Catholics find fault and blessing with @RepPaulRyan’s politics

Catholics find fault and blessing with Ryan’s politics

September 09, 2012 9:00 am  •  Wisconsin State Journal

MADISON — For months, Janesville Congressman and now Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has spoken passionately about how Catholic social teaching helped shape his budget priorities.

And for months, leaders within his own denomination have ripped him.

Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks during a campaign event at East Carolina University, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, in Greenville, N.C. / Mary Altaffer

A committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops blasted his federal budget approach for “unjustified and wrong” cuts to the poor. A busload of nuns motored through nine states, including Wisconsin, contending his fiscal priorities are “immoral” and would “devastate the soul of our nation.”

But in Ryan’s own Catholic diocese, the reception has been much more nuanced, even flattering at times. Ryan attends St. John Vianney Parish in Janesville, a church of about 1,400 households in the Madison Catholic Diocese.

While never commenting on specific budget proposals, Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino has described Ryan as a Catholic in good standing and vigorously defended Ryan’s right — and the right of any prayerful Catholic layperson — to form conclusions about the best ways to help the poor.

“The fact that we’re friends does not cloud my judgment when I say he is an excellent Catholic layman of the very highest integrity,” Morlino said of Ryan on a Catholic radio show last month.

In a column Aug. 16 in the Catholic Herald, the newspaper of the diocese, Morlino wrote that Ryan “is aware of Catholic social teaching and is very careful to fashion and form his conclusions in accord with (Catholic principles). Of that I have no doubt.” Morlino said he felt compelled to mention the matter “in obedience to church law regarding one’s right to a good reputation.”

In the same column, Morlino said it is not for bishops or priests to endorse particular candidates or political parties.

Similar approaches

Diocesan spokesman Brent King said

Paul Ryan’s Catholic Problem

A very succinct OpEd.

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By Daniel C. Maguire, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics, Marquette University

Posted: 08/21/2012 12:08 pm

Sound the alarm! There has been a Catholic coup d’etat in the United States of America! Six members of the Supreme Court are Catholics (just imagine the furore if six were Muslims or Jews!). Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell are Catholics. And now, rising to top of this surging Catholic dynasty is the alleged Wunderkind of Republican economics, perky Paul Ryan.

Ryan wears his strange version of Catholicism with a jaunty sophomoric pride. “Catholic social doctrine is indispensable for officeholders.” If only Paul Ryan knew what “Catholic social doctrine” is he would take flight from it just as fast as he is scrambling from the Ayn Rand breasts that, as he has proclaimed, suckled him and inspired all his political and economic views. Catholics who know the difference between Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand skewered perky Paul. They know that Jesus’ mission, unlike Ayn Rand’s, was “good news for the poor” (Luke 4:18). They embarrassed the righteous Ryan when he spoke at the Jesuit Georgetown University carrying a sprawling sign that asked: “Where were you, Paul Ryan, when they crucified the poor?”

Of course they know where he was. He was driving the nails into everything that helps the poor — and remember most of “the poor” are children. Budgets are intensely moral documents. They show where the heart is. To budget-makers we can say: show me the losers and the winners and I will tel you what you are. The Ryan budget plan, embraced by Mitt Romney as “marvelous,” puts greed over need. Among its losers: