Newsweek, addressing you as a fellow American Catholic. The reason for these public overtures is self-evident: the United States has never before had a president who touts his religious credentials and bona fides, even as he backs one policy after another that subverts his church's teachings.
So long as this dissonance continues, it needs addressing—if only to clarify a few basics about what Catholicism teaches, and what it doesn't.We are not speaking here of issues about which citizens might reasonably disagree, like the fair distribution of taxes, the filibuster, the canceling of the Keystone pipeline and so on.