In an October op-ed article that ran in the New York Times, Fordham theologian Michael Peppard failed in attacking the Catholicity of Paul Ryan.
Pro-abortion Catholics have long sought to equal the playing field with pro-life Catholics by arguing that there really isn’t much of a difference between their side and the other. It has never worked. And it didn’t work for Michael Peppard either.
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is pro-life, and Vice President Joe Biden is pro-abortion. Biden has never found an abortion he couldn’t justify, and Ryan would ban all abortions save for rape, incest and the life of the mother. In the mind of Peppard, there is no difference between the two: both depart from Catholic doctrine.
Not so fast. Pope John Paul II said it was acceptable for Catholics to vote for a pro-abortion candidate in a race against another pro-abortion candidate, providing that the former is less extreme and efforts are made to persuade him to adopt a pro-life position. In other words, Catholics who exercise the virtue of prudence have no problem voting for a man whose position on abortion would save the lives of over 1 million babies a year. This is especially true when compared to a man who would not save one baby out of the 1.2 million killed annually.
In Professor Peppard’s vision, a driver who goes 56 in a 55 miles an hour speed zone is equally guilty of speeding as the one who goes 106. Technically, that may be true, but in reality, only a fool would equate their culpability.
