The Return of the King

For months we have been arguing in this space for a return to traditional Catholic doctrine and practice, for a return to the Church’s ancient liturgy, and for reunion with the Orthodox, symbolically initiated in a common consecration of Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

This month, we address a more "secular" matter (from the Latin "saeculum," "this present age," "this world," hence, "worldly"): the problem of democracy, and of American democracy in particular, on the eve of the Bush-Kerry November 2 election.

There is a reason why, we chose to place on this issue's cover, and at its center, not a photo of Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry, but of a haunting "holy face" — the face of Jesus.

Jesus must be "front and center" in all of our political discussion and analysis. Our political discussion must occur in the context of the face of Christ. What would Jesus say about our current political debate? If Christ were to return, what kind of "politics" would he advocate? The answer is clear: a politics of justice, truth, and life. And that is the essential framework within which our individual consciences must seek the wise course in this, and all, elections.

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Modern liberal democracy is in a parlous condition. As Roy Schoeman, a Jewish convert, argues in our Lead Story, it is tragically ripe for sliding into various forms of tyranny and "mob rule." There is nothing sacred about the opinions of men; what is sacred is wisdom and truth. If the opinion of many men and women is unwise or untrue, and the opinion of one man, or woman, is wise and true, then the nation or city — or world — ought to follow the one who is wise and true rather than the many who are foolish and false. We have made an idol of "democracy." Of instant polls. Of "spin." The first casualty of modern democracy is wisdom.

This illness is manifested in a special way in the present two-party system in the USA.

As presently constituted, the American two-party system makes it very difficult for genuinely Catholic politicians, with genuinely Catholic moral and social principles — like, for example, Michael Peroutka of Maryland, who is running for president on the Constitution Party ticket (www.peroutka2004.com), and who, because he is the candidate of a tiny party, has been almost entirely ignored by all the US and world media — to be chosen as standard-bearers for either major party.

There are only three possibilities open for Americans who would see genuinely Catholic moral and social principles articulated and defended in public life:

1. "re-take" the Democratic Party, expelling those interest groups which have taken possession of it in recent years, making it a party in support of many things Catholics cannot support
   
   
2. complete the takeover of the Republican Party, so that Catholic principles apply on all issues, not just a few
   
   
3. create and build a genuinely Catholic party, in alliance with as many other Christians, Jews and men and women of good will as possible.

This editorial is not intended to tell anyone who to vote for. No man has that right. Each person must vote his or her conscience.

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But in carrying out that careful assessment, in forming that conscience, we would point out a few facts:

1. Senator Kerry has left a long and evil record of support for abortion and other moral issues which the Catholic Church has condemned and which render him unfit to serve as president.
   
   
2. President Bush, though he presents himself as "pro-life," did this spring help ensure the re-election to the US Senate of the Arlen Specter, who, like Senator Kerry, has supported the continued — and expanded, here and abroad — killing of the unborn. Despite the urgent pleas of the Pro-Life organizations Mr. Bush supported Specter over pro-life Congressman Pat Toomey. Toomey lost in a close contest which would likely have gone the other way had he received the support of a truly pro-life President.
   
   
3. Pope John Paul II, among others, has argued that the war the US launched against Iraq in 2003 does not meet the Catholic criteria for a just war.
   
   
4. Thus, if the Pope's arguments are sound, it is an unjust war. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry say they would prosecute that war to "victory."
   
   
5. Senator Kerry, if elected — and he will not have my vote — will likely face a Republican House and a Republican Senate, making his program difficult to implement. President Bush, if elected, will have a complaisant House and Senate to engage in further attacks with less restraint than has been shown up to now. I cannot give him my vote.

I am doomed to either stay away from the polls on election day, or exercise my legal right to cast my ballot for one of the remaining candidates (who cannot be elected) as a means of expressing my heartfelt conviction that the time has come to extricate the nation from the iron control of the Republican and Democratic parties.

This I shall do in prayer and in sorrow, believing that such a vote is not wasted, but lays the basis for a more coherent Catholic position in US politics in the years ahead.

- Dr. Robert Moynihan

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