SENATOR KERRY’S “CATHOLIC PROBLEM”
by Leon J. Suprenant, Jr.

Presidential hopeful John Kerry’s strained relationship with the Catholic Church has been the source of heated debate in recent weeks. This issue will not likely go away as the election approaches, so it’s important that we as informed voters understand the dynamics of Senator Kerry’s “Catholic problem.”

John Kerry is a baptized Catholic. Catholics believe that Baptism is akin to a birth, in which one is marked for life as a child of God and a son or daughter of the Church. A Catholic who leaves the Church or falls into grave sin needs to be reconverted, but not rebaptized.

Thus, someone who wanders away from the Church and then through the grace of God returns is not treated as a stranger, but as a prodigal son or daughter whom the Church welcomes home. This person receives the Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e., Confession), which the early Church Fathers called the second plank of salvation after the shipwreck known as mortal sin.

Someone who has never been baptized is treated differently. He or she must be reborn through the waters of Baptism and thus initiated into the Church as a new child of God through the grace of adoption (Gal. 4:4-7).

It’s trickier to explain the situation of those who think they’re Catholic and say they’re Catholic, but who don’t profess what the Church teaches. One could fairly ask why this is even an issue. After all, why would someone belong to a church if he rejects its core teachings?

The fact is that many people who were raised in the 1960s and 70s never received a good education in the faith. Further, many dissident Catholics today think it’s okay to profess what has been pejoratively called “cafeteria Catholicism,” picking and choosing which Church teachings “work for them.”

Of course, what is really being asserted here is the right to decide for ourselves which of Our Lord’s teachings we are willing to accept or reject. Someone who accepts “cafeteria Catholicism” stands in judgment of the Church as his own god, or perhaps as though God continually adapts the moral law in keeping with shifting public opinion.

How many of Our Lord’s teachings can a Catholic reject and still consider himself a faithful disciple? If we only accept doctrines that “work for us,” then we’re not talking about faith, because faith entails an acceptance of all that Our Lord has revealed through His Church, based on God’s own authority. Mere agreement is not the same as faith, because then we’re putting Christ’s teachings through an approval process, kicking out anything that seems unacceptable to us.

Observers like you and me have no basis (factually or morally) to judge the sincerity of such people. But we can and must judge actions and ideas.

When we encounter the rejection of Church teachings by a Catholic who is a public figure, there is the obvious possibility of widespread scandal and confusion. When, for example, Sen. Kerry publicly and even vociferously supports partial-birth abortion Monday through Saturday and then presents himself for Communion on Sunday, Catholics are rightly appalled. Not only is Sen. Kerry compounding his own guilt (cf. 1 Cor. 11:27-29), but if this isn’t publicly challenged and corrected, many others will be led astray.

More and more we see Church leaders in the Vatican and in the United States speaking out on this issue, though as yet Sen. Kerry isn’t under interdict (penalty under Church law whereby one is refused Communion) and he hasn’t been excommunicated. In some instances, bishops may lack the resolve to go beyond a merely informal public correction or statement. It’s admittedly a delicate matter, too, in that the bishops do not want to give even the appearance of being motivated by partisan politics.

However, each time John Kerry flaunts his support of NOW, Planned Parenthood, same-sex unions, etc., alongside his “Catholicism,” Church leaders are going to have to turn up the heat even more.

Sen. Kerry has the liberty in this country to believe what he wants. However, if out of conviction or political expediency, or both, he cannot accept Church teaching on the hot button issues of our day, then he should be honest about his not really being a Catholic in good standing with the Church and not receive Communion until he has a change of heart.

Instead, we hear from him (and from his wife) that the Church should change to accommodate his views. I understand that for him that would be really convenient, but that’s not going to happen.

Senator Kerry’s extreme views on abortion not only jeopardize his relationship with the Church, but also his acceptability to Catholic voters. As Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark recently wrote:

“As voters, Catholics are under an obligation to avoid implicating themselves in abortion, which is one of the gravest of injustices. Certainly, there are other injustices, which must be addressed, but the unjust killing of the innocent is foremost among them.”

In the weeks and months to come, Americans—including the 65 million Catholics in this country—will see what, if anything, Sen. Kerry intends to do about his little problem.

Leon J. Suprenant, Jr. is the president of Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) and Emmaus Road Publishing and the editor-in-chief of Lay Witness magazine, all based in Steubenville, Ohio. His email address is leon@cuf.org.

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