The Pope says both Candidates Have Flaws


How are Catholics to decide? The Pope says one will turn away children at the border. The other supports "murder" by abortion. He refused to advise Catholics on which candidate they should vote for.

As the Pope well knows, the majority of Catholics ignore advice from the Vatican. Nearly all practice unapproved forms of birth control. The majority votes with the Democratic Party instead of the Republican Party which has a history of anti-abortion. The Republican Party has traditionally opposed government help for the low income. 

Certainly, there are Catholic clergy beating their chests about the importance of their own views on politics. Plenty of Protestant preachers do the same. Standing in front of people behind a pulpit seems to affect some people's brains giving them an elevated sense of importance. Mostly, the Pope has done a good job stressing the role of clergy as helpers of those in the pews, not political advisors. Perhaps by not endorsing he himself is trying to avoid the role of the self-important.

One thing we can say for certain is that when to Pope uses the term "murder" when referring to abortion he is moving forward the death of the Catholic denomination. Knowledge that a.) pregnancy itself endangers the life of the mother and b.) there never has been and never will be a way to reduce, let alone eliminate, abortion. So far as we know, the number of abortions remains about the same whether it is against the law or not. A better approach by a Pope is to acknowledge the "tradition of his denomination" has been to oppose abortion, He should then drop the topic. 

While there must be a significant amount of money that comes into the Vatican based solely on anti abortion, it is also the ticket to a failed denomination. If the only people that ultimately remain are the staunch anti abortion zealots, the Vatican will go broke.

I think one thing will be resolved in this election. It is that abortion rights will remain in most areas of the U.S. Once that is clearly the case, Popes and the anti abortion non-profits will adjust and tone down their militancy. This will be good for our country.    

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