A Tale of two Catholics

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For those of you who caught the Vice Presidential debate on October 11th, you may have caught how both Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan both professed to be Catholics. This flies in the face of the fact that their standings on abortion were at opposite poles. I am talking about their political standing, and as politicians, it's the only standing that matters. Mr. Ryan confessed that he believed life begins at conception and that his stance and beliefs on abortion were in line with the Catholic Church. This was a coherent position and a courageous expression of that standing. Then Mr. Biden made the amazing claim that, although he also believes what the Catholic Church teaches in this respect, that life begins at conception, but went ahead and said that he does not want to force his religious beliefs on others, and is politically in favour of abortion for all. But if you believe that life begins at conception, that makes abortion murder. Are we supposed to take from this that he sees standing up against murder, the deliberate killing of the innocent, the imposition of his own beliefs that he is talking and therefore something he is not willing to do ? I really hope not. If he doesn't stand up against the murder of the innocent, what does he stand up against ? Only in a post endarkenment, post-modern, relative-values world could this statement have been taken with muted acceptance. Only in such a world could there be such a double think, such a dissonance between what is said and what is believed and what is then acted upon, or otherwise. Well, does Mr. Biden hold his Catholicism cheap ? When it may cost Ryan political ground to make a courageous stand for the truth of what he believes, and act according to his conscience, it makes no sense for a man who claims to be the same thing, speak and act in direct discord with it. Not to speak out (especially if you're a politician) when given the chance against murder is to be complicit in it (which he may be materially, also). Still is he a good Catholic ? It's not really for me to say. He may become a better saint than any of us could be. But what he is doing is giving grave scandal, that a Catholic can somehow be pro "choice". And I would fear gravely, hearing the words of Jesus about scandal and the little ones, and the deep sea, and recant.