‘Put no trust in princes’

Scoring presidential administrations on some kind of Christian scale would seem to be an effort doomed to fail. Political agendas and actions rarely align easily with the teachings of the Gospel.

Much was made of Joe Biden as only our second Catholic president. He was often photographed leaving Mass, for example, and reportedly carried a rosary in his pocket.

Yet the actions of his administration to protect legalized abortion earned it criticism from church leaders. Others criticized him for the unwavering support of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Baptizing his administration as the “most Catholic ever” would seem a stretch and misleading as well. Better to evaluate its actions — good and bad — in the light of church teachings and the Gospel.

But despite the Psalm’s insistence that we “put no trust in princes” (Ps 146:3), the temptation to muddle our political biases and persuasions with our religion seems overwhelming these days.

Less than 100 days into the current administration, a leading Catholic layman, Tim Busch, has declared that “Donald Trump’s administration is the most Christian I’ve ever seen.” This assessment, Busch says, is not an assessment of Trump’s personal faith, but that he has Catholics and other Christians in his administration and has certain policies Busch finds praiseworthy.

Of course, the same could have been said of Biden by his supporters.

But we as Catholics are asked to assess how Christian or moral an administration is not by its members or its rhetoric, but by its actions. The first Trump administration gets credit for appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, but abortion has not been a priority of the second administration, which appears to view the status quo division of pro-life and pro-choice states as just fine. In addition, it has sought to widen access to IVF treatments, a procedure not supported by the church.

Others have criticized it more harshly for its treatment of immigrants, the poor both here and abroad, the elderly and other vulnerable populations.
Take, for example, Pope St. John Paul II’s admonition in “Ecclesia in America,” that “the Church in America must be a vigilant advocate, defending against any unjust restriction the natural right of individual persons to move freely within their own nation and from one nation to another. Attention must be called to the rights of migrants and their families and to respect for their human dignity, even in cases of non-legal immigration.”

“Migrants should be met with a hospitable and welcoming attitude,” the saint adds. For Catholics, this challenges us to examine policies and actions in this light, and in the light of the Bible’s many instructions on caring for the stranger and the migrant.

As for the massive cuts in a wide range of public-serving agencies by the Department of Governmental Efficiency, St. John Paul II in “Evangelium Vitae” warns about a “culture which denies solidarity and, in many cases, takes the form of a veritable ‘culture of death.’ This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic, and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency.”

One aspect of the culture of death concerns issues like abortion. But putting medical care of the disabled and elderly at risk, or slashing funding for international aid programs, or abandoning refugees would also demand consideration.

Perhaps all of this is good reason for our church leaders today to prioritize instruction in the social teachings of the church. Indeed, in “Ecclesia in America,” St. John Paul II calls for exactly that, saying it is “important ‘that in America the agents of evangelization (bishops, priests, teachers, pastoral workers, etc.) make their own this treasure which is the Church’s social teaching and, inspired by it, become capable of interpreting the present situation and determine the actions to take.'”

The bishops might start by reminding us that we are Catholics first, Americans second and members of political parties a distant third.

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