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POLITICS

Trump’s positions and Catholic social

doctrine: What we should look for?
People of faith tended to take a chance on him. Now we'll see
how the president-elect "makes America great again."
NOVEMBER 14, 2016

JOHN BURGER AND JOANNE MCPORTLAND

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Trump’s positions and Catholic social doctrine: What we should look for? - Politics - Aleteia.org – Worldwide Catholic Network Sharing Faith Resources for those seekin...

Jeffrey Bruno for Aleteia

On November 8, 60% of voters identifying themselves as Catholic cast their

votes for the now president-elect, Donald J. Trump. White born-again or
Evangelical Christians supported Trump even more strongly, with 81% of their
vote. It has been a long, contentious campaign, with historically low levels of
trust and personal likability for both major party candidates. Nevertheless,
enough people of faith were willing to take a chance on the Republican candidate
and the party’s platform to help swing an electoral-college victory. Now, as the
nation moves into what at present feels like an equally contentious transition
process, Catholics who voted for Trump are hoping their trust was well-placed.

For reasons unique to this campaign and this president-elect, there is not a lot of
certainty at this point what policies will be in place in the new administration.
Campaign promises are campaign promises, of course, and no candidate signs a
solemn oath to fulfill each and every one of them. For President-elect Trump, the
usual autumn prognostications are more difficult to make than usual, both because
of his personal penchant for not signalling policy decisions too far in advance and
because his campaign-trail positions have changed many times, occasionally
contradicting those of his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican party
leadership, and even Trump himself.

What then, can Catholics — both those who supported the Trump-Pence team
and those who did not — look for from a Trump administration when it comes to
key issues of public policy? Here Aleteia presents an overview of these issues
drawn from a summary of key social doctrine by the US Conference of Catholic
Bishops (passages reproduced in italics) with notes on what we know so far and
what we can and should watch for.

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of
the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is
the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human
life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia. The value of human
life is being threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of
the death penalty. The intentional targeting of civilians in war or terrorist
attacks is always wrong. Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to avoid
war. Nations must protect the right to life by finding increasingly effective
ways to prevent conflicts and resolve them by peaceful means. We believe that
every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that
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the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and
dignity of the human person.

President-elect Trump has expressed support for the pro-life movement and for
religious liberty. During the campaign, he spoke of appointing pro-life justices to
the Supreme Court. In primary and candidate debates, Trump — who once held
pro-choice views — expressed an evolution in his personal attitude toward
abortion. He has spoken of limiting legal abortion to the three “Reagan
exceptions” (incest, rape, and health of the mother) and has expressed
abhorrence with late-term, partial-birth abortion on demand. In an interview for
“60 Minutes” Sunday night, Trump repeated his promise to name a Supreme
Court justice who opposes legal abortion and would help overturn Roe v. Wade.
He has expressed preference for abortion law to be set at the state level.

The president-elect favors retaining the Hyde amendment, which bans federal
funding of abortion. His party platform calls for defunding Planned Parenthood,
although Trump has said he believes the organization’s non-abortion services
provide important health care. Trump’s pledge to repeal and replace the
Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) includes removing the HHS mandate
for insurers to provide free contraceptive and sterilization coverage for women.
He has made no public statements on euthanasia.

In other aspects of pro-life concern, Trump has publicly supported the death
penalty, unilateral military action, and expanded use of enemy-interrogation
techniques categorized by the international community and the Church as
torture. He has suggested that nuclear proliferation might be acceptable as a
defense strategy. However, he is in favor of disengaging from US military
involvement in foreign conflicts.

Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The person is not only sacred but also social. How we organize our society — in
economics and politics, in law and policy — directly affects human dignity and
the capacity of individuals to grow in community. Marriage and the family are
the central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, not
undermined. We believe people have a right and a duty to participate in
society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the
poor and vulnerable.

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In contrast to his running mate, Trump has not called for an end to legalized
same-sex marriage. He has reached out to some degree to the LGBTQ electorate,
in particular vowing to defeat terrorists and challenge allies who practice
repressive anti-homosexual policies. This outreach would align with Catholic
teaching that all people are to be respected and protected from discrimination
and oppression. In terms of the freedom of Christians to practice their faith
when it comes into conflict with societal pressure or government legislation, the
Trump-Pence team has vowed to end federal interference into the practice of
religion and the imposition of federal mandates that prohibit believers from
exercising their conscience.

Because freedom of religion is a human right, Catholics and other Christians will
need to monitor whether this right is extended to people of all faiths, especially
— given some of the president-elect’s other policy suggestions — Muslims.

Another way the Trump administration may support families is in the enacting
of programs that provide jobs with a living wage, opportunities for education,
adequate and affordable health care for all ages and stages of life, tax strategies
that promote marriage and family, and other incentives for family growth and
stability. The president-elect’s priorities, once set, should be evaluated for their
effectiveness in this area.

Rights and Responsibilities

The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be

protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if
human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.
Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a
right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding
to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to
our families, and to the larger society.

Trump promises to nominate federal judges and Supreme Court justices who are
pro-life and “committed to interpreting the Constitution and laws according to
their original public meaning.” On his presidential transition website, Trump says
he will “defend Americans’ fundamental rights to free speech, religious liberty,
keeping and bearing arms, and all other rights guaranteed to them in the Bill of
Rights and other constitutional provisions.”

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In promising a streamlining of the federal government and a return to local

control of issues such as abortion law and educational standards, the
Republican strategy supports the Church’s teaching of the importance of
subsidiarity in public life.

During the campaign, Trump and his followers often displayed an unprecedented
level of outspoken disrespect for many individuals and groups that make up
American society, including women, people with disabilities, Mexican Americans,
Muslims, African Americans, the press, elected officials and institutions, and
opponents or critics of any kind. Though heralded by many as refreshing candor
and a rejection of false political correctness, this rhetoric occasionally descended
into slurs and edged on, if it did not degenerate into, violations against human
dignity. It will be important to note how the Trump administration as well as
those who lost the election (who weren’t immune from this deplorable tone
themselves) take up the responsibility of healing the very great divisions caused
by this campaign behavior.

Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are

faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich
and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment
(Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and
vulnerable first.

In his acceptance speech after Tuesday’s election, the first group Trump pledged
to help were people in the greatest economic need. “The forgotten men and
women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” he said. “We are going to fix
our inner cities [a term Mr. Trump uses to describe areas of urban poverty.
infrastructure decay, and lack of opportunity for education and employment].”

The Republican plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, which as of this week
Trump has softened to a more gradual plan that retains the ACA’s most popular
provisions — coverage of preexisting conditions and family coverage up to age 26
for children living at home — still raises issues for those 20 million Americans
now covered under the ACA, including the low-income families covered by
Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid.

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The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work
is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing
participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be
protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected—
the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the
organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to
economic initiative.

Trump favors a cut in taxes and a tax code that he describes as “simpler,
fairer, and pro-growth.” He wants to reform
government regulation to favor small businesses, which he calls “the driver of job
creation.” He has promised to keep untouched the social safety nets of Social
Security and Medicare. His tax proposals include offering refundable deductions
for the average cost of child care, which Trump suggested would also apply to
parents staying home with children and to child care provided by family
members. These provisions, plus a proposal to increase the standard deduction,
may be offset by other proposals to remove the Head of Household filing status
for single parents and single adults who provide support for family members, as
well as to eliminate deductions for dependents and for certain disabilities.
No proposals have yet been set in stone, however.

Solidarity

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and
ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever
they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world.
At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope
Paul VI taught that if you want peace, work for justice. The Gospel calls us to
be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we
promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.

From the beginning, Trump’s campaign has been centered on putting an end to
illegal immigration. To his promise to build “a great wall” (recently softened to
include fencing where topologically appropriate) across the southern border of
the United States, Trump added other plans for strengthening US borders both
physically and in terms of international trade and cooperation.

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These positions found support among Americans suffering from the effects of
rapid economic globalization, as similar policies have found favor in Britain
and in some European countries. The Trump administration will need to walk
a careful balance to secure US safety and economic recovery without
succumbing to exaggerated nationalist, isolationist, or protectionist policies.

While the Church shares Trump’s call for immigration reform, his proposed
policies to achieve reform and those supported by the US Catholic Conference of
Bishops differ significantly. The USCCB supports comprehensive immigration
reform, including options involving so-called “amnesty” or “grandfathering-in”
undocumented immigrants who are in the United States illegally but living
peaceful and productive lives. The bishops strenuously object to the idea of
separating families due to migration questions centering on legal status.
Trump’s references to wholesale deportation (recently stated as the intent to
deport or incarcerate 2 to 3 million criminal aliens) would seem to run counter
to Catholic teaching, so it is to be hoped that Church leaders and a Trump
administration more open to dialogue with faith leaders can work together
toward this common goal.

Another area in which the Church and the president-elect are at odds has to do
with the resettlement in the United States of refugees, especially those fleeing
the civil wars and ISIS terrorism in the Middle East. Trump’s proposals would
significantly reduce or even ban this flow of refugees, as well as tighten
immigration restrictions to exclude persons from countries where ISIS is
established. These proposals have focused overwhelmingly on Muslims, which
poses the issue of a religious challenge to those wishing to seek refuge in or
immigrate to the United States, a stance the Church strongly opposes. The
Church in the United States and Catholic Charities and other organizations
around the world play an enormous role in migrant and refugee resettlement,
and Catholic leaders should offer their experience and support in this area to
strike a balance between safety and compassion.

In terms of working for peace, while Trump’s campaign rhetoric has at times
been heavily militaristic, as president he promises to seek diplomatic solutions
first. “Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical
struggle,” he said, particularly in regards to defeating ISIS. “Our goal is peace
and prosperity, not war and destruction. The best way to achieve those goals is
through a disciplined, deliberate and consistent foreign policy.”

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Care for God’s Creation

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for
the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We
are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with
all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and
ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.

“The Trump Administration is firmly committed to conserving our wonderful

natural resources and beautiful natural habitats,” according to the transition
website. “America’s environmental agenda will be guided by true specialists in
conservation, not those with radical political agendas. We will refocus the EPA
on its core mission of ensuring clean air, and clean, safe drinking water for all
Americans. It will be a future of conservation, of prosperity, and of great
success.”

This statement is in keeping with Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which
the pontiff writes: “Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience.
Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health
hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths. […]
Technology, which, linked to business interests, is presented as the only way of
solving these problems, in fact proves incapable of seeing the mysterious
network of relations between things and so sometimes solves one problem only
to create others.”

However, some Trump administration proposals — such as cancelling payments

to international efforts to manage the effects of climate change, removing
environmental protection and safety regulations, and recommitting to fossil fuel
production and transportation (including coal mining, offshore oil drilling, and
fracking for natural gas) that have environmental and public health
consequences — are in contradiction to both Laudato Si’ and the Church’s long
tradition of stewardship of creation.

Going forward, Catholics — like all Americans — are called to hold the Trump
administration — like any other administration — accountable for its
representation of all Americans and its commitment to the common good. No
administration’s policies are ever fully in line with Catholic teaching, but we are
privileged to exercise our commitment to living that teaching as much as
possible.

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As Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, the outgoing president of the United States

Conference of Catholic Bishops, put it in his statement on Trump’s election:

We, as citizens and our elected representatives, would do well to remember the
words of Pope Francis when he addressed the United States Congress last year,
“all political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person
and be based on respect for his or her dignity.” Yesterday, millions of
Americans who are struggling to find economic opportunity for their families
voted to be heard. Our response should be simple: we hear you. The
responsibility to help strengthen families belongs to each of us.

The Bishops Conference looks forward to working with President-elect Trump

to protect human life from its most vulnerable beginning to its natural end. We
will advocate for policies that offer opportunity to all people, of all faiths, in all
walks of life. We are firm in our resolve that our brothers and sisters who are
migrants and refugees can be humanely welcomed without sacrificing our
security. We will call attention to the violent persecution threatening our fellow
Christians and people of other faiths around the world, especially in the Middle
East. And we will look for the new administration’s commitment to domestic
religious liberty, ensuring people of faith remain free to proclaim and shape
our lives around the truth about man and woman, and the unique bond of
marriage that they can form.
Every election brings a new beginning. Some may wonder whether the country
can reconcile, work together and fulfill the promise of a more perfect union.
Through the hope Christ offers, I believe God will give us the strength to heal
and unite.

Let us pray for leaders in public life that they may rise to the responsibilities
entrusted to them with grace and courage. And may all of us as Catholics help
each other be faithful and joyful witnesses to the healing love of Jesus.

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