It's been a rough year for Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan in his dealings with the Jesuits. (Esquire's Charlie Pierce puts it better---and more colorfully---here.)The latest episode comes courtesy of Vincent Miller in America's fine group blog, "In All Things". Miller listened to the available audio of Paul Ryan's 2005 speech at the Atlas Societys Celebration of Ayn Rand", and made his own partial transcription of portions of the speech that had not previously been transcribed.After listening closely to Ryan's speech, Miller concludes "This philosophy leaves no room for Catholic notions of Government in service to the common good, there is no room for a social conception of the human person. Rejection of Rands atheism notwithstanding, Ryans policies are based on a political philosophy completely at odds with the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine. Prudence is an insufficient measure of his proposals and the threat this philosophy poses to the Catholic faithful."It's far too early for retrospectives about this election season, but it does seem that one small positive outcome is likely to be a growing recognition of the extent to which Chairman Ryan and many Republicans have distanced themselves from the mainstream of Catholic teaching.But, as Miller himself writes, "Dont trust my bullets. Read the transcript. Dont trust my transcript, listen to the audio on the Atlas Society site."

Luke Hill is a writer and community organizer in Boston. He blogs at dotCommonweal and MassCommons. 

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