I grew up in a large Catholic family, seven kids, spread in age roughly evenly over a twelve-year period, so figure a new sibling arriving every year and a half. Catholic parents took “be fruitful and multiply” seriously during the Baby Boom years. My dad’s job paid enough so that, with careful spending, hand-me-down clothes, lots of meals involving hamburger, and a three-dollar limit on Christmas presents, we were okay. We all attended the local Catholic grade school, where we were steeped in Church dogma. Our geography textbooks were rife with lurid descriptions of the horrible things that Communists did to priests and nuns when they took over a country, so we only visited Catholic countries on those virtual world tours. Uganda was held up as a shining beacon of African Catholicism, and for some reason Bolivia was chosen as the South American stop; I still remember thinking that Lake Titicaca had a funny but pretty name. Ecclesiastical pickings were slim in Asia, so we stayed off shore in the Philippines.
The nuns who taught us were strict. Sister Concetta enforced Catholic morality with her infamous ear-twist, accompanied by a “Say, boy!” that was guaranteed to put the fear of God into even the most rambunctious second grader. A yellow line down the middle of the playground divided boys from girls during recess. This was mostly to keep the 7th and 8th graders “out of trouble”, but it piqued the curiosities of us younger kids, wondering what all the fuss was about.
As a child, I accepted Catholic doctrine as the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but, and I knew that Hell waited if I stepped out of line. But as I got older, some contradictions appeared that made such blanket acceptance difficult. Once, I used the word “evolution” in a spelling bee, and Sister Agnes Joseph, usually a kind and forgiving woman, gave me a cold look and said “We don’t use that word in this school”. For me, an amateur paleontologist who collected Devonian fossils abundant in the local shale, evolution was a given. It wasn’t even on the list of bad words that would never pass my lips, at least not until high school.
On the other hand, such doubts didn’t affect my mother, at least not until near the end of her life. Mom voted for any anti-abortion candidate, regardless. When a Bible Study friend of hers, a young man named Rick Santorum, ran for dogcatcher or some other local position in Pittsburgh, she thought, “What a nice Catholic boy” and voted for him. I went back to visit with her during one of her remissions from the cancer that would eventually kill her, long after Santorum had made a name for himself as the Senate doofus, and we talked about her vote. I asked her if she agreed with the guy on any other issue besides abortion, and she admitted she did not. I am proud to say that from her deathbed, Mom sent in an absentee ballot voting against Santorum in the election that finally booted him.
Rick Santorum was back like a bad penny, running for President, while my father was dying. I was in Pittsburgh for one of Dad’s last weeks, helping my sister, who was taking care of him around the clock. One evening, while he was pretty doped up on pain killers, Dad whispered “Tom… come here.” I figured that he was going to tell me where he had buried the family gold, so I brought my ear close to his lips. “Tell that guy…that guy running for president…” You mean Santorum, Dad? “Yeah, him…. Tell him to keep his mouth shut, and let God be in charge”. I am not sure why he thought I could get a message to Mr. Santorum, but I was flattered that he asked.
Abortion is a complex and painful issue for me (and for many people raised as I was). We can never really escape our upbringing concerning something as basic and personal as this. But I have distilled some tidbits of, if not wisdom, at least some thoughts about the issue that make it easier for me to sleep at night. First, it is none of my business what a woman decides to do in the case of an unwanted or unexpected pregnancy. As a male, I am part of the problem. I don’t have to raise a child that was given to me by rape, incest or broken condoms. And that admonition goes for every male on the planet, especially if they are in a position of power, be it Justice Alito or the Pope. We can offer to help, we can provide moral and financial support whatever the situation, but otherwise, butt out! Your personal opinions on the matter are unwelcome, unnecessary and very likely harmful.
Secondly, the job of a government is to provide services, not to regulate morals: Make sure the roads are fixed, the national defense is seen to, and injustices are prevented or corrected. Murder is against the law not because it is morally wrong, but because it introduces disorder in society, causes chaos in multiple ways, and prevents any further contribution to the common good from either the murdered or the murderer. Theft is against the law because it prevents the useful application of capital. I can’t buy something if somebody stole my money, and a business can’t make a profit by selling a product to me for money I don’t have. Unfortunately, what is happening now in many states where draconian anti-abortion laws are being passed is essentially an attempt to legislate morality. Furthermore, it is a fundamentalist morality that a majority of Americans find repugnant. As soon as we start viewing the law and courts as a way of enforcing morality, which certainly applies to anti-abortion measures of any sort, we are coming dangerously close to a theocracy.
The Catholic Church (and any other denomination or religion, for that matter) is within its right to teach its members about morality as they see fit. But when laws are changed to enforce that moral code on people who do not accept it, that is the beginning of tyranny. Religious tyranny has never worked well, and there are plenty of modern examples to illustrate that fact. From the ayatollahs of Iran to the close relationship between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church, state-enforced religion becomes a tool to abuse those who do not agree with the state and create a privileged class of the saved. Sinners and heretics are not welcome, so you may do to them what you will.