Catholic State of Our Values

Following President Bush's State of the Union address on January 31, people of faith have come together to deliver diverse reflections upon the state of our American values. As American Catholics, we have a distinct values system based upon the principles of Catholic social teaching -- principles which find their roots in the constant tradition of the Church, articulated so well by popes and bishops before and after the Second Vatican Council. It would be foolish not to recognize the contribution made to American Catholic values by the late Pope John Paul II, who constantly exhorted both Church and State to see and respect the image and likeness of God in every woman and man. We look forward to living the legacy of his pontificate, in communion with his successor Pope Benedict XVI, who has so recently made the most bold declaration of all: God is Love.

As Catholics living in America's religiously pluralistic society, our values have been formed in dialogue with our sisters and brothers in other Christian Churches and non-Christian faith communities. Our values draw strength from the example left to us by the late Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, who have recently departed this world to behold the face of God and live in his love forever. Although not Catholic, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King lived the most fundamental of our social teachings every day. For the courage and the strength they have imparted to the movement for peace and social justice, we owe them a debt that can never truly be paid; but we must begin by taking up the cause they've left us, the cause of respecting the dignity of every human being and giving each human being equal respect under the law.

In many ways, the state of our American Catholic values is strong. We have seen the strength of our values especially in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when Catholics from across the nation have left home and family and livelihood to help their sisters and brothers in the Gulf Coast to recover from devastation unlike anything America has ever seen. We have seen the strength of our values when we have seen bishops working side by side with laypeople, seeing to the works of mercy and caring for Christ in the poor and suffering. We have found the strength of our values in the hearts of ordinary American Catholics doing extraordinary things, revealing a God who is not to be found in the devastation of natural disasters but in the human compassion afterward. We have found the strength of our values in the women and men who have shown the American people that our God is a God of love, not a God of wrath.

Nevertheless, it is also true that American Catholic values are under attack and being weakened by those who would reduce them to partisan talking points for political gain. It is difficult but necessary to acknowledge that some of these partisan activists are our own Catholic sisters and brothers, manipulating the truth of our faith to exert influence over the nation's conscience for the gain of their political allies.

We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's most sublime teachings on the dignity of the human person reduced to four or five "non-negotiable issues," all designed to benefit conservative politicians, usually from the Republican Party. We see that the dignity of the human person is under attack by those who claim to be its most dedicated champions when they condemn abortion but embrace the unjust war in Iraq and the escalating conflict with Iran. We see that the dignity of the human person is under attack when Catholics adamantly condemn assisted suicide and euthanasia but turn a blind eye to the burdens of health care costs and prescription coverage for the poor, disabled, and elderly. We see that the dignity of the human person is under attack when Catholics beat their breasts about the taking of innocent life in the womb, but turn away in apathy when lives brought to term are later crushed under the burdens of poverty and ignorance.

We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on common good and community distorted and turned into partisan wedge issues to divide Americans over issues like gay marriage. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on the preferential option for the poor ignored, as Catholics turn a blind eye to one heartless budget after another. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on rights and responsibilities ignored, as Catholics give their silent approval to our government's violation of human rights abroad and civil rights at home. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on the role of government and subsidiarity perverted, used as a justification by some Catholics for abandoning the poor and vulnerable, for ignoring the demands of the common good, and for violating every American's right to religious liberty.

We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on economic justice ignored, as Catholics refuse to stand up for human rights like a living wage or the just treatment of immigrants. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on the stewardship of God's creation carelessly ignored, as Catholics continue to turn a blind eye to the destruction that our government is bringing to that which God has created for us. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on the promotion of peace and disarmament ignored, as Catholics continue to defend non-diplomatic aggression toward other governments, the torture of war prisoners, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the militarization of our budget at the expense of our most pressing domestic needs. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on political participation ignored, as Catholics defend the erosion of our own political participation in election fraud and irregularities even while defending our government's decision to reject the political decisions of people like the Palestinians who have chosen governments that are not to our liking. We see that our values are under attack when we see our Church's teachings on global solidarity and development ignored, as Catholics allow our government to spend more on killing people abroad than it does on saving lives, as Catholics turn a blind eye to the crushing conditions of the developing world in places like Sudan and Kenya.

But I believe that for every Catholic who would reduce the dignity of human life to a few wedge issues, there is another Catholic who embraces a consistent ethic of life. For every Catholic who would pervert our belief in the common good in order to divide America, there is another Catholic working to unite Americans in the common pursuit of justice and peace. For every Catholic who would sacrifice the poor on the altar of political expediency, there is another Catholic who sees Christ in all of the vulnerable and who is working for his liberation. For every Catholic who is willing to sacrifice the rights of others for his or her own self-centered political goals, there is another Catholic who will stand up for the rights of each human sister and brother. For every Catholic who would pervert the principle of subsidiarity and turn it into a principle of indifference or communitarian tyranny, there is another Catholic who realizes that subsidiarity does not and cannot conflict with the common good and human rights.

For every Catholic who is willing to abandon the worker and the immigrant, there is another Catholic fighting for their rights. For every Catholic who devalues God's creation, there is another Catholic who sees its beauty and works to preserve it. For every Catholic who defends aggression and weapons proliferation, there is another Catholic who values diplomacy and demilitarization. For every Catholic who believes in tyranny rather than democracy, there is another Catholic who believes that all people deserve to be free. For every Catholic who sees no brothers and sisters outside his own borders, there is another Catholic who sees sisters and brothers in every woman and man on earth.

Like America itself, the American Catholic Church has been lamentably divided, and American Catholic values along with it. We have been divided by political partisanship and bitter ecclesiastical disagreements. We have been divided by our own selfishness. If the state of our American Catholic values is still strong in the hearts of American Catholics, it is only by God's grace that this is so. We must turn, therefore, to he who is the only one capable of uniting what has been fractured by sin. We must turn to God our Father and ask him with all our hearts to answer the prayer of his beloved Son: that we may all be one -- for the United States of America, for the American Catholic Church, for the entire Catholic Church, and for our broken world. Come, Holy Spirit! Amen.