New authentic interpreter of doctrine emerges, frets over Paglia

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/new-authentic-interpreter-doctrine-emerges-frets-over-paglia
MGB:_We should not be too hard on young Mr. Gallagher. Everything is vital when are in doctoral school, but he does need to start writing for real refereed journals. This article will not help him unless he is auditioning for the alt-right of the Church, the Ecumenicism of Evil, as it has been called. As a member of the Catholic Libertarian Left, I will debate him any day at any venue. I do agree with him on one thing.

 An argument on abortion should rest on the related facts, some of which he undoubtedly ignores, like how abortion regulation is a tool to reinforce or restore the patriarchy. One look at Casti Connubii makes that clear, so a feminist retort is legitimate. The feminists win the point as Casti is socially outdated.

Then there is the issue of pluralism, which Mario Cuomo devised and other Catholic politicians endorse. It states that Catholic legislators and governors cannot substitute the will of the Church or their own views in unity with the Church upon the vast majority of non-Catholics. I thought it a week argument, but having reviewed Dignitas Humanae and the history of its passage in Vatican II and its acceptance into the Magisterium by Pope Paul, I can see their point. We are not required to impose Catholic values on our secular constitutional nation. Mr. Gallagher should avoid arguing this issue, as doing so may cause the university to question his orthodoxy in his oral exam, which would ruin his career in punditry. Regardless, I would hope that Catholic politicians would actually educate the public and the Church on the issues surrounding Roe.

The constitutional argument over life is two fold. First, there is federal jurisdiction, which says states have no power in this area of privacy (like in marriage equality, sodomy, contraception or Catholic rights to have parishes in Alabama, and eventually funded Catholic schools). To deny federal supremacy is to support mob rule. Second is the issue of personhood, which Roe puts at viability, which is more general that the constitutional standard of birth. Under Amendment 14, Congress can enforce, meaning, change this interpretation, but it can only go as far as it can get votes, probably week 25.

Anything earlier in the second trimester is equivalently rare and complicated with fetal survival issues, although I will concede the problem of Downs Children if he will concede that any regulation in this area will require intensive federal financial support of these families. As for first trimester embryos and fetuses, if he can devise a legal way that will not violate equal protection rules that treats fetuses who will miscarry differently than those aborted in terms of criminal investigation and tort relief, than he may have the chance of law beyond the status quo. I doubt he is that smart. No one is. Indeed, if the best that the Pro-life argument can do on Roe is to agree that the status quo is all it can get, then perhaps is essential for all Catholics to denounce it for the fraud it has become, or at least not abet it.

What he can do is agree to my Catholic Liberal position and support a robust child tax credit of $1000 per month per child (what USDA calculates a child costs for an average lifestyle), paid with wages or tuition stipends, and a $15 minimum wage. This is also in line with Casti and as such is part of the Magisterium.

Though the sexual teachings may be disregardable-due to their origin in-clerical asexuality (not chosen celibacy, but a sexual orientation, like homosexuality) and be socially outdated as patriarchal, it is correct on mandatory sterilization although scientifically inaccurate on contraception being equivalent to abortion (while embryologists won’t say life begins at gastrulation, what they say about it should ring true for anyone who has read Aristotle’s teachings on the human soul, which are still used by Thomistic philosophers). Pius on the innocence of the child does not understand that innocence is not an issue in any life question. Danger is. Even economic danger, although he has a solution.

Casti not only echoes Pope Leo, but Pope Pius expands on what is meant by a living family wage. That keeps it relevant when it is otherwise ignorable. Here are the relevant passages:

120. If, however, for this purpose, private resources do not suffice, it is the duty of the public authority to supply for the insufficient forces of individual effort, particularly in a matter which is of such importance to the common weal, touching as it does the maintenance of the family and married people. If families, particularly those in which there are many children, have not suitable dwellings; if the husband cannot find employment and means of livelihood; if the necessities of life cannot be purchased except at exorbitant prices; if even the mother of the family to the great harm of the home, is compelled to go forth and seek a living by her own labor; if she, too, in the ordinary or even extraordinary labors of childbirth, is deprived of proper food, medicine, and the assistance of a skilled physician, it is patent to all to what an extent married people may lose heart, and how home life and the observance of God's commands are rendered difficult for them; indeed it is obvious how great a peril can arise to the public security and to the welfare and very life of civil society itself when such men are reduced to that condition of desperation that, having nothing which they fear to lose, they are emboldened to hope for chance advantage from the upheaval of the state and of established order.

121. Wherefore, those who have the care of the State and of the public good cannot neglect the needs of married people and their families, without bringing great harm upon the State and on the common welfare. Hence, in making the laws and in disposing of public funds they must do their utmost to relieve the needs of the poor, considering such a task as one of the most important of their administrative duties.

122. We are sorry to note that not infrequently nowadays it happens that through a certain inversion of the true order of things, ready and bountiful assistance is provided for the unmarried mother and her illegitimate offspring (who, of course must be helped in order to avoid a greater evil) which is denied to legitimate mothers or given sparingly or almost grudgingly.

Gallagher should warn his conservative friends that they are on the road to Hell.