Everyone knows the saying that “those who can, do, those that can’t, teach”. Well, I decided to do something bold- to apply the Old Catholic “both-and” paradigm in my life. I am a Catholic religion teacher and I have been campaigning for public office- in my case Florida State House of Representatives. During the workday I try to inspire my students to be Christian disciples who care deeply about the world and to be willing to take on leadership responsibilities, starting with self-mastery. Teaching is fine and noble work, but when a teacher must consistently point out how we are failing as a community, as a nation, and as a global society, there comes a point where that teacher needs to “put up or lighten up”. I made my choice to try to do more, not less, and directly address the social realities faced by our current and future generations.

As a candidate for public office, I was able to get an up-close view of how difficult it is to run as a Catholic who places the Church’s social doctrine over the private agendas of my political party and those of narrow special interest groups. In fact, taking a firm stand for the poor and vulnerable, and focusing on the common good often does not endear a candidate to those individuals and groups who provide financial support. And in the current political climate, a candidate is usually judged by the dominant media according to his ability to raise money; this “proves” the seriousness or viability of someone running for office. As a result, I have found that by promoting the interests of faith groups, and non-profit service providers, I am caught in a Catch-22 reality. These faith groups and non-profits are forbidden from contributing to a political candidate, and they cannot even show any official bias or public support for a candidate (even one who is willing to lead in such a way that benefits the people they are obliged to help). In contrast, for-profit corporations have many legal means to openly support candidates. Wealthy individuals also have many options for supporting candidates- as they say, “Money talks”.

The reason that money matters in political elections is that much of the “debate” in many races takes the form of competing claims in expensive media advertising campaigns. As a newcomer to politics, I realize how important it is to advertise and establish my name as a visible presence in the community. Unfortunately, marketing is a very expensive proposition.

There are two potential strategies for dealing with the harsh realities of modern political marketing. One is the old-fashioned method of getting out and knocking on doors. But we live in an era where people are afraid to open their doors to strangers after dark. Reaching people by the phone has also acquired a bad reputation since many people believe they are harassed too often by phone canvassers. In short, many people today are harder to approach at their homes, via the front door, or the phone.

Furthermore, distributing campaign literature is quite expensive and usurps a great amount of time. In my first campaign, this approach didn’t work out too well for me since I am a full-time teacher, and father to two small children. Neglecting time with my family and students was simply not an option for me. As a Catholic, I am working out my salvation primarily through loving and serving my wife and daughters, and impacting the lives of my young high school students.

The second strategy, and one I am putting forth as a policy initiative, is based on the Catholic social teaching principle of promoting the right to participate in the political life of society. The following is my own 4-point plan to revitalize the democratic process in Florida:

1. Enact a public financing option, like the one found in Arizona and elsewhere. Details on this can be found at publiccampign.org. The key here is that a ballot qualified candidate can acquire some public monies, and run a viable campaign with a legal requirement not to take, or use, any other monies. This effectively reduces the typical influence of money coming from the wealthiest citizens, and largest corporate/special interests. Everyone knows that money buys access, and access is often enough to make or break public policies.
   
2. Reform the “gerrymandering” process, whereby voting districts are carved up by the dominant political party in the state legislatures. This is an abuse of any sense of fair-play. It is like staging a sporting event where one team is given the home field, and is spotted a sizeable point advantage at the start of the game. In political races around the country it has had the effect of helping incumbents stay in power over 95% of the time. It usually takes a seismic shift in the popular vote, or some individual scandal to cause a party to lose most seats at the national and state levels. We could end all of this by putting the redistricting process in the hands of a truly independent group of experts- people who would be directed to create voting districts according to either blind geographic/demographic boundaries, or to try to make as many districts competitive by means of balancing the two dominant parties, as close to parity, in as many districts as is possible.
   
3. Some effort should be made to legislate that the many media outlets that operate using the public airwaves- should be setting some time aside for free political advertising. This would be a public service; the level of profiteering on political campaigns by the media is unacceptable. “Free Time” opportunities should be made in accord with fair access for all candidates- and it should not preclude additional paid advertising opportunities for candidates so inclined. The goal is not to restrict free speech, but to open the door to more political speech, to those who have ideas, but no money. This type of reform is very much in keeping with our U.S. Constitution.
   
4. Finally, there simply has to be a verifiable system of collecting ballots, counting them, and potentially re-counting them. Computer programs can obviously be compromised and no layperson could detect the problem. There simply must be tangible evidence of each vote cast and for whom. If this slows down the process, then by all means let’s conduct our elections over the weekend when people have time enough to vote without long lines after a long day at work. Saturday should become the new national voting day.

For the Catholic community I have particular advice that should be applied to every parish. First of all it does us little actual good to have a democratic process if we don’t vote. If we accept this responsibility then we must follow-up, as a Church community, to ensure that every Catholic is educated to the social doctrine. Every Catholic should have easy access to the Catholic Hierarchical teachings, and Pastoral counsel, on all of the great moral issues of our times. The local clergy have a primary obligation to oversee that this work of properly educating the laity is getting done. As a candidate I discovered that the average Catholic parishioner does not have enough formation to be effective as a Catholic witness in the voting booth. I have some very specific suggestions about how we can change this fact, and in the process change American politics and the world.

Here are some specific practical proposals:

1. Every parish should organize “Social Doctrine Nights” where specific issues are discussed in the context of the social doctrine, as taught in official sources like Papal Encyclicals, the Compendium of Social Doctrine, the Catechism, US Bishop Pastoral Letters, and so forth.
   
2. lp140wh1 It would also be good if every parish started a “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church book club”. This would help to locate a core group of lay persons who are truly interested in fulfilling their responsibility to the Temporal Order, to reform the world according to Christ’s teachings and will, as revealed by our Church’s authoritative documents. These hardy souls will go far in sharing their knowledge on those Social Doctrine Nights. At the least, we will give the laity many chances to inform their consciences on public policy matters.
   
3. As the election cycle nears, every parish should start scheduling town hall meetings and Candidate Forum events. Political candidates should be held accountable before the election takes place. They need to go on record with their thoughts on the issues that our parishioners deem important. The only requirement for such forums is that all candidates are invited and no obvious bias is displayed during the event. Town hall meetings should be convened on singular issues of great importance, and local leaders and potential leaders should be invited to participate or attend.
   
4. Documents from the U.S. Bishops’ Conferences should be distributed widely in every parish. These documents can easily be inserted into every Sunday Bulletin.
   
5. Questionnaires for candidates from Catholic Conferences should be distributed with information on the issues providing the reader with a clear idea just what the official Church is advising/teaching on the political issue being raised. These questionnaire results should be widely distributed well in advance of the actual Election Day.
   
6. Potential Catholic political leaders need to be groomed and supported by the Church by all legal means. We cannot be hamstrung by laws that seem bent on keeping an artificial wall of separation between Church and State. Both the Church and State have particular functions in society, they are not the same, but they are not to be pitted against one another. One way to cope with the reality here, in the United States, is to help private Catholic action groups, and organizations, to form apart from the official dioceses and Catholic conferences. These private Catholic organizations could form PACS and contribute directly to Catholic individuals who are seeking to serve the common good first and foremost. They should be committed to serving the official Church social doctrine.
   
7. Catholic schools should also do more to promote the social doctrine among the youth. I once organized a debate for all congressional candidates in the Catholic high school where I was teaching. The students wrote the questions and had a chance to mingle with the candidates’ afterwards. It was the only such debate for those candidates in the entire election cycle and many students were positively impacted by the experience. Another area of improvement would be in the development of textbooks with a Catholic perspective, and that covered such areas as Literature, History, Media, Social Studies and so forth. The Catholic worldview and social doctrine has been confined to religion classes and this has contributed to the compartmentalization of religious understanding and expression. Catholic students, with rare exceptions, are not graduating and then going out and transforming the political order because they are not being mentored properly.

I offer these suggestions because I believe that, as Catholics, we have the blueprint for building a civilization of love at every level of human society. The blueprint is our social doctrine and the gift of our Magisterium in guiding the principles and teachings of Christ into our real world. I reject the idea of religion as a haven for escapists. Catholicism teaches us to be in the world, just not of the world. We have something transcendent to offer the world, and we shouldn’t bury our talents under the ground, nor confine our good works to our prayers.

In my personal campaign experience, I found not a single opportunity to speak at a town hall meeting or candidate’s forum, as sponsored or organized at any Catholic parish. As a faithful Catholic, my base of support should be from other faithful Catholics, but I could find no point of access to the Catholic community at large. This lack of organizational support must change for all future Catholic public office seekers. We need to take a page from the Protestant-dominated “Christian Coalition”, and the many united Jewish organizations that promote the politics of support for the State of Israel. In these religious groups we find a courage to enter the marketplace of ideas and politics, and they have a vision that is not always positive, and in line with our moral principles as Catholics.

Moreover, I believe that we should be inspired by the long view of history. If one looks at the movements to end slavery, to promote civil rights, and to end the legal right to kill the unborn, we find that religious individuals and church groups have formed the backbone and public conscience for positive societal reform. Catholics have a whole social doctrine to defend and to inculcate into our world. There is so much work of reform to do we cannot be satisfied to pick an issue or two and just let it go at that. We are in the uncomfortable position of trying to lobby elected officials, where many have compromised their higher ideals in order to attract the funding necessary to win an election. My proposal is to become involved in the process earlier. We need candidates who already believe in the truth of our social doctrine and we need to help them get elected. This is my most important point. As such a candidate, I found such direct and substantive support lacking or non-existent. We have many official Catholic organizations, but they are designed to lobby politicians after-the-fact, not help them into office in the first place. As a result, the ability to contact and persuade the political authorities to do something that is simply right and good, is made much more complicated, and policy successes are made rarer.

But I remain optimistic. I strongly believe Catholic organizations are doing great work to provide information to the uninformed and assist the poor and suffering around the world. However, the most maddening challenges are legal ones. Unfortunately, non-profits and religious bodies are unable to get directly involved in political campaigns for particular candidates, and the laity has not responded to the challenges of Catholic social teachings. But there are ways to be active politically and stay within the bounds of the law. Once again, these strategies involve the following precepts:

• social doctrine promotion
• town hall meetings
• candidate forums
• encouragement of private Catholic PACS
• Catholic youth mentoring, and
• full-scale electoral reform

My goal is to get elected so that I can bring the Catholic Conference, Respect Life groups, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services,Catholics for the Common Good, Just Faith, and other beneficent organizations into my “Kitchen Cabinet” to help me stay informed on how I can promote the common good. I don’t believe that the knowledgeable and holy laborers for justice and charity in our Church should be ignored or unable to make a positive impact in our community.

Some say our Catholic social doctrine is still our “best kept secret”; I want to help open the floodgates of inquiry, study, reflection and action inspired by that amazing body of moral principles applied to our communities. The Common Good is the very reason for the existence of all governing authorities, and the Universal Common Good is the only American “interest” worth fighting for. I would like to conclude with some direct quotes and guidance from those entrusted to formulate this praiseworthy social doctrine, of which I speak so fondly.

Pope John Paul II insisted that is necessary for Catholics “to seek the Kingdom of God in dealing with temporal realities and in ordering them in accordance with the divine will.” And he urged us to be courageous in giving witness to their faith in the public arena.

Quoting from Lumen Gentium, No.36, Pope John Paul II said that lay men and women, after receiving a sound catechesis and continuing formation, have a clear mission “to extend the Kingdom of God in and through their secular activity, so that ‘the world will be imbued with the Spirit of Christ and more effectively attain its purpose in justice, in love and in peace” (No.3). Hence, the faithful need to receive clear instructions on their duties as Christians, and on their obligation to act in accordance with the Church’s authoritative teachings, the Pope added. And to those who object that such instruction has overly political tones John Paul II stated clearly: “While fully respecting the legitimate separation of Church and state in American life, such a catechesis must also make clear that for the faithful Christian there can be no separation between the faith which is to be believed and put into practice and a commitment to full and responsible participation in professional, political and cultural life” (No.3).

John Paul II further urged the bishops to give priority to their work in this area. “Given the importance of these issues for the life and mission of the Church in your country, I would encourage you to consider the inculcation of the doctrinal and moral principles underlying the lay apostolate as essential to your ministry as teachers and shepherds of the Church in America.” (From Zenit.org 3/5/05)

The Compendium Of The Social Doctrine Of The Church, as produced through the Pontifical Council For Justice and Peace, should be the starting point of a renaissance in the lay study of our social doctrine, and how to implement those moral doctrines for the sake of the universal common good. This is the heart and soul of the advice I offer in this letter. I have collected many relevant quotations from this Compendium for your inspired consideration, as follows:

“The Christian knows that in the social doctrine of the Church can be found the principles for reflection, the criteria for judgment and the directives for action which are the starting point for the promotion of an integral and solidary humanism. Making this doctrine known constitutes, therefore, a genuine pastoral priority, so that men and women will be enlightened by it and will be thus enabled to interpret today’s reality and seek appropriate paths of action: ‘The teaching and spreading of her social doctrine are part of the Church’s evangelizing mission.’” #7

“This document offers a complete overview of the fundamental framework of the doctrinal corpus of Catholic social teaching. This overview allows us to address appropriately the social issues of our day, which must be considered as a whole, since they are characterized by an ever greater interconnectedness, influencing one another mutually and becoming increasingly a matter of concern for the entire human family. The exposition of the Church’s social doctrine is meant to suggest a systematic approach for finding solutions to problems, so that discernment, judgment and decisions will correspond to reality, and so that solidarity and hope will have a greater impact on the complexities of current situations. These principles, in fact, are interrelated and shed light on one another mutually, insofar as they are an expression of Christian anthropology, fruits of the revelation of God’s love for the human person.” #9

“The Church’s social doctrine is an indispensable reference point for a totally integrated Christian formation. The insistence of the Magisterium in proposing this doctrine as a source of inspiration for the apostolate and for social action comes from the conviction that it constitutes an extraordinary resource for formation; ‘this is especially true for the lay faithful who have responsibilities in various fields of social and public life. Above all, it is indispensable that they have a more exact knowledge…of the Church’s social doctrine.’ This doctrinal patrimony is neither taught nor known sufficiently, which is part of the reason for its failure to be suitably reflected in concrete behavior. The formative value of the Church’s social doctrine should receive more attention in catechesis. “ #528, #529

“The Church’s social doctrine must be the basis of an intense and constant work of formation, especially of the lay faithful. Such a formation should take into account their obligations in civil society. ‘It belongs to the layman, without waiting passively for orders and directives, to take the initiative freely and to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the community in which they live.’” #531

“In the particular Church, the primary responsibility for the pastoral commitment to evangelize social realities falls to the Bishop, assisted by priests, religious men and women, and the laity.... Through suitable formation programmes, the priest should make known the social teaching of the Church and foster in the members of his community an awareness of their right and duty to be active subjects of this doctrine. #539

“The essential characteristic of the lay faithful who work in the Lord’s vineyard is the secular nature of their Christian discipleship, which is carried out precisely in the world. ‘It belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will.” “The laity must therefore work at the same time for the conversion of hearts and the improvement of structures...” #541, #552

“It is difficult for the concerns of the Christian faith to be adequately met in one sole political entity; to claim that one party or political coalition responds completely to the demands of faith or of Christian life would give rise to dangerous errors. Christians cannot find one party that corresponds to the ethical demands arising from faith and from membership in the Church. Their adherence to a political alliance will never be ideological but always critical; in this way the party and its political platform will be prompted to be ever more conscientious in attaining the true common good, including the spiritual end of the human person.” #573

“Human relationships cannot be governed solely according to the measure of justice. ‘Christians know that love is the reason for God’s entering into relationship with man. And it is love which he awaits as man’s response. Consequently, love is also the loftiest and most noble form of relationship possible between human beings. Love must thus enliven every sector of human life and extend to the international order. Only a humanity in which there reigns the ‘civilization of love’ will be able to enjoy authentic and lasting peace.’” “In this regard, the Magisterium highly recommends solidarity because it is capable of guaranteeing the common good and fostering integral human development: love ‘makes one see in neighbor another self.’” #582