USCCB and politics

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Loud-living-dogma

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This is for Catholics who live in the USA:

Are we required to accept all the political comments and teachings of the USCCB? Sometimes I think they are correct, sometimes I am not so sure.
Do their pronouncements have the weight of the Vatican behind them? Are they required dogma? Why are they qualified to speak on political / economic matters? Is it a sin to disagree with their political statements?
 
Why are they allowed to speak on the political issue of abortion?

Because they think it has to do with morality.
 
I tend to separate my faith from what I think the US government should or shouldn’t be doing. Might not be right, might be something I have to answer to God for one day, but there’s a lot of things that I know the church teaches but I don’t think is viable policy for a secular government.
 
No, but we should respect their opinions and treat them for what they are- the pastoral guidance of a group of good, wise, experienced clerics.

They are qualified to speak on issues the same way any priest can speak on issues- by virtue of their pastoral ministry.

As long as their political statements are elaborations upon church doctrine, as opposed to pure restatements of church doctrine, yes you can disagree.

example- bishop a says abortion is against church teaching. you have to agree.
bishop b says that the Federal government shoul give amnesty to all illegal immigrants in the US. you do not have to agree.
 
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Church teaching itself we pretty much have to agree. Many times, however, the bishops are applying Church teaching to specific situations. In those cases, you many times won’t have to agree (it depends on the situation). The bishops have advanced degrees in theology and canon law though. Because of this, even when we at first disagree, we should make our best effort to understand what they are saying and believe it. We might still disagree, but we owe a certain filial piety to our priests and bishops. Their words carry more weight than the words of lay Catholics. This doesn’t mean they are always right, just that we should give them a certain respect, taking the time to study what they have said and only disagree when we have done our best to agree.
 
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I think the subjects that leave you most inclined to say “What do they know anyway? Why are they speaking out about politics?” are the topics you most need to question yourself about. Why do you think they’re right about abortion but wrong on migration? Are you truly taking a Catholic worldview on these issues?
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
  1. Are we required to accept all the political comments and teachings of the USCCB?..
  2. Do their pronouncements have the weight of the Vatican behind them?
  3. Are they required dogma?
  4. Why are they qualified to speak on political / economic matters?
  5. Is it a sin to disagree with their political statements?
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You asked 5 questions! The correct answers to 1, 2, 3, and 5 are no, technically. You need to look up the word dogma. I won’t even ask what “the weight of the Vatican” means.

Why do bishops feel qualified to speak on politics? Because they think some political issues have moral factors. They are correct, although Christians can disagree on most political issues.
 
From the perspective of assent, nothing from the USCCB has any weight unless your own bishop makes it his own. Then, if he does, the usual principles of interpretation apply–what kind of assent does the bishop intend it to have? Is he merely offering it for consideration or does he expect his entire flock to internalize it? In any event, the assent would never be the absolute, unconditional assent of faith.

The CCC explains when the Church, in the person of her bishops, may pass judgments on political matters:
2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen."52

2246 It is a part of the Church’s mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."53
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PaulfromIowa said:
Why do bishops feel qualified to speak on politics? Because they think some political issues have moral factors. They are correct, although Christians can disagree on most political issues.
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I have always strongly opposed the involvement of the clergy in political issues, and one of my primary reasons for doing so is the confusion it creates between political and moral choices.

While it is true that a very small number of political issues also raise moral concerns, it is equally apparent that most do not, despite what is claimed. Abortion is a moral issue. It deals with an intrinsic evil and the church has very specific doctrines against it. Immigration is not a moral issue because it doesn’t deal with intrinsic evils and the the church has only general guidelines. That is, there is no mainline position from either side that cannot legitimately be supported.

As to the question of whether we must assent to a bishop’s prudential, political opinion, the short answer is no.

Since the Christian revelation tells us nothing about the particulars of contemporary society, the Pope and the bishops have to rely on their personal judgment as qualified spiritual leaders in making practical applications. Their prudential judgment, while it is to be respected, is not a matter of binding Catholic doctrine. To differ from such a judgment, therefore, is not to dissent from Church teaching. (Cardinal Dulles)
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
Do their pronouncements have the weight of the Vatican behind them? Are they required dogma? Why are they qualified to speak on political / economic matters? Is it a sin to disagree with their political statements?
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It really doesn’t matter if the Vatican agrees with them or not. You are not required to blindly follow their politics or anyone else’s politics, especially when they don’t do their homework and rely on logical fallacies like appeal to authority.

There is no room for fallacious arguments in the Catholic Church.
 
I suggest a middle ground on this is usually the best way to go, such as paying close attention to what the bishops say that may involve the application of the church’s teachings into the political realm, but not to the point of a blind following.

However, with that being said, which group of people is in a better position to weigh in with morality than the bishops here in the States and elsewhere within conjunction with the Pope? If I disagree with them and the Pope, for example, am I really listening to what they teach or am I just spouting maybe my own political partisanship derived from non-church sources? Do I more believe in what the church is teaching me or am I more following the dictates of the talking heads of the news commentators? IOW, where’s my disagreement really coming from?
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
This is for Catholics who live in the USA:

Are we required to accept all the political comments and teachings of the USCCB? Sometimes I think they are correct, sometimes I am not so sure.
Do their pronouncements have the weight of the Vatican behind them? Are they required dogma? Why are they qualified to speak on political / economic matters? Is it a sin to disagree with their political statements?
Click to expand...
Sounds like you don’t like something they said. Would you care to tell us what that is, or do you just want broad and general responses?
 
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Metis1 said:
Do I more believe in what the church is teaching me or am I more following the dictates of the talking heads of the news commentators?
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Ironically, I find most people who go against what some Christian leaders say on immigration, climate change ect. that they are thinking critically.
Metis1 said:
am I just spouting maybe my own political partisanship derived from non-church sources?
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An important reflection nonetheless.
 
I would suggest that if some think that the Pope and the bishops are really just full of hot air and know so little about what they’re talking about in the realm of science and politics, are they really observing Catholicism or are they really just practicing Me-ism?

For example, ever read Pope Francis’ “Encyclical On Climate Change & Inequality”? D’ya think he’s just blowing smoke? maybe he’s a fool when it comes to science?

I don’t think so, and I read the book and went to a 4-week seminar on it last year.
 
Go by the merits of the arguments themselves not by the people making them or what medium they come in. That’s what having a conscience is all about.
 
Metis1 said:
However, with that being said, which group of people is in a better position to weigh in with morality than the bishops here in the States and elsewhere within conjunction with the Pope?
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How does one “weigh in with morality” on prudential questions that don’t involve moral choices? The point that gets lost in these discussions is that only a literal handful of political issues also include a moral component, while most of the issues the bishops speak out on do not.
If I disagree with them and the Pope, for example, am I really listening to what they teach or am I just spouting maybe my own political partisanship derived from non-church sources?
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The church in most instances only gives general objectives; there are no church sources that provide any guidance at all on the specific policies that should be implemented to achieve those ends. Since the pope and bishops are only giving their personal political opinions I have no obligation to substitute theirs for my own.
Do I more believe in what the church is teaching me or am I more following the dictates of the talking heads of the news commentators? IOW, where’s my disagreement really coming from?
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This is another of my major objections to the involvement of the clergy in politics: they blur the distinction between “what the church is teaching” and the political opinions of the clergy.

The church teaches us nothing whatever about whether we should build a wall along the border, about where the minimum wage should be set, about which social programs should be expanded or eliminated, or whether AGW is real or not, and it is unfortunate that individual bishops have expressed opinions on these subjects because it misleads any number of Catholics into believe the positions the bishops have expressed are more moral than the contrary positions they oppose.
 
And yet, the Pope is not in charge of the policy decisions of the US government, nor is he an economist, nor is he climatologist.

I’ll listen to him on faith and morals. His opinions on any of those three things are irrelevant to his position.
 
The same can be said of this too. I think the Bishops are well aware of what is a moral issue or not.
 
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