By any measure, we live in one of the most polarizing moments in our nation’s history. This should be particularly alarming to Catholics in the United States like myself. The moral and social teachings of our church, while clear and decisive in their content, do not allow for easy choices in voting and public policy. The reason for this is that the church adheres not to any one political ideology or economic system but rather to the person of Jesus Christ, who is himself the Truth.
My name is Jonathan Lucci, and I was the Democratic nominee for the 32nd District of the Virginia House of Delegates in last fall’s election. The 32nd District encompasses the historic city of Winchester and the surrounding countryside of Frederick County in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Winchester and Frederick County are among the fastest-growing areas in the state, and the people here face the great challenges of balancing growth and continuity.
Running as a proudly pro-life Democrat in a heavily Republican district taught me valuable lessons about the state of our nation’s politics and the joy that can still be found in engaging with Americans of all political stripes. While I ultimately came up short, I was proud to have outperformed previous Democratic campaigns in the district, and I strongly believe that my pro-life values and moderate approach to issues contributed to that fact.
There was once a time in our nation’s history when the idea of a “pro-life Democrat” was far from strange. As recently as 2008, more than a dozen pro-life Democrats were serving in Congress, including several in the Rust Belt region near Pittsburgh, where I grew up. In the same way, there was a time not all that long ago when the Republican Party’s approach to the social safety net and to social justice in general, while certainly conservative, was not as aggressively opposed to certain aspects of Catholic social teaching as it is today.
In my opinion, both of these realities have changed much for the worse in the last two decades. The Democratic Party establishment has not only increasingly adhered to a policy toward abortion that is far more extreme than the position of the average American (and the average Democrat), but it has also condemned pro-life Democrats with the intensity of a fundamentalist purist. I experienced this hostility firsthand from certain party activists within my district, a few saying that my mere mention of being pro-life was a betrayal of the party—despite the fact that a 2020 Pew Research survey found that three in 10 Democrats disagreed with their party on abortion.
Nevertheless, rank-and-file Democratic volunteers in my district were extremely supportive in my campaign, many of them tirelessly knocking on doors and writing postcards on my behalf. The openness of pro-choice voters and activists at the local level to find common ground with pro-life Democrats like myself belies the black-and-white picture that the national party promotes. Our disagreement on one issue did not change our shared desire to make our community a better place.
Meanwhile, the modern Republican Party has taken positions on immigration, racial justice and economics that could not be more diametrically opposed to Catholic social teaching. And now we have a Republican president whose instincts of cruelty toward his opponents stand in complete opposition to the teachings of Christ and whose policies threaten the inherent dignity of the human person in countless ways. Additionally, while Republicans generally support legal protections for the unborn, their economic policies harm efforts to actually reduce abortion: According to a 2004 survey by the Guttmacher Institute, 73 percent of women seeking abortions cited financial distress as a main cause. The fight to end abortion and the fight to end poverty are inextricably linked.
Despite the obvious divisions in our nation, as a candidate I was almost invariably welcomed with kindness in my frequent interactions with Republican voters, many of whom were enthusiastic supporters of President Trump. A large number of Republican voters seemed struck by the fact that the flesh-and-blood Democrat standing in front of them did not match the dark caricature of Democrats they had seen on cable news.
An authentically Catholic approach to the public square
As a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, I take very seriously the duty of Catholics to bring our faith into public life; Catholics must not turn a blind eye to the death of unborn children or to the suffering of the poor. When I attended Franciscan, one of the more politically conservative Catholic schools, I started its first Young Democrats group. For all the conservatism of the university’s administration and student body, I found that the majority of both groups welcomed a productive debate on how to bring an authentically Catholic approach to the public square.
That approach seems sadly quaint today. Far too many Catholics on the conservative side of the political spectrum seem to regard large swathes of Catholic social teaching as optional, using the language of “prudential judgment” to justify cuts to food stamps and support for the death penalty. Just as dangerously, Catholics on the progressive side of the spectrum seem willing to compromise on the defense of human life in its most vulnerable, unborn state, an issue on which there should be no room for confusion or compromise for Catholics.
It does not have to be this way. One of the great strengths and hallmarks of Catholic theology has always been its et…et (“both/and”) approach. Faith and works. Scripture and tradition. Faith and reason. Nature and grace.
At its best, the Catholic tradition looks at all political parties and secular ideologies squarely and unflinchingly, and determines where they are wrong. This is because, while important, human political institutions and political ideologies are temporal and not eternal. The touchstone of this Catholic approach is the inherent dignity of every human as being made in the image and likeness of God, redeemed by Christ and welcomed by the church. And an authentically Catholic approach to political life allows no “what-about-isms”; that is, the errors of one party on abortion do not absolve the errors of the other party on social justice.
An authentic Catholic worldview will look at the abortion of an unborn child and the suffering of the poor, at the uninsured cancer patient going bankrupt, and at the immigrant being shoved to the ground and handcuffed while walking their child to school. It will look at all of these things and call them what they are: evil.
In following this directive, Catholics will make a great many enemies on both sides of the American political spectrum. So be it. I made enemies by running for office, no doubt, but I made a great many more friends on all sides of the political spectrum.
The issue of abortion, long seen as one of the most divisive in American political life, could actually become an example of a space where people of good will on both sides of the aisle can find common ground. While the debate about the legality of abortion will continue, there should be little debate about the need to support and empower mothers with nutrition programs like Women, Infants and Children, and provide access to affordable health care, to keep them from feeling forced into choosing abortion out of economic fear.
I found in my time on the campaign trail that many people are interested in a politics marked by consistency and charity, perhaps especially when consistency and charity do not line up with either political party. I was frequently encouraged by voters who told me, even when they disagreed with some of my positions, that my willingness to be honest and disagree with my own party mattered more to them than any single policy position. When one removes oneself from the extreme toxicity of social media and cable news politics, both secular and ecclesiastical, it becomes increasingly clear that the average person does not want to hate their neighbors.
The key to this politics is that compromise is not an end in itself. Being a moderate is not about having flimsy beliefs; it is instead about recognizing that the objective moral truth of the world, which surely exists, does not line up squarely with either political party in our nation. I believe that a politics that calls both extremes away from their self-destruction, that prizes human dignity above all else, is what our nation so desperately needs. I also happen to believe that a fantastic starting point for such a politics is the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
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