How are Catholics reconciling Pope's disagreement with govt policies?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about how Catholics are thinking about the current position of the Pope, which is decidedly against the Trump administration's immigration policies.

If you're Catholic and opposed legal abortion because the Catholic church was against it (although the government obviously supported it), are you now opposing these immigration policies for the same reason? And if not, how can you reconcile that with being Catholic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about how Catholics are thinking about the current position of the Pope, which is decidedly against the Trump administration's immigration policies.

If you're Catholic and opposed legal abortion because the Catholic church was against it (although the government obviously supported it), are you now opposing these immigration policies for the same reason? And if not, how can you reconcile that with being Catholic?

The irony is that the current Pope shares things in common with Trump as far as legal interpretation. Vatican has very strict laws about who can or cannot enter Vatican City. It doesn't allow anyone to take refuge there without permission and enforces criminal penalties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about how Catholics are thinking about the current position of the Pope, which is decidedly against the Trump administration's immigration policies.

If you're Catholic and opposed legal abortion because the Catholic church was against it (although the government obviously supported it), are you now opposing these immigration policies for the same reason? And if not, how can you reconcile that with being Catholic?

The irony is that the current Pope shares things in common with Trump as far as legal interpretation. Vatican has very strict laws about who can or cannot enter Vatican City. It doesn't allow anyone to take refuge there without permission and enforces criminal penalties.

I'm not sure how that's relevant. I've been to the Vatican, and calling it a city is a stretch. It's more like a small campus. Still, that has nothing to do with how Catholics are reconciling an explicit statement by the Pope that is in opposition to a government policy espoused largely by those claiming to be Christian.

[Anonymous]

Cafeteria Catholics

How many people are really prepared to give the shirt off their back to the poorest, open their homes to the homeless, offer the cheek when slapped, love their neighbor as themselves…

[Anonymous]

I as well as most of the Catholics I know find ourselves somewhat politically homeless in that both of the major parties have elements of their platforms that are not compatible with Catholic moral principles. Who we vote for in each election is a judgment call based on which issues we think are most pressing and who handles them well. For example, I don't care much if the mayor of my city is prolife because abortion isn't regulated on a city level, but I do care if the state legislators are prolife; similarly I don't care if county council is pro or anti Medicaid but I do want the president to support it. Usually for president we have a choice between a prolife guy with problematic economic views and a pro choice guy with better economic views. We are allowed to vote for either of these options depending on who we think will be better for the country overall as long as we aren't voting for them because of their problematic views. Personally, I don't think Trump is really prolife, and certainly not prolife enough to balance out all his other problematic views, so I have never voted for him.

Catholics actually don't vote as Republican as a lot of other Christian denominations. They did skew towards Trump over Harris but generally we are pretty evenly split and more of them voted for Biden than Trump in 2020. It's honestly the evangelicals who are super pro Trump and they don't care what the Pope says at all. 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I as well as most of the Catholics I know find ourselves somewhat politically homeless in that both of the major parties have elements of their platforms that are not compatible with Catholic moral principles. Who we vote for in each election is a judgment call based on which issues we think are most pressing and who handles them well. For example, I don't care much if the mayor of my city is prolife because abortion isn't regulated on a city level, but I do care if the state legislators are prolife; similarly I don't care if county council is pro or anti Medicaid but I do want the president to support it. Usually for president we have a choice between a prolife guy with problematic economic views and a pro choice guy with better economic views. We are allowed to vote for either of these options depending on who we think will be better for the country overall as long as we aren't voting for them because of their problematic views. Personally, I don't think Trump is really prolife, and certainly not prolife enough to balance out all his other problematic views, so I have never voted for him.

Catholics actually don't vote as Republican as a lot of other Christian denominations. They did skew towards Trump over Harris but generally we are pretty evenly split and more of them voted for Biden than Trump in 2020. It's honestly the evangelicals who are super pro Trump and they don't care what the Pope says at all. 😂

This seems like the dilemma of people who consider themselves more as members of the Catholic Church than citizens of the USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I as well as most of the Catholics I know find ourselves somewhat politically homeless in that both of the major parties have elements of their platforms that are not compatible with Catholic moral principles. Who we vote for in each election is a judgment call based on which issues we think are most pressing and who handles them well. For example, I don't care much if the mayor of my city is prolife because abortion isn't regulated on a city level, but I do care if the state legislators are prolife; similarly I don't care if county council is pro or anti Medicaid but I do want the president to support it. Usually for president we have a choice between a prolife guy with problematic economic views and a pro choice guy with better economic views. We are allowed to vote for either of these options depending on who we think will be better for the country overall as long as we aren't voting for them because of their problematic views. Personally, I don't think Trump is really prolife, and certainly not prolife enough to balance out all his other problematic views, so I have never voted for him.

Catholics actually don't vote as Republican as a lot of other Christian denominations. They did skew towards Trump over Harris but generally we are pretty evenly split and more of them voted for Biden than Trump in 2020. It's honestly the evangelicals who are super pro Trump and they don't care what the Pope says at all. 😂

Very true.

[Anonymous]

52% of Catholics didn’t vote.

If the 48% left 23% went for Harris.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Catholic who is a liberal Democrat like most of my family. Nothing to reconcile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:52% of Catholics didn’t vote.

If the 48% left 23% went for Harris.

Only 53% voted for Trump. Catholics are not pro-Trump as a whole.

[Anonymous]

This question misunderstands the nature of the Catholic faith. The Pope is only considered infallible in very specific matters of church doctrine. His random thoughts about US politics are not that and hold no extra weight.

—I’m not Catholic, but I do have a basic education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I as well as most of the Catholics I know find ourselves somewhat politically homeless in that both of the major parties have elements of their platforms that are not compatible with Catholic moral principles. Who we vote for in each election is a judgment call based on which issues we think are most pressing and who handles them well. For example, I don't care much if the mayor of my city is prolife because abortion isn't regulated on a city level, but I do care if the state legislators are prolife; similarly I don't care if county council is pro or anti Medicaid but I do want the president to support it. Usually for president we have a choice between a prolife guy with problematic economic views and a pro choice guy with better economic views. We are allowed to vote for either of these options depending on who we think will be better for the country overall as long as we aren't voting for them because of their problematic views. Personally, I don't think Trump is really prolife, and certainly not prolife enough to balance out all his other problematic views, so I have never voted for him.

Catholics actually don't vote as Republican as a lot of other Christian denominations. They did skew towards Trump over Harris but generally we are pretty evenly split and more of them voted for Biden than Trump in 2020. It's honestly the evangelicals who are super pro Trump and they don't care what the Pope says at all. 😂

This seems like the dilemma of people who consider themselves more as members of the Catholic Church than citizens of the USA.

I thought we disposed of the “Catholic=Unamerican” libel when Jack Kennedy was President.

[Anonymous]

Catholics are very good at picking and choosing what tenents they want to follow.

[Anonymous]

I support the Pope's position!

This is not new. This has come up before and the church has publicly supported mmigrants. I remember the cardinal in Los Angeles speaking out in support of immigrants in the 90s or 2000s and being criticized for it. People said it was a cynical ploy because of the Latino population in LA. It was not popular then and it may not be popular now, but it's not new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I as well as most of the Catholics I know find ourselves somewhat politically homeless in that both of the major parties have elements of their platforms that are not compatible with Catholic moral principles. Who we vote for in each election is a judgment call based on which issues we think are most pressing and who handles them well. For example, I don't care much if the mayor of my city is prolife because abortion isn't regulated on a city level, but I do care if the state legislators are prolife; similarly I don't care if county council is pro or anti Medicaid but I do want the president to support it. Usually for president we have a choice between a prolife guy with problematic economic views and a pro choice guy with better economic views. We are allowed to vote for either of these options depending on who we think will be better for the country overall as long as we aren't voting for them because of their problematic views. Personally, I don't think Trump is really prolife, and certainly not prolife enough to balance out all his other problematic views, so I have never voted for him.

Catholics actually don't vote as Republican as a lot of other Christian denominations. They did skew towards Trump over Harris but generally we are pretty evenly split and more of them voted for Biden than Trump in 2020. It's honestly the evangelicals who are super pro Trump and they don't care what the Pope says at all. 😂

This seems like the dilemma of people who consider themselves more as members of the Catholic Church than citizens of the USA.

I thought we disposed of the “Catholic=Unamerican” libel when Jack Kennedy was President.

Some of us did. Others did not. Now some people think Democrats are un-American and others think Republicans who voted for Trump are un-American.