Candidate Paul Ryan: Is he a bad Catholic?
Tags
Related Posts
About the author
The reaction I am most awaiting to Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate hasn’t come in yet: What say you, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops?
I know that the bishops aren’t exactly in the candidate-endorsing business. But Romney’s selection of Ryan puts the national body in an interesting and difficult position. Ryan is a guy who has specifically tried to link his major policy initiatives to his understanding of his Catholic faith. And in some serious detail.
In some narrow cases, like Ryan’s unwavering opposition to abortion, there’s zero space between his position and the unambiguous official Catholic stance. But on his broadest policy idea — a dramatic restructuring of the federal budget — there’s already been a powerful set of broadsides. Leaving Ryan taking on water.
And if Romney wants to describe Ryan on the campaign trail as a “faithful Catholic,” the bishops might feel theologically obligated to disagree.
If you’ve forgotten the exchange from the distant political past of about five months ago, here’s the recap:
Ryan released his ideas for how the federal budget should be transformed, including major shifts in social services spending and the way that Medicare operates. He went on with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network to explain in some detail how his ideas comport with Catholic teachings:
“A person’s faith is central to how they conduct themselves in public and in private. So to me, using my Catholic faith, we call it the social magisterium, which is how do you apply the doctrine of your teaching into your everyday life as a lay person?” [more]
SOURCE
Leave a Comment
Photo Archive
-
May 24, 2013 7:00
Historic vote to accept gays as Boy Scouts draws mixed faith response
-
May 24, 2013 6:55
Faith-Healing Churches linked to 2 dozen child deaths
-
May 24, 2013 6:51
Clergy campaign for indigent care
-
May 24, 2013 6:46
Five more come forward alleging abuse by Hawaii Catholic priests
-
May 23, 2013 1:58
Religious freedom reports see little improvement in troubling countries
-
May 23, 2013 1:43
LGBT Catholics find a new supporter: An openly gay priest
-
May 22, 2013 1:37
Tornadoes exact deadly toll; region needs ‘a lot of prayers right now’
-
May 22, 2013 1:32
State Dept. report says countries have repressed religious freedom with laws
-
May 22, 2013 1:23
2 lawsuits filed against Maine Catholic church
-
May 21, 2013 1:32
Church Whistle-Blowers Join Forces on Abuse
33 Comments
Jeffrey Weiss, RealClearReligion columnist and author of the article is obviously baiting the right by implying Ryan claims to speak for the Catholic Church. I have never heard Paul Ryan make any such claim, nor should he. Weiss also claims the Catholic Bishops are criticizing Ryan for his positions that oppose those of the Church. What positions? Weiss doesn’t say, merely implies. Ryan’s and Romney’s plans are to create a stronger economy and more jobs so people can do for themselves. This is NOT dissension from Catholic Teaching. Taxing working Americans to give very generous amounts to those that CHOOSE not to work and make them more dependent upon Government handouts is against Catholic Teaching as it is wasteful use of valuable resources, tantamount to buying votes (giving handouts only to Friends of the President [Are you a "Friend?"]), and is unethical. There have been false claims of Ryan wanting to cut this or cut that which will result in harming the most vulnerable among us. BULL! Is it immoral to expect those that can work to do work? We should critically assess BOTH sides and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance over the next few days as we cast our votes.
No Paul Ryan is not a bad Catholic.
Pope Dennis has proclaimed, ex-cathedra, that Ryan is not Catholic and that he is. Another arrogant statement from a liberal who can’t stand someone disagreeing with his way of thinking. When I was in college, I would try to have rational discussions with liberals, instead, everytime I would issue a conservative statement my opponent(s) would foam at the mouth, shout and scream to the extent that I couldn’t get another word in. I would give up because reason wasn’t there, only emotions based on biased thinking. Sorry (Anti)Pope Dennis. Your proclomations as well as your harem of LCWR do little to threaten me. As for Ryan, I believe that he’s a great Catholic who knows Catholic principles better than Biden or Polsi ever will. It takes more to being a Catholic than wearing Ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday like Biden did. Oh, as he said when Obama was signing the heath care bill, ” this is F$#%^%# big. Good Catholic, huh!
Obama and his “gimme gang” now realize that they have been “shown the door” by the American electorate, and this writer’s “sour grapes” article here demonstrates how pathetically they are grasping to disavow the truth. The latest polls actually show that the opposite is true than what this guy prophesies in his article — the Catholic swing voters are actually turning tri-fold unto the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan ticket and not the other way around.
I hope you’re right, Recovering, but unfortunately I saw a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (one of the few papers that does not spew liberal propaganda) that looked at the battleground states, where the election is won or lost — and unfortunatly, Obama was beating Romney in most of them. I hope America wakes up before it is too late.
Nice of you to open the door to name calling with “gimme gang”.
Obviously you still have a long way to go in your recovery.
Where do you get your numbers?
My faith in my fellow Roman Catholics leaves no doubt in my mind they will strongly favor Obama.
I was surprised to find an article about a faithful practicing Catholic like Ryan to be so obviously bias. We are going broke and that should be obvious to everyone including those poor religious sisters (and I am a lay religious myself) who have become political tools for the reelection of a pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage president who is trying to destroy our Church and religious freedom. May our good Lord have mercy on us and open our eyes and heart to Him and the truth. We must take care of the poor but Obama’s policies are most likely to create more poor than to really help them as time goes on.
Please give me your definition of Catholic.
Have you ever thought about increasing taxes on those that can afford it to help the poor and disabled.
It appears that even in a supposedly civil discourse, one can only argue by name calling and questioning the faith of individuals. The real fault lies in the abdication by the Church to allow the editorial pages of the media to instruct people on what their moral values and obligations should be. When was the last time that anyone heard a homily on subsidiarity in church or anything to do with morality for that matter? Once again, we pass the buck to care for the needy because of our own moral failings or laziness(?)Is this a good excuse for inertia? The Catholic Church has been a leader for years in charitable causes. It is only recently that its scope has been limited and unfortunately that has been because of government interference. Paul Ryan is a man of integrity, intelligence and pure guts. He is a breath of fresh air and is not afraid to articulate his values and convictions. He is not led by emotional warm fuzziness that is so prevalent in this society. Let’s get the problems solved. There are enough so-called Catholics who are not strongly catechized in the Faith to spend some time arguing about and critiquing. Let’s put the spotlight on them instead. Go Paul!!!
Will the real Catholics on this site please stand up.
Since you are so knowledgeable about Paul Ryan please explain to me how you can follow Ayn Rand’s teachings (Objectivism) and the Bible. The are antiethical. What is good in the Bible is evil in Objectivism and what is evil in the Bible is good in Objectivism.
The only thing they agree on is they are both against war.
Ryan is a chicken hawk (that is not name calling) it is a phrase to describe someone that is willing to send others to war but not from their family. Mitt has five sons with no military service.
Dennis, Cn you define in your words what a “real” Catholic is?
One would hope that posts on this website would be measured and not abusive. Regarding Ryan,he mentions subsidiarity as a justification for his budget and although most won’t understand it (including in my opinion the bishops) what it means is that taking care of the poor should be done at the most local level possible i.e. personally, by the family, by the parish, by the town, by the county, by the state and lastly by the feds. What Ryan is proposing is that his budget will improve the economy to the point where these unfortunates will be able find a job and thus take care of themselves. If we continue on the path of unlimited government providing everything to everyone, the country will sink under its own debt. Jesus did not say “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s so Caesar can take care of the poor.” His solution was for the individual to love his/her neighbor. Ryan’s a hero.
I agree with civility but I see BS used a lot. Thus I responded in kind to “dennis”.
Same question to you:
Do you consider your self Catholic?
Dave, Yes the solution apears to be love thy neighbour as yourself. However we have failed miserably to do just that in North America, forcing governments to take over where we have been amiss. People have become selfish..worried about how a few extra dollars taken from our pocket books to help suport the less fortunate will lead to not having enough. we worry about financial loss but fail to be concerned about our moral bankrupcy. If only we had been willing to live out Christ’s mandate there would be no need to have governments perform the works of mercy on our behalf.
Ryan is a great Catholic..We should all lead by his example..If he does not balance the budget, fix S/S, Medicare
We will all be broke and will not be able to help the poor..Anyone notice were going bankrupt ?
Thanks for your comment Dennis. Your right ……bs
Obviously our definitions of Catholic are different.
I’m curious do you think you are Catholic by any definition.
Lol @ DENNIS
Tony, your views on who or what is catholic are for the birds….bs!
Hey dumb ass look up Objectivism and Ayn Rand.
The Bishops will come out against Ryan – again.
The Nuns are out of t-shirts but you can still make donations. Must be a big demand.
It is my openion that the Ryan budget is the only one presented. No other politician has presented a plan of action as they are so concerned about offending someone or some group and loosing votes. The united States is in some horrible financial trouble and congress keeps kicking the can up the street and so hope it will go away. Congress refused to address the illegal- people coming into our country daily and as the nuns and Bishops want to care for them and the few working people have to pay the bill. The middle class today are the working poor and exist from pay check to pay ckeck. They are standing in a pool of water on their toes, the water is under their noses and you pray that no-one makes any waves. The Obama administration want our country to be a totally socialist country and the federal goverment will take care of all of us.
Jospeh Francis, just as a Catholic must vote a Catholic line regarding abortion and sexual issues, so too should he vote for Catholic Social Justice issues. We can’t have cafeteria Catholic calling themselves Catholic.
Some look at Pelosi and Biden as traitors to the Catholic Line, so too, by his budget, Ryan is a traitor to the Catholic Line.
We can’t have it both ways.
I respectfully disagree. Paul Ryan has the intelligence, training and guts to do what needs to be done to keep this Country from heading down the toilet.
Apparently you have sound understanding of economics and the way the economy works.
Well you are in luck because I happen to be a retired economist.
In 25 words or less how does Ryan’s budget save us.
Dennis — are you familiar with what Harry Truman said about economists?
There are dozens of economist jokes. There is even a web site devoted to economist jokes. Here is one you might like.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Mark Twain said it but he attributed it to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
Another one you might like is: if you put a dozen economists in a room you will get a dozen different answers.
But the one you want is:
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, On the one hand on the other.
Also, Dennis, I issue the same challenge to you — can you, in 25 words or less, summarize the position of ALL economists with respect to Ryan’s budget proposal? Of course you can’t, as there is a great diversity of opinion among economists about any economic issue. So, you have your opinion, and I have mine. I could care less that you have training in economics; well, more correctly, that makes it more likely that you are wrong, as 95% of university professors are arrogant liberal whackos who were brainwashed by the preceding generation of arrogant liberal whacko professors. Why are those with degrees, and especially the professors, so arrogant? Because they think they are smarter than everyone else. In my experience, people without high school diplomas are, at times, much wiser than those with doctoral degrees.
You can’t fix stupid.
Don’t let the facts stand in your way.
That is an easy question. ALL economists never agree on anything.
There you go, Dennis — so, who cares that you are an economist? That means nothing, as I could bring some other economist here to dispute you. So, you’ll have to rely on the force of your arguments if you want to sway people like me.
I have no trouble with that and would be happy discuss any subject I know something about.
I have no desire to sway anybody.
I just get a kick out of such mindless babble.
Truth be told, that makes two of us. I didn’t come to this blog for entertainment, but it has turned into entertainment for me.
By the way, you are the only one so far with the guts to respond to my posts.
I like you for that.
Because of his budget, we can say that Ryan does not follow the Social Teaching of the church and in that regard may be considered a dissenter from Catholic Teaching.
One wonders if there might be a Vatican investigation into the morality of this layman, and an investigation into what he says and does as there was to the Sisters?
Because of his immoral budget might we consider him a heritic, a vipor a dog? As some on this Site would consider the Sisters. While he may have spoken out for the embryo in the womb he has cone against the Social teaching of the church. Leaving one to wonder if he should even be considered a Catholic.
Excellent.
I am a Catholic – Ryan is not.
Go NUNS!!!