With Catholics at the Capitol planned for April 15 and the Catholic Church’s strong opposition to abortion, The Catholic Spirit asked Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, to reflect on the following questions:
Jason Adkins
Q. Will this year’s Catholics at the Capitol address the topic of Catholic politicians who are pro-choice? If so, how?
A. If one makes abortion the litmus test for whether one talks to a politician, then one is content to let the world fall apart around them (and allow a social ecosystem to flourish where abortion becomes a more attractive choice). We have to build common ground for the common good. There are more problems in the world than the availability of legal abortions. Abortion and related issues of the culture of death (assisted suicide, the war on the elderly and disabled, gender ideology) must be addressed, and are pre-eminent priorities, but in the political realm, we must do so with a consistent ethic of life that promotes a broader vision of human flourishing. We rely primarily on the tools of moral suasion, so we must offer a better vision of the good life. Yes, we should elect pro-life candidates. And laypeople should be involved with elections and party politics. But that is a distinct activity from how we engage the political process the other 364 days of the year. Once a candidate is elected, we must deal with that person and work where we can to promote human flourishing.
Q. One criticism of the Church we hear a lot is that President Biden and other pro-choice Catholics should be denied Communion, or they should be excommunicated because of their public promotion of abortion. Is that a criticism you hear in your work as the director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference? How do you respond?
A. Whether President Biden is fit to receive Communion is a question for his two bishops (in Wilmington, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.). I would note that selectively employing punitive (though meant as medicinal) measures with wayward Catholic politicians will come across as partisan. Additionally, it does not address the root cause of the problem, which is the prevalence of heterodox clergy and religious sisters who give aid and comfort to pro-choice Catholic politicians. Given President Biden’s policies, most notably his determination to engage in aggressive ideological colonization at home and abroad through abortion and LGBT ideology, one wonders what he has been hearing or not hearing from the Jesuits and religious sisters with whom he surrounds himself on a regular basis. Until the root cause of the problem is dealt with effectively, President Biden can effectively ignore the bishops and still feel like he is a Catholic in good standing. The Communion question is, in fact, a distraction from the real issue, which is a latitudinal moral culture and theological milieu within the Church that creates cover for many Catholic politicians.
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