A Debate between Two Catholics
October 11, 2012
IN THIS article at the Washington Post, Maria Mazzenga, a scholar at Catholic University, is quoted regarding tonight’s vice-presidential debate. Both Biden and Ryan, as everyone knows, consider themselves Catholic. Heading off the glaring fact that one of these men is clearly anti-Catholic, Mazzenga says neither man follows Catholic teaching perfectly.
Of course, Biden, we well know, openly opposes Catholic morality in his support for abortion, same-sex marriage, and federally mandated contraception coverage. Thus, putting aside his support for socialist programs, he cannot be considered anything but a nominal Catholic, for all his sentimental evocations of his Catholic childhood.
But Mazzenga claims that Paul Ryan does not follow Catholic teaching either. The article suggests that his failure lies in his proposals to cut federal entitlements. This is the sort of lie you often hear from academics in Catholic institutions after 50 years of the nonstop invasion of Marxist ideology into the Church. There is nothing in the Catholic Magisterium that calls for political collectivism or mandates forced charity. Socialism is not Catholic.
Ryan was at one time an enthusiastic follower of Ayn Rand, whose libertarian views are radically opposed to Catholic morality, and he still claims he was heavily influenced by Rand. However, Ryan’s proposals for cutting federal programs do not express a Randian extreme. His free trade positions arguably do.These latter are, judging from this article, not what Mazzenga had in mind.
