How Catholics Commit Political Suicide

[Michie]

Anti-Catholicism has always been a problem in America, although today it is nothing like what existed in an earlier era. Catholics are part of the nation's economic, political, and cultural establishment, no longer the lesser citizens of a society that was generically Protestant and fairly proud of that fact. But every so often, events conspire to revive the issue of whether all that much has changed and whether a prejudice against the Church lies beneath the surface of national life.

In light of that, is there a place for us in our nation's politics?

As I have surveyed the American political landscape, it has become clear that far too many Catholics have forgotten three fundamental realities of politics that we must understand and accept if we are to claim our place in the public square. These are the Leonine Reality Axiom, the Heretic-Infidel Distraction, and the McLaughlin Principle.

The Leonine Reality Axiom
The first reality of politics is that it occurs in this world. And this world is a flawed and messy place. We should never forget that our ultimate end is beyond this world, but our politics and government take place here. We have to realize that we can achieve only so much by politics.

The philosopher Eric Voegelin held that one of the central political principles of what he called the Mediterranean Tradition is the distinction between this world and the next. Politics is about what goes on in this world, and it cannot deliver for us the salvation that lies only in the world to come. This idea was stated succinctly in Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII, in a statement that we might characterize as the Leonine Reality Axiom: "Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is -- and at the same time to seek elsewhere for the solace to its troubles."

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