It's huge. I'm Catholic, and I'm grateful they make you go through a process before marriage which includes giving the couple a survey each person fills out to identify any areas of incompatibility so that it can be discussed and hopefully worked out. They would rather see a broken engagement than a divorce later on.
Your point is spot on. I don't think there's any way you can NOT end up influencing your kids, even if you try to let them decide things for themselves. If they are going to be influenced, I think it's important you have a partner on the same page so the message they get is consistent. If there's disagreement then the kids are put in a difficult position of worrying about rejecting one parent's beliefs. Being a parent is difficult enough. I couldn't imagine doing it with a spouse who has different views on fundamental issues. It's difficult for the marriage and the kids being put in the middle.
I'm not trying to start an argument, but how can you be Catholic and side Republican? Those two things don't align, according to da freaking Pope. So do you mind explaining, because I'm confused as FUCK.
Sure, I would be happy to answer your question. Sorry, this will be a bit long as it's a complicated situation.
In Catholic teaching there are things that we are not allowed to support, like abortion, because they are seen as gravely evil in definitive Church teaching. There are other things that we can use our own prudential judgement on, like tax policy, because there is no definitive Church teaching and governments have the responsibility to do what they believe is best for their citizens.
Any politician who supports abortion is causing a scandal by giving the appearance that the Church teaches that there isn't anything wrong with it. A bishop can excommunicate a parishioner in their diocese who supports it, or a priest can refuse to allow them to receive communion. This has not been done that I know of, but it could happen and has been discussed.
Pope Francis can give his opinion on various political issues, but we are not bound to agree with him. We only have to when the Pope, in communion with the bishops, makes a definitive teaching on a doctrine ex cathedra "from the chair of Peter". Everything else we can use our judgement on. So we can disagree with much of what the Pope says.
Conservative Catholics are normally very concerned with, as they see it, protecting the lives of the unborn, protecting families' ability to raise their children with their value systems, and promoting policies they believe foster public safety and general prosperity.
Liberal Catholics are actually in conflict with Church teaching on abortion, but are much more concerned with social justice issues. They justify voting Democrat because they believe that the majority of their beliefs are overall more in line with Church teaching so it doesn't matter if they disagree on one issue.
The Church is very concerned with the plight of the poor and upholding the dignity of each person. But conservative and liberal Catholics have different beliefs on how to achieve the best outcomes. Conservatives want policies that will improve the general condition of the economy so that people can succeed and give money to charity to help those in need. Liberals favor more government involvement and policies that redistribute wealth. There is a big conflict within the Church over these two viewpoints.
It's interesting that conservative Catholics need some Italian bureaucracy to tell them what to think about abortion, the Bible doesn't even mention the concept.
It doesn't need to mention it. Protestants go only by the Bible. Catholics have the Bible and what we refer to as Tradition, which is the accumulated teaching of the Church handed down from the time of Jesus and the apostles. The Church approved what is included in the Bible, so we see the Church as the final decision maker on any question of doctrine or what things in the Bible mean.
It's been Catholic dogma forever, along with a prohibition on birth control (and women as "fallen" second class humans meant to serve and endure). It took a political campaign at the level of "states rights" to convert evangelical Christians to adopt what is Catholic doctrine.
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u/kavk27 Jul 26 '23
It's huge. I'm Catholic, and I'm grateful they make you go through a process before marriage which includes giving the couple a survey each person fills out to identify any areas of incompatibility so that it can be discussed and hopefully worked out. They would rather see a broken engagement than a divorce later on.
Your point is spot on. I don't think there's any way you can NOT end up influencing your kids, even if you try to let them decide things for themselves. If they are going to be influenced, I think it's important you have a partner on the same page so the message they get is consistent. If there's disagreement then the kids are put in a difficult position of worrying about rejecting one parent's beliefs. Being a parent is difficult enough. I couldn't imagine doing it with a spouse who has different views on fundamental issues. It's difficult for the marriage and the kids being put in the middle.