David Quinn
We should approach politics with an informed Catholic conscience, writes David Quinn
I was speaking recently to a canvasser for one of the former Fine Gael TDs who was expelled from the party for voting against the 2013 abortion law.
The canvasser told me that his candidate had been berated outside Mass by one or two Fine Gael party supporters for breaking with the party on that occasion. The candidate should have put loyalty to his party first, was the thinking.
This kind of attitude isn’t surprising but it is depressing. It is simply mystifying that any Catholic, or anyone at all for that matter, should think that party loyalty should trump everything else.
But it is doubly mystifying that a Catholic should think party loyalty should be so strong that a Catholic politician should have to put their conscience to one side and vote in favour of a law that permits abortion under certain circumstances.
Recently in this newspaper I wrote that the Church ought to start preparing for the next abortion referendum. I wrote that priests should begin talking about the issue from the pulpits.
Conscience
Some Catholics, including some priests, think otherwise. They don’t believe this is the business of priests or bishops at all. They think it is between a Catholic and their personal conscience to decide how to vote, even when it comes to an issue like abortion. Perhaps they even think I believe clergy ought to be telling Catholics what party to vote for.
I don’t, but I do think there is a role for priests in informing the consciences of Catholics. I presume every Catholic at the end of the day thinks the same, otherwise what is the sermon for? I presume they believe that the Church, priests included, have a teaching role. Indeed, all Catholics have a teaching role in that all of us have a responsibility to share the Gospel.
Is that role limited only to issues of personal morality, such as how we behave towards family, friends and neighbours, or does it extend out to social morality as well, which obviously includes politics?
I presume these ‘politics-averse’ Catholics take the social teachings of the Church seriously? Pope Francis certainly does. He is constantly seeking to teach Catholics about the many dimensions of the Church’s social doctrines because he wants us to think as Catholics when we think about politics. In fact, he has gone so far as to urge Catholics to “interfere” in politics.
I presume those ‘religion has nothing to do with politics’ Catholics nonetheless believe that their Catholicism applies to all areas of their lives, and that must include politics as well, because politics is about the just ordering of society?
If the conscience of a Catholic isn’t Catholic, then it is hard to see how the person is Catholic at all.
This gets me back to the issue of party loyalty. It is very strange for a Catholic to expect another Catholic – a Catholic politician on this occasion – to put party loyalty above their conscience. This is the very definition of authoritarian; you must obey the party line no matter what.
The Church expects a Catholic always to obey his or her conscience but it also quite reasonably presumes that a Catholic’s conscience will be Catholic.
Speaking for myself, I am now a floating voter. I don’t automatically vote for any particular party. I tend to vote on a candidate-by-candidate basis instead. This is hardly a perfect state of affairs. If I were German (say) I would probably vote for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party, but we no longer have a Christian Democrat party in Ireland so that’s that.
Instead I look for candidates who seem to be guided more or less by what amounts to Christian Democrat principles. This obviously includes having the utmost respect for the equal right to life of all human beings, born or unborn, disabled or able-bodied.
There is a perception that Catholics such as myself harken back to an era when priests and bishops would tell their flocks how to vote and would expect to be obeyed. In other words, we harken back to the sort of authoritarianism that dominates our party system and for this reason almost never allows conscience votes and almost always applies the party whip and expels those who disobey.
This is very far from what I believe. I want Catholics to be more informed. I want them to think about politics in more or less the same way Pope Francis thinks about politics, which is to say, with an informed Catholic conscience.
Why do I say ‘more or less’? It’s because Francis himself would be the last person to insist that Catholics must think about politics exactly the same way as him. Catholics are free to believe in all sorts of approaches to economics, for example, so long as their preferred economic system serves the common good. Catholics will have different opinions about which system does that best.
But there are certain non-negotiables and Pope Francis would also go along with this. A Catholic cannot support an economic system that is manifestly against the interests of the poor.
A Catholic cannot support abortion, and cannot hide behind the formula “I’m against abortion personally but I also support the right to choose”.
This completely relativises the right to life. We don’t relativise the right to life of adults, why should we do it to human beings in the womb?
The unavoidable question, and it really ought to be unavoidable at election time, is, “how should a Catholic think about politics?” (As it happens, Bishop Kevin Doran is speaking on this topic later this month. Details below. )
Asking the question is different from telling us how to think. We will leave that up to the political parties and editorial writers.
But if a Catholic should think as a Catholic about politics, just as they should think as a Catholic about every area of life, the question becomes; how do they learn to think as Catholics?
First and foremost they should read for themselves. They should read the Bible and meditate on its many social implications.
They stand within a tradition that has reflected on these things for 2,000 years. We can learn from that. It would be foolish and arrogant not to.
And presumably we can learn a thing or two from our priests and bishops. It really is very, very odd to think that a priest should play no role in helping to form and inform the Catholic conscience of Catholics. This is a far cry from telling them what to do. In the final analysis, it is an act of service.
Bishop Kevin Doran is giving a talk in the Clarion hotel, Sligo on Tuesday, February 23 starting at 8pm. The topic is ‘How should a Catholic think about politics? Admission is free and it is being hosted by The Iona Institute. To book a place email info@ionainstitute.ie or phone 01 6619 204.