Right after the election I wrote an op-ed titled “What Next?” for the National Catholic Register which argued that the “one-party” pro-life political strategy of the past 30 years that has identified the pro-life cause with the Republican Party and its pro-capital, pro-war political ideology must be abandoned. What’s needed is a new pro-life politics for the future that would explicitly open up a “second front” in the abortion battle within the Democratic Party.
I based my argument on the success of Proposition 8 in California, which was made possible, ironically, by strong support from Latinos and African Americans — both traditionally Democratic, pro-Obama groups. Socially conservative constituencies in the Democratic Party, I said, have for years been ignored by party leaders, and represent an opportunity for Catholic pro-life organizers.
Conversely, Evangelical presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s unique blend of social conservatism and “social democratic” economic policies got a cold reception from the Republican establishment in that party’s primaries. Yet he clearly had a strong following among religious Republicans.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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These examples show that there are constituencies in each party that would align with the Church on most issues. We don’t have to endure the same dreary political sideshow every four years, with partisan Catholics in the Republican and Democratic parties haranguing each other over which is the best path: pro-life and family vs. pro-social justice and peace.
But to get the consistently Catholic candidates we want, we’ll have to organize and commit to an explicitly Christian political program that would be promoted by political action groups and think tanks — the more the better. These would work within both the Democratic and Republican parties to advocate for the common good in the true sense, based upon the four pillars of Christian social morality: life, family, social justice, and peace.
These four pillars are not something I made up. Rev. James Tunstead Burtchaell has written in Philemon’s Problem that they can be traced back to the early Christians, who fundamentally changed community life by protecting the unborn and infants (life), elevating women in marriage (family), recognizing the dignity of slaves (social justice), and reconciling with enemies (peace).
The Church enforced this social morality — however imperfectly — throughout the centuries. Then, in 1891, in response to the crisis of industrial societies, Pope Leo XII issued the first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum. Since then, the popes have continued to develop the Church’s social teaching, what has been called its “best-kept secret.”
With the world in a global economic crisis, and the pope set to publish his new social encyclical, reportedly titled Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), early next year, now is the opportune time to make this “secret” the basis for a new Catholic politics.
In voting for Obama, Americans were voting for change. They’re likely to be disappointed, if only because Obama’s vision has little substance. The Church’s social doctrine is the only political philosophy left in the world with the substance and the credibility to be the basis for real change — an alternative to the failures of socialism and hedonistic capitalism.
If the early reports on his encyclical are correct, Pope Benedict appears to agree with Obama that real change is needed to restore the social fabric of the world. In his message for the upcoming World Day of Peace on January 1, 2009, the pope quoted from John Paul II’s social encyclical, Centesimus Annus, calling for “a change of lifestyles, of models of production and consumption, and of the established structures of power which today govern societies.”
Until we Catholics develop the courage to organize for this sort of radical change based on the Church’s authentic teaching on social concerns, we will continue to be a weak presence in the public square.
