Early voting has begun in Minnesota. Voting is an important component of representative government.  Those chosen for elected office are entrusted to make decisions that should protect the life and dignity of the human person from conception to natural death and advance the common good for all.

Politics, says Pope Francis, is one of the highest forms of charity because it serves the common good.  We should be grateful that courageous people step forward, sometimes at great personal sacrifice, to run for public office.  That said, it is a tremendous responsibility to be entrusted with the public good, and candidates for office should reflect on their role as one of service and not merely holding the reins of power. In other words, they are elected to do something, not to be someone.

Often, we are asked to clear up confusion about the right way to vote.  In many cases, however, we must be candid that those requests are less interested in hearing us enunciate the principles of the Church’s social teaching, but instead they hope we shame their friends, family and fellow parishioners into voting a certain way.  The Church, however, is principled; she is not partisan.

As Catholics apply the principles of the Church’s social doctrine, they will sometimes come to different conclusions about the best policy prescriptions or best candidates. Indeed, many Catholics have strong opinions about different candidates, and about which party will best improve the lives of Minnesotans.

Such differences reflect the judgment of people of goodwill and should be treated as such by fellow Catholics. It pains us to see Catholics fostering division among the body of Christ by calling into question the faithfulness of others who vote differently. We are all responsible for our moral choices, including voting, and we must do so in accordance with a well-formed conscience. On the day of judgment, we will all have to answer for how we formed our conscience and informed our vote.

Whenever the results of this election are determined, roughly half the country and half the state will be disappointed. Many will be deeply upset. Here again, the Church must be a voice of reconciliation. We can disagree, but we need not be disagreeable.

For the republic to stay together, we must see ourselves as friends and not as enemies. That has become increasingly difficult, but the Church can and should be a model to the whole community of both legitimate diversity and reconciliation.

Being Christ to one another should be our priority. We are Catholics first and foremost, not Americans of one political stripe or another. We should see all people through that lens and treat them accordingly. The citizenship to which we must be most faithful is the City of God, not the city of man.

Doing so is made easier by recognizing that politics cannot save us. We have one savior, and it is not an elected official or any group of them. It is Jesus Christ. Any time spent around legislators should help foster the detachment we propose — they are a cross-section of the population and suffer from original sin like the rest of us. “Put not your trust in princes . . .” (Psalm 146).

Holiness is indeed the best antidote to the troubled times in which we live. Imagine how many problems could be solved if more people sought to conform their lives to Christ and live by his Holy Spirit? Let it not be said that no saints emerged during this time. Grace surrounds us; it is up to us to respond.

Let us cultivate a proper detachment from electoral results. We must keep our eyes fixed on loving God and our neighbor, thus fulfilling our responsibility as citizens of the heavenly city.

Jason Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Top photo: People fill out their ballots at an early voting site in Arlington, Va., Sept. 18, 2020. (CNS photo/Al Drago, Reuters)

ACTION ALERT

Visit the Minnesota Catholic Conference election resources page at www.MNCatholic.org/election. There you will find resources to help you form your conscience, inform your vote, and transform our state including: documents from the USCCB on faithful citizenship, tools to find out what is on your ballot, where/how to cast your ballot, and more.

The post Jason Adkins: Citizens of the Heavenly City appeared first on The Central Minnesota Catholic.

Single parents are now the sole providers of both their family’s income and children’s education. Low-income families, which already endure economic hardships, face uncertainty in a difficult job market. COVID-19 has accentuated the crisis of family instability, apparent in high rates of divorce and rising rates of single parenthood, and perpetuated by a societal disinterest in the success of the family as a community.

To combat this crisis, we must look to policy examples that strengthen families, like changes recently enacted in Hungary, which led to higher rates of marriage, lower rates of divorce and a drop in abortions. In a world shaken by change, we achieve stability and flourishing by empowering families to fulfill their purpose as communities of life and love.

The problem of broken families  

In his encyclical, “Familiaris Consortio,” Pope St. John Paul II reminds us of the family’s role as the foremost educator in society. He says, “The task of giving education is rooted in the primary vocation of married couples to participate in God’s creative activity: by begetting in love and for love a new person who has within himself or herself the vocation to growth and development, parents by that very fact take on the task of helping that person effectively to live a fully human life.”

Family formation is essential to the well-being of children, but not all receive this formation in its entirety. Almost a quarter of children in the United States live in a single-parent household. These children are more likely to commit suicide, become drug dependent and perform below their peers in school.

In fact, while reading proficiency disparities exist among students of different races and ethnicities in Minnesota, research indicates that, for certain grades, the percentage of students proficient in reading matches almost identically to the percentage of two-parent households in each category. A child’s educational success cannot be accurately determined by race or ethnicity, but the data does show that children in two-parent households are more likely to succeed in school.

These disparities will only continue during COVID-19 as single parents, who relied on the school system, must now educate, supervise and provide for their children all day. This is even more difficult for the 24% of single-parent households that live below the poverty line in Minnesota, compared to the 4% of impoverished households with married couples.

The most effective welfare mechanism is two married parents in a household. Marriage serves the good of the family, fosters the formation of children, and is essential for a flourishing society. When a man and a woman discern marriage, both public policy and society should encourage, not inhibit, their decision.

The family and society connected

To strengthen society, lawmakers should look to policies that encourage marriage and support families, like what was enacted in Hungary following reform in 2010.

With a declining population and a suffering economy, Hungary enacted policies that focused on the family. It provided home-purchasing subsidies for families with children, decreased taxes owed by families with children and provided interest-free loans to married couples which they need not pay back after having three children.

It even codified its commitment to the family in its constitution, stating, “Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman established by voluntary decision, and the family as the basis of the nation’s survival.”

Hungary’s focus on families has led to marriages increasing by 84%, divorces decreasing by 29%, and abortions decreasing by one-third between 2010 and 2019.

By incentivizing marriage and supporting family stability, Hungary shows that family-focused policy makes a difference.

Recognizing the importance of marriage and the family unit will lead to a stable and flourishing society. The prosperity of society is tied to the health of each family, and by supporting public policy that upholds marriage and strengthens the family unit — the origin of development and virtue — we further the common good of all.

Jack Lawlis is Policy and Outreach Coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

ACTION ALERT
Tell Congress to Include Catholic Schools in COVID-19 Relief Funding

Catholic education helps nurture the faith of millions and lifts many from poverty. Unfortunately, many Catholic schools across the nation are in danger of closing due to the financial impacts of COVID-19.

Congress is negotiating the next phase of COVID-19 relief funding. The House passed the HEROES Act on May 15, and now the Senate is crafting its own version. This is important because the HEROES Act excludes almost all non-public school students from eligibility for its emergency services and rescinds much of the emergency relief for non-public schools that was enacted through the CARES Act.  As Catholic schools struggle financially because of the pandemic, ask your members of Congress to enact immediate aid to help students stay connected to their schools.

Visit www.MNCatholic.org/actioncenter or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your Members of Congress.

— Minnesota Catholic Conference

Photo: Bigstockphoto.com

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A quarter-century has passed, and attacks on life continue with alarming frequency. As each attack further darkens our society, we — the Church — must carry the light of life preached in Pope St. John Paul II’s “Gospel of Life.”

In solidarity with our neighbors and in service to the Church, we are called to proclaim the Gospel of life unceasingly in both word and action. We must ensure that neither civil law nor public opinion runs contrary to the truth embedded in the hearts of all people — that life at every stage is to be loved, cherished and respected.

Opposing the culture of death

Throughout “Evangelium Vitae,” Pope St. John Paul II compares the Gospel of life to the “culture of death.” While the Gospel of life affirms the dignity of each person, the culture of death denies human dignity. Failing to recognize each person’s intrinsic worth, the culture of death values individual persons inasmuch as they are deemed useful.

This judgment based on utility leads to “a war of the powerful against the weak.” The powerful discard the weak who are perceived to be a burden or useless — an act devoid of solidarity and a recognition of human worth. Such discarding is evident in abortion and physician-assisted suicide, wherein the victim is weak and the victim’s family does not serve its actual purpose as “the sanctuary of life.”

Pope St. John Paul II also cautioned that prenatal screenings be used only for legitimate medical purposes, and not as a tool in eugenics. Yet, in the United States, best estimates indicate that over two-thirds of children diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome are aborted. This tragedy reflects a culture that sees an atypical life as a burden rather than a gift.

The culture of death extends through the whole of life, especially with the threat of physician-assisted suicide. Pope St. John Paul II states that end-of-life decisions have the potential to be “marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation with efficiency and [which] sees the growing number of elderly and disabled people as intolerable and too burdensome.”

The culture of death has harmed our elderly community amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimates listing 81% of COVID-19 deaths as having occurred in Minnesota’s long-term care centers because recovering patients are sent there and then spread the virus in the community. The concentration of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes suggests that we’ve neglected the well-being of the elderly in Minnesota.

Proclaiming the Gospel of life          

As the culture of death darkens our society, we look to our Lord, the best example and light of the Gospel of life. As Pope St. John Paul II said, “Truly great must be the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!”

In humbling himself to come to us in human form and undergoing immense suffering for us in his Passion, Christ shows the inestimable value of human life: He ennobles it and challenges the belief that it be discarded because of its limitations, stage of development or usefulness.

We, too, can participate in Christ’s ennobling work. By supporting mothers and families during pregnancy, we affirm that life is a blessing, not a burden, and uphold the Gospel of life. By standing in solidarity with those receiving end-of-life care and supporting legislation that promotes legitimate improvements in end-of-life care, such as palliative care or hospice, we are visible witnesses to the Gospel of life.

Minnesotans also stand at the edge of a decision to support or condemn the culture of death, as bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide have been introduced in Minnesota’s Legislature every year since 2015. This legislation hasn’t passed, and we should ensure it doesn’t.

When we take “Evangelium Vitae” to the public square, we bring to light where the culture of death has seeped in and caused harm. In confronting this darkness with the light of the truth, that human life is valuable and must be protected at every stage and in every capacity, we become the visible and vocal reminders needed to turn hearts back to serve the good of all.

Jack Lawlis is Policy and Outreach Coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

ACTION ALERT

Religious Freedom Week: June 22-29

Religious Freedom Week begins June 22 on the Feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher. During this time join fellow Catholics to pray, reflect, and take action on religious liberty in the United States and abroad.

All people desire to know their Creator. All people have a natural impulse to seek the good and to live in accordance with that good. All people can flourish when they pursue the truth about God and respond to the truth. Religious freedom means that all people have the space to flourish. Religious freedom is both an American value and an important part of Catholic teaching on human dignity. When we promote religious freedom, we promote the common good and thus strengthen the life of our nation and the community of nations.

Learn more at www.usccb.org/ReligiousFreedomWeek!

— Minnesota Catholic Conference

The post Jack Lawlis: The enduring message of ‘The Gospel of Life’ appeared first on The Central Minnesota Catholic.

COVID-19 offers an opportunity to reflect on those principles and to consider how they apply in concrete circumstances to avoid discrimination. Those considerations underscore the importance of Catholic hospitals and Catholics, more generally, to witness to the broader community the best care practices that value human dignity and uphold the common good.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, 25 states have scarce resource policies and protocols for hospitals. These policies could potentially harm people because they may limit access to life-saving medical equipment such as ventilators.

States are using a patchwork of rationing protocols in hospitals: first come first serve (first to the hospital gets treated); a lottery (random selection sidesteps triage); categorical exclusions (age, disability, pre-existing conditions place you at the back of the line); resource intensity (less care if your care drains resources); and fair-innings (if you’re “late in the baseball game,” your resources are allocated to someone younger). Depending on the level of scarcity and patient need, each protocol can lead to discrimination.

A recent Hastings Center essay noted that Minnesota’s “resource intensity” model permits prioritization based on expected or documented length of need, either in the initial decision to allocate a scarce medical resource or in a later decision to re-allocate the resource.

Some might argue that this is appropriate because it does not imply an overt prejudice against people who are disabled. But, according to the author, this protocol can slide into less obvious forms of discrimination when categorical exclusions creep back in and inform an unspoken rationing policy.

Avoiding discrimination and bias

The problem of health care rationing reveals biases based on a medicalized view of disability and older age which can place less value on such lives compared with younger or able-bodied persons.

Catholic bioethicist Charles Camosy has recently warned, “If rationing arrives, we must stand up unambiguously for the marginalized and vulnerable, the elderly and disabled, lest what Pope Francis has decried as the modern throwaway culture deems them expendable.” Resource scarcity shouldn’t be a driver that overtly devalues certain persons and the dignity of their lives.

Health care decisions must be made primarily on clinical factors such as the patient’s condition and his or her ability to respond to certain forms of treatment. Disability and age should not be used as categorical exclusions when deciding the allocation of scarce resources like ventilators.

Furthermore, if we ask caregivers to balance an individual patient’s “quality of life” possibilities against the medical needs of everyone else, there’s a greater risk of bias and discrimination. To avoid this, the federal government should issue national triage protocols based on sound principles to make certain that care is allocated in a fair and equitable manner that doesn’t discriminate.

To prevent unjust discrimination, organizations such as the Catholic Health Association and National Catholic Bioethics Center have outlined sound principles for providers to address these challenges during a pandemic. And the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services” from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ensure Catholic hospitals follow appropriate principles and ethical norms.

Cautionary tale

Ultimately, COVID-19 hospital care is a cautionary tale for other issues. We should support a consistent ethic of life where care is based on the dignity of the human person and not their perceived “value” to others. Rationing often works against this idea in the same way as physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which has been justified on similar discriminatory grounds, that is, that life can be ended when it’s thought to no longer have meaning or purpose.

Just like with PAS, however, the current pandemic is a powerful reminder that we ought to more fully support better forms of care, such as palliative and hospice care. There is an urgency to create holistic care models that support the medical needs of all people.

Lynn Varco is a member of the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, an advocacy partner of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. The views represented here are solely the author’s own.

ACTION ALERT
Join the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare

The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare is a diverse coalition of doctors, nurses, advocates for persons with disabilities, medical ethicists, faith-based organizations and others committed to ensuring real care throughout life’s journey. We believe that Minnesota should always prioritize care rather than hasten death.

To join the alliance as an individual or organization, join the mailing list for regular email updates, or send a message to your legislators opposing assisted suicide, visit www.ethicalcaremn.org/take-action.

— Minnesota Catholic Conference

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In that moving homily, Pope Francis invited us during this long Lent to convert and to hope in the Lord. In doing so, we turn away from sin and live in solidarity with others.

Already, we see in this coronavirus crisis creative models of hope and solidarity, even in the political realm. Here in Minnesota, state legislators have worked collaboratively to put aside differences and pass legislation to help those who are working on the front lines to address the coronavirus and those most vulnerable to its effects: health care workers, the unemployed, the disabled, the elderly, and the homeless.

God willing, we will be able to contain this virus and rebuild together. But we must take this opportunity to continue to build on a foundation of solidarity and human dignity. Much, including our politics, cannot go back to the way it was before. It is, as Pope Francis says, a time for choosing.

True and false choice

The slogan “my body, my choice” is dead. Coronavirus killed it. This pandemic has made clear that, like with all our choices, what we do with our bodies and the spaces we occupy with them have an impact on others. And, in a global village, we are all connected.

So much of modern life is driven by an ethic of consumption, in which we demand a plethora of choices to satisfy needs, both real and perceived, and expect instant gratification. Yet, we cannot structure a healthy society around the maximization of consumer choice and the ongoing liberation of the willing self.

In fact, our political culture is so bereft of a sense of solidarity and the common good that decades of financial deregulation, the re-working of other regulatory structures to favor big business and political insiders, and the disintegration of civil society and traditional social norms have led us to a place where the solution to a major crisis is the erection of a police state and the printing of fiat money.

We have ourselves to blame for bringing the consumer culture to politics. Increasingly, citizens view legislators as consumer-satisfaction agents, who are responsible for giving them what they want, regardless of its effect on others or the harm it may do to themselves — more legal forms of gambling, recreational marijuana, even assisted suicide. The mere fact that someone wants a certain type of legislation allegedly gives it legitimacy.

This “get mine” ethos of our political life is the enemy of solidarity. It sees the good as essentially private, locating it in one’s own satisfaction. It fails to see us living within a fabric of relationships, where we find both our happiness and our well-being.

Coronavirus could help us recalibrate and re-evaluate our relationships — familial, social, ecclesial and economic. We thought we were independent so long as the global supply chain worked. But what happens when it does not? Who can we lean on then? Can we afford to not be in right relationship with those around us?

It is a time for choosing.

Choosing a politics of solidarity

This fall, Americans will go to the polls to elect new legislators and officials. Perfect candidates don’t exist, and we will always disagree with each one on some issues. But we must identify real leaders who are focused on fostering a society of right relationships, and who promote solidarity with the unborn, the disabled, the economically disenfranchised and the vulnerable, rather than choose those who cater to what they believe is the latest desire of 51 percent of political consumers.

We cannot become ambivalent or discouraged by what seem like the limitations of the moment. We must embrace the hope that we can build stronger solidarity — solidarity that starts in our homes and communities but that is reflected in our political choices.

Pope Francis concluded his March 27 homily as follow: “Embracing his cross means … finding the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity and solidarity. By his cross we have been saved in order to embrace hope and let it strengthen and sustain all measures and all possible avenues for helping us protect ourselves and others. Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope.”

Jason Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

 Action Alert

Catholic schools have endured numerous costs in helping to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including transitioning to alternative learning platforms and additional sanitation measures.  As the federal government provides education stabilization assistance to all schools, and the state considers its own forms of COVID-19 assistance, nonpublic schools need to be included.

As Catholic schools played their role in responding to closure rules and guidance from the state, they should also be part of aid packages to mitigate those costs.

Call legislative leaders and Gov. Walz and ask them to treat nonpublic schools equitably in COVID education assistance programs.

Governor Tim Walz: (651) 201-3400
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka: (651) 296-4875
Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent: (651) 296-4166
Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman: (651) 296-4280
House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt: (651) 296-5364

— Minnesota Catholic Conference

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The Minnesota Catholic Conference opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana as a threat to the flourishing of individual persons — particularly, the young, the poor and those who struggle with either substance abuse or mental health challenges.

A spirit of solidarity requires that we reject the wishes of the small segment of the population that has the means to address the consequences of frequent marijuana use, and instead promote the common good.

Forsaking the other for oneself

Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana has prompted an increase in marijuana use accompanied by declines in mental and bodily health. People of color, youth and the poor have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana legalization. Since its decision to legalize marijuana in 2012, the state has experienced an increase in traffic accidents and deaths, a higher prevalence of marijuana in toxicology screenings of youth suicides, and rising rates of arrests for underage marijuana possession among Hispanic and African American youth.

Research conducted on Colorado comprises only a small portion of the literature detailing the impact of recreational marijuana across the United States. Publications link marijuana use with cognitive impairment, lung damage and an increased risk of psychotic disorders (among other concerns).

Physical ailments and increases in traffic accidents and mental illnesses can lead to expensive medical bills (shouldered by the individual or the taxpayer), higher care insurance rates, traffic fines and fees, and costs associated with mental health treatment such as medication and counseling.

For instance, residents of Colorado experienced an average increase of $200 in their auto premiums in the year following the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana. These financial burdens especially harm the poor, who may struggle to finance basic expenses, and cannot afford these unanticipated costs. Marijuana legalization increases financial costs for all of society.

Some of Minnesota’s transportation leaders have urged lawmakers to “hit the brakes” on marijuana legalization. Citing concerns such as increases in impaired driving and traffic deaths following marijuana legalization, they joined a growing number of community advocates and authorities opposing the drug’s legalization, including Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Smart Approaches to Marijuana-Minnesota.

Despite the data nationwide, proponents continue to push for legalization — allowing a desire for temporary enjoyment to supersede the well-being of their friends, family and neighbors. They argue that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol — and while that may be true from the vantage point of addictive properties — it is proved false by many other vantage points. Why would we legalize yet another drug that has a multitude of harmful effects?

A willingness to pursue the object of one’s desires, and fallen ones at that, at the expense of the common good is characteristic of a society fallen victim to individualism, and a result of sin’s influence on the principles of solidarity, causing us to forget one another in the pursuit of material goods (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1849).

To forsake oneself for another

In his encyclical “Laudato si’,” Pope Francis reminds us that a forgetfulness of self is essential to living out our call to charity and solidarity. The pontiff says: “We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other.… Disinterested concern for others, and the rejection of every form of self-centeredness and self-absorption, are essential if we truly wish to care for our brothers and sisters and for the natural environment” (208).

By realizing this truth, we remove selfish vices, such as drug use, that harm ourselves and those around us and replace them with acts of self-sacrificial love. Embracing this perspective is necessary when making decisions that further the common good.

Legalizing recreational marijuana is fundamentally a deliberation between individual desires and serving the common good. Attachment to a vice should never triumph over the wellbeing of the poor and vulnerable.

If Minnesota chooses to legalize recreational marijuana despite the overwhelming evidence and advocacy to the contrary, will we regret the decision in years to come? Very likely, yes.

As Catholics, we’re called to correct injustices as they persist in the social order, and to use our position as faithful citizens to protect the poor and vulnerable. The political process is a vehicle for that missionary discipleship, and as the legislative session continues, we must avoid the errors of other states by ensuring that harmful policy is not enacted as a result of selfish interests.

Jack Lawlis is policy and outreach coordinator at the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

ACTION ALERT:

Ask your legislators to oppose the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Visit MNCatholic.org/actioncenter to learn who represents you, or call the House of Representative (651-296-2146) or the Senate (651-296-0504) to tell them that you oppose recreational marijuana legalization in Minnesota.

— Minnesota Catholic Conference

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