{"id":14156,"date":"2016-10-28T08:46:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T08:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=14156"},"modified":"2016-10-28T08:46:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T08:46:37","slug":"trump-vs-clinton-whats-a-catholic-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/elections\/trump-vs-clinton-whats-a-catholic-to-do.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs. Clinton: What’s a Catholic to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump vs. Clinton: What’s a Catholic to do?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Trump vs. Clinton: What’s a Catholic to do:-<\/strong> The Catholic seminarians who gather for dinner every evening in the dining hall at The Athenaeum of Ohio would rather talk about something else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Theology or philosophy. Sports. Music. The weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anything, really, but the presidential election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet there it is, every day, impossible to avoid. One candidate who embraces a stand on abortion rights that their Catholic faith considers \u201cintrinsically evil,\u201d and another whose words and actions go against centuries of church teachings on morality and human dignity.<\/span><\/p>\n

So as they gather around the table, picking at their salads and sandwiches, these future priests struggle with the same question that millions of other American Catholics are asking around their dinner tables this election year.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you going to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I hear, more than anything else,\u201d said the Rev. David Endres, dean of Mount St. Mary\u2019s Seminary at the Athenaeum, in Anderson Township. \u201cThey\u2019re sometimes unsure of what would be the moral choice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a challenging election for many Americans, regardless of their faith. But for Catholics, who now make up more than one-fifth of the U.S. population, it poses fundamental questions about the intersection of their religious and political lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Catholicism has never fit neatly into one political ideology or party. The church swings to the right on abortion and \u201csanctity of life\u201d issues, which it places above all others, and to the left on immigration, race relations and poverty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reconciling those views in the voting booth can be difficult in any year for Catholics, but it\u2019s especially so this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough time,\u201d said John Carr, director of Georgetown University\u2019s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. \u201cPersonally, I feel politically homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem, he said, is that both major-party candidates so often take positions faithful Catholics find offensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrat Hillary Clinton gets a black mark for her support of legal abortion and a national health care law that church leaders consider a threat to religious freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican Donald Trump mocks the disabled, favors a religious test for Muslims, wants to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants and has been accused of groping multiple women.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a conundrum. And even the most serious and scholarly Catholics, like those wrestling with their choices in the seminary, have no easy answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both a wash, morally speaking,\u201d said Alexander Witt, a seminarian who expects to become a priest next year. \u201cThey\u2019re both terrible people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An election like no other<\/span><\/p>\n

Not all voters with strong religious beliefs are struggling with their choices this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Polls show white evangelical voters, long a cornerstone of the Republican base, support Trump in larger numbers than they backed Mitt Romney in 2012. Pew found in July that 78% of evangelicals favored Trump over Clinton, and that 55% of all Protestants supported him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other, more recent, polls show an erosion of that support in the wake of Trump\u2019s incendiary comments about women, but he still holds a significant lead among evangelicals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Catholics, though, never have warmed to the GOP nominee. Pew found they backed Clinton 56% to 39% in July, and a Public Religion Research Institute poll this month showed roughly the same margin.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a dramatic shift since the last presidential election, when Catholics closely reflected the general population and chose President Obama over Romney by just 2 percentage points. More surprising to some pollsters is that church-going Catholics, who generally align more closely to evangelicals, back Clinton by about the same margin as less devout Catholics.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why is this year different?<\/span><\/p>\n

In a word, Trump. He doesn\u2019t behave like a traditional Republican, and that\u2019s forced many Catholics to change the way they think about the race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s harsh rhetoric on immigration doesn\u2019t play well with Catholics raised in a faith that has historically embraced immigrants from Europe and, more recently, Latin America. His anti-Muslim remarks don’t jibe with the church’s commitment to religious freedom and his crude comments about women run counter to church teachings on human dignity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Catholics say Trump’s stance on those issues is in such conflict with Catholicism that even his opposition to abortion can’t justify voting for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This election can’t be about a single issue,” Sister Simone Campbell, director of the Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, wrote in a recent Enquirer column. “It cannot just be about protecting the unborn, but also about protecting immigrants, Muslims, women, children and people in poverty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Catholics who strongly support the church’s position on abortion say its importance cannot be minimized, as Campbell suggests. But they understand the frustration with Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just his newfound stance on the issues,\u201d said Rich Leonardi, a conservative Catholic blogger from Cincinnati who is skeptical of Trump\u2019s recent embrace of the pro-life movement. “It\u2019s his erratic temperament, his bar-stool eruptions. That kind of temperament doesn\u2019t bode well for his fitness for the presidency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leonardi said he won\u2019t vote for either candidate. \u201cWe\u2019re stuck with a two-party system, but that doesn\u2019t mean I have to play along,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abortion draws some to Trump<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton presents challenges for Catholics, too, and none is larger than her support of legal abortion.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the church abhors all sin, none is greater in the Catholic faith than the destruction of innocent life, either through abortion or euthanasia. These are intrinsic evils, according to the Vatican, and Catholics must oppose them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLife is at the top,\u201d said Witt, the seminarian.<\/span><\/p>\n

For that reason, Witt said, he\u2019s likely to vote for Trump. He can\u2019t stand the man, but he also can\u2019t abide a supporter of abortion rights in the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abortion isn’t Clinton’s only problem with Catholics. She caught flak recently when WikiLeaks released hacked emails from Clinton campaign officials criticizing conservative Catholicism as \u201can amazing bastardization of the faith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The exchange upset Catholics like Bill Laverty and Rob Deubell, conservative Cincinnatians who are active in the church and staunch opponents of abortion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laverty, of Montgomery, and Deubell, of Loveland, both said they expect to vote for Trump, mainly in hopes of stopping Clinton. Neither is happy about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not an easy choice for me, but I feel I\u2019m making the right choice,\u201d Deubell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laverty is more blunt. \u201cI\u2019m likely to vote for Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m likely to have a barf bag or a clothes pin on my nose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Liberal Catholics also struggle with their choices. Tom Miele, of Covedale, cares deeply about social justice issues championed by the church and wants a president dedicated to helping the less fortunate.<\/span><\/p>\n

He thought Bernie Sanders was best for the job, but he\u2019s come around to Clinton. He\u2019ll vote for her on Nov. 8, despite what he considers her too-cozy relationship with big banks and establishment politicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to vote,\u201d he said, somewhat forlornly. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be Trump or Clinton, so I will go with Clinton.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Staying involved, despite challenges<\/span><\/p>\n

These are hardly ringing endorsements for either candidate, and Catholic bishops sense the uncertainty among their flock. They don\u2019t endorse candidates, but they do give guidance on how to approach voting decisions, urging Catholics to focus on \u201cthe dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Following that advice can be difficult, especially this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Influential Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Neb., acknowledged the challenge in September when he told Catholics it\u2019s OK to sit out the presidential race altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo Catholic should feel obligated to vote for one candidate just to prevent the election of another,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carr, a columnist for the Catholic magazine America, has taken a similar position in opinion pieces he\u2019s written this year about the dilemma facing Catholics. One was titled, simply, \u201cBad Choices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Carr isn\u2019t giving up on politics and he hopes his fellow Catholics don\u2019t give up, either.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is too important to be abandoned,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be about the common good and protecting the weak, and it seems to be about everything but that. I hope our Catholic faith will call us to get involved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Duy Nguyen, a seminarian who’ll become a priest next year, couldn\u2019t agree more. He\u2019s a naturalized citizen from Vietnam and this election is his first chance to vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

He and his family are struggling about what to do, as Catholics, as immigrants, as people who care about the country they now call home.<\/span><\/p>\n

All Nguyen knows for certain is he will cast a ballot. And when he does, he said, he will do his best to heed the instruction of Catholic bishops who urge the faithful to follow their conscience and embrace \u201cgoodness and truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nguyen believes that\u2019s possible, even in an election like this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very exciting time to be an American citizen,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s very difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2016\/10\/27\/trump-vs-clinton-whats-catholic-do\/92828534\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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