In Brief: What the Paul Ryan Selection Means

With Mitt Romney choosing Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate we will probably see a renewed debate among the Catholic academic class as to the 42 year old law maker’s Catholic “street cred.”  Back in the spring he was heavily criticized in an open letter by members of the Georgetown faculty before a scheduled speech there, and also earned a rebuke from a committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for the budget he proposed in Congress.  It called for entitlement cuts as a way of handling the deficit, and this was interpreted as a violation of the Church’s preferential option for the poor.  Ryan didn’t back down, saying that Catholic social teaching calls for a balance between solidarity-the recognition and living out of the interdependence of all members of society, and subsidiarity-the principle that local problems should be solved locally, beginning with the individual, before appealing to a higher authority.  Both principles have more to them, and both sides accused the other of over simplification.  What was hopeful about Ryan’s response was that he said what many of us “conservative” Catholics have long thought; that the Church’s social teaching has had a one sided presentation up to now.  We’ve for a long time needed to have a real debate about whether the welfare state, usually proposed as the best embodiment of Catholic thought, really alleviates poverty, promotes the common good and helps people fulfill their God given call to holiness.  With Congressman Ryan as a part of the ticket that opportunity has finally arrived.