out: What if someone argued, "I'm personally opposed to racism, but I insist that we fund racist acts, because I don't want to impose my beliefs on someone else." That wouldn't get him very far.
The heart of the question is, Why is someone personally opposed.
It might be tempting for someone like Mr. Biden to try to hide behind "separation between Church and state," as if the protection of life in the womb were a merely Catholic issue. Again, not supportable. The Church clearly stands against racism, exploitation of workers, the terrible crime of rape, and so on. Would anyone argue that he couldn't pass a law against those things because of "separation of Church and state" or that he was imposing his Catholic beliefs in so doing?
The bottom line is that a Catholic politician can not support the grave evil of abortion not only because he is Catholic but also because it is a grave injustice and evil and an attack on foundational human rights.
St. John Paul II wrote eloquently about the sacredness of life in a 1995 encyclical entitled Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life).
In that teaching, he makes it clear that the truth that human life must be protected is affirmed by the teaching of the Church, but is part of the natural law (that is, what is stamped into our very human nature, and accessible by reason, regardless of one's faith)
I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. 73
No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church. [Para. 62]
This is so strong a teaching that he goes so far as to insist that Catholics may not obey laws promulgated to promote abortion, because they are by their very nature unjust:
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. From the very beginnings of the Church, the
apostolic preaching reminded Christians of their duty to obey
legitimately constituted public authorities (cf. Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet
2:13-14), but at the same time it firmly warned that "we must obey God
rather than men" [Para. 73]
That certainly poses a dilemma when we have very powerful politicians (up to and including presidents) who might try to pass such laws.
Finally, perhaps more about this in a separate blog post, but it should be noted that Pope Emeritus Benedict -- then Cardinal Ratzinger, when he was working under Pope St. John Paul II in his doctrinal (teaching) office -- wrote a document in 2002 regarding the participation of Catholics in political life.
Here's an excerpt.
So, what to do if the holder of the highest political office in the land is a baptized Catholic who tries to impose such laws?
We can start by praying for our bishops, that they will do what is prudent, courageous and necessary, as well as praying for wisdom in the best way conscientiously to object to such laws.
