Andrew Cuomo Sacrificed His Catholic Faith for Political Power

National Catholic Register, 11 August 2021

He will not be greatly missed, but his significance should not be overlooked.

“Insensitive and off-putting.”

That’s how Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York characterized his own sense of humor in his resignation speech after multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

It could serve as a fitting coda for his entire public life. 

Andrew Cuomo, three times elected governor of New York (2010, 2014, 2018), is the son of the late Mario Cuomo, also elected three times governor of New York (1982, 1986 and 1990, before being defeated for re-election in 1994). Both father and son spent their lives in search of, or holding, political office.

Hyper-ambitious from his youth, Andrew married Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, in 1990, divorcing in 2005. The marriage united the aristocratic Catholic political family from Hyannis Port with the aspiring Catholic political family from Queens. It was hailed at the time as a powerful political force, perhaps a new JFK-era Camelot. They called it “Cuomolot” but by the time it ended — Kennedy asked for a divorce immediately after Cuomo’s failed 2002 bid for governor concluded — it was clear that Cuomo’s political ambition made his Kennedy in-laws regard him as, well, generally insensitive and off-putting.

Andrew Cuomo represented a new generation of the liberal Catholic politician. Mario Cuomo practiced his faith and took the public consequences of that faith seriously. Thus, when he found himself at odds with the clear teaching of the Church on the right to life, he made a public argument to explain his “personally opposed, publicly pro-choice” position. It was an argument more of political convenience than philosophical coherence, but it was an argument. 

Andrew was neither his father’s intellectual nor rhetorical equal, and would not, even if he had tried, been capable of coherent argument in political philosophy, let alone moral philosophy. He didn’t even try. He was grasping — in the metaphorical sense, not only in the groping sense — and only did what was politically necessary. 

His Catholic significance is that he no longer judged it necessary to make arguments about how to reconcile his Catholic faith with his embrace of the extreme abortion license. He simply sacrificed his faith to his politics and got on with the pursuit of power. 

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