Can a Catholic Bishop in the United States run for President?

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Elizium23 said:
I just researched Roe v. Wade, and it is rather remarkable that Kennedy’s sole pick in the makeup of that Court was a dissenting opinion in the case. The majority of the Court was Nixonian. So we can’t blame JFK for the abortion troubles, but his kinfolk were encouraged and exhorted in 1964 by Church leaders to support Population Control in good conscience. Jack rolls in his grave to this day.
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I followed your link because I was so shocked by the idea. When you say “Church leaders” like that I think, and I think most people would think, you mean the bishops. In fact the article talked about a small group of “leading theologians and Catholic college professors.” Specifically it mentions a “former Jesuit priest” who wrote that he and five other priests met with the Kennedys and Shrivers to work out ways a Catholic could support pro-abortion legislation, though they disagreed on many particulars. Calling such a group “Church leaders” creates entirely unnecessary scandal, in my opinion.
 
The true Church leaders have consented with silence for 50 years. Are you saying that all the Kennedy priests were breaking their promises of obedience? What about Canon 915 for all these years? How well was Humanae Vitae communicated to the faithful and politicians by those Church leaders?

The real scandal is ongoing, has existed for quite some time, and is not mine. I am conveying the truth of the situation.

The Catholic politicians are still receiving the Eucharist, and the Nuns are still on the Bus, out of habits and into vows. Meanwhile there’s a little “doctrinal assessment” and a toothless reprimand from HE +Burke. Where is the real action?
 
TEPO said:
What about: "§2 They are not to play an active role in political parties or in directing trade unions … the only way to figure out the judgment of the ecclesiastical authority would be for a Bishop to go ahead and run for president …
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That’s Canon 287, by the way. Running for office may be one form of “playing an active role in political parties,” but it is certainly not the only form. Can. 285 rules out running for office, ergo, bishops cannot run for president.
 
The Jesuit priest who was elected to Congress and was re-elected four times, consistently voted pro-abortion.
 
Ad_Orientem said:
That’s Canon 287, by the way. Running for office may be one form of “playing an active role in political parties,” but it is certainly not the only form. Can. 285 rules out running for office, ergo, bishops cannot run for president.
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As far as I know, only two countries have Catholic clergy as head of state - the Vatican and Andorra.

Andorra is a monarchy with two co-princes - the president of France (Francois Hollande) and the bishop of Urgell in Spain (Archbishop Joan Enric Vives i Sicilia). They’re not elected, and whoever is the current president/bishop is co-prince of Andorra. I imagine that exempts them from Canon 285 etc.

Having a bishop run for US president would be amusing. He’d get very few votes, and the press would be up in arms about how he’d abolish abortion, and the Adventists and similar groups would think the end of the world had come and the bishop was going to persecute them by forcing them to rest two days a week instead of one.

Any bishop who succeeds in politics I imagine would have to have made many moral compromises. I have a very low view of government leaders. However, since evil finds a protective hiding place in religion, I imagine that there would be several bishops capable of that.
 
JimG said:
The Jesuit priest who was elected to Congress and was re-elected four times, consistently voted pro-abortion.
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Drinan forced John Paul II’s hand in officially banning the clergy from politics in 1980 or they could renounce their priestly vocation. Drinan’s pro-abortion stance influenced the Kennedys and he was blatantly going against official church doctrine of Humane Vitae. Drinan did a lot of damage. He did end up not seeking another term once JP II issued the ban.
 
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