Saturday, June 26, 2021

Douthat, the Non-Theologian

Dreher cites a Douthat editorial ruminating on the US Bishops' 'problem' of Joe Biden*.

...however reasonable the bishops’ focus on abortion as a pre-eminent issue, in a polarized nation it created a situation where Republicans can seemingly get away with a vast accumulation of un-Catholic acts and policies and simple lies — many of them on display in Donald Trump’s administration, which was amply staffed with Catholics — and be perpetually forgiven because the Democrats support Roe. v. Wade....

 Douthat may know better, but let's clarify for others.

There are FOUR SINS which cry out to Heaven for vengeance.  Abortion (murder) is one of them.  Sodomy is another.  Oppressing the poor is a third, and injustice to the wage earner is the fourth. 

Whatever "un-Catholic acts" were endemic to the Trump Administration (or Bush's), Douthat can cite,  none of them are one of the Four.  And Trump is not a Catholic.

The Bishops do not face a dilemma.  They know what the rules are (see Canon 915) and they must proceed.  This is not tiddlywinks.

By the way, the Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton Administrations were also filled with "un-Catholic" acts, albeit only John Kennedy was baptized Catholic.  But then, there were plenty of Catholics who were in those administrations, too--right, Mr. Douthat?

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