How To Vote Catholic
Pope John Paul II: Apostolic Exhortation The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World (Christifideles Laici), 1988:
"The inviolability of the person, which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination“ (19).
--Pope John Paul II: Encyclical Letter
The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), 1995
Our Bishops Speak Out to Clarify Whether A Catholic Can Vote For A
Pro-Abortion Candidate
As Election Day nears, more and more U.S. Catholic bishops - 89, at latest count - are issuing statements that in this election Catholic voters must make abortion their defining issue
"In defending the cause of life, we are not only fulfilling our vocation as Catholics, but we are also defending the vision of democracy that ... we are all created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, the first of which is the right to life,"
- Cardinal O'Malley, Boston
"Certainly policies on welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, taken singly or in any combination, do not provide a proportionate reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate."
- Archbishop John J Myers, Newark, N.J.
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I could never vote for a candidate – of any party for any office – who supports laws that promote or allow the death of thousands of children in the hideous crime of abortion. I just don’t want that on my conscience.
- Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, Rhode Island
"...the very first right we must protect, if all human rights are to be protected, is the right to life for the unborn. Those who do not understand or accept this basic human right are unworthy of our trust."
- Archbishop of Omaha, Most Reverend Elden F. Curtiss
"In this election, like many before it, we are faced with a conflict of values in candidates. There are many serious issues at stake in this election, but none is more important than abortion,"
"The stakes are high for all of us in this coming general election. It is up to us as individual voters to study the issues, examine the position of the candidates, pray before we enter the voting booth, and then cast our ballot in accord with consciences that are formed by the values and principles of our Catholic faith."
"...it is outright frightening how many Catholics think they can vote for a pro-abortion candidate."
- Fr. John Corapi, "Form Your Conscience, Vote Your Conscience"
In the past few months leading up to what may prove to be the most crucial presidential election in this country’s history, it is outright frightening how many Catholics think they can vote for a pro-abortion candidate. As many of our good bishops have pointed out, under the current circumstances this is not possible. Abortion is the overridingly most important moral issue of our times, all others being important, but rendered irrelevant if the preeminent right—the right to life—is destroyed. read document
"It is high time to stop pretending that we do not know what this nation of ours is allowing—and approving—with the killing each year of more than 1,600,000 innocent human beings within their mothers."
- Cardianal Edward Egan: "Just Look" (Asks you to look at the photograph of a 20-week preborn baby)
It is high time to stop pretending that we do not know what this nation of ours is allowing—and approving—with the killing each year of more than 1,600,000 innocent human beings within their mothers. We know full well that to kill what is clearly seen to be an innocent human being or what cannot be proved to be other than an innocent human being is as wrong as wrong gets. Nor can we honorably cover our shame (1) by appealing to the thoughts of Aristotle or Aquinas on the subject, inasmuch as we are all well aware that their understanding of matters embryological was hopelessly mistaken, (2) by suggesting that “killing” and “choosing to kill” are somehow distinct ethically, morally or criminally, (3) by feigning ignorance of the meaning of “human being,” “person,” “living,” and such, (4) by maintaining that among the acts covered by the right to privacy is the act of killing an innocent human being, and (5) by claiming that the being within the mother is “part” of the mother, so as to sustain the oft-repeated slogan that a mother may kill or authorize the killing of the being within her “because she is free to do as she wishes with her own body.”
One day, please God, when the stranglehold on public opinion in the United States has been released by the extremists for whom abortion is the center of their political and moral life, our nation will, in my judgment, look back on what we have been doing to innocent human beings within their mothers as a crime no less heinous than what was approved by the Supreme Court in the "Dred Scott Case" in the 19th century, and no less heinous than what was perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin in the 20th. There is nothing at all complicated about the utter wrongness of abortion, and making it all seem complicated mitigates that wrongness not at all. On the contrary, it intensifies it. read column
"Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate,"
- Retired Bishop Rene Garcia
A retired US bishop has issued a public statement declaring that Catholics cannot in good conscience vote for Barack Obama in this year's presidential election. "A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate," said Bishop Rene Gracida, the retired head of the Corpus Christ, Texas diocese. Bishop Gracida's statement has been released as a potential radio advertisment by pro-life activist Randall Terry. CatholicCulture
“Voting is a fundamentally moral act ... for which we will each be accountable before God.”
- Missouri Bishop James Johnston
“Voting is a fundamentally moral act ... for which we will each be accountable before God.” The key to voting decisions is a conscience that is “formed and informed by the truth. Issues such as how to provide affordable health care or better education or how to conduct and conclude a war are issues that are open to principled debate. Life issues such as abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research are not in that category. These are simply wrong in every conceivable circumstance.”
When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say: “I did not know.”
- Cardinal Justin Rigali
“The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.”
At this moment in our country’s history, defense of innocent human life is a moral responsibility for all of us. The same God who thundered from Mount Sinai: “Thou shalt not kill,” thunders still. When life in the womb is destroyed, God thunders: “This is a child!” When by the most barbaric means, unworthy of any civilized people, the brain of a child is sucked out of his or her head by a vacuum, God thunders: “This is a child!” When a baby is left to die of exposure on a shelf because of a failed abortion, and this is considered a “right” by any leader, God, the Source of all law and authority, thunders: “This is a child!” When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say: “I did not know.”
"...it is not legitimate to disagree on abortion and still vote for a radical abortion candidate."
- Fr. Thomas J Euteneuer: The Catholic Vote
Casting a vote for a candidate who forcefully advocates the killing of innocent unborn babies shows approval or unacceptable toleration of that heinous crime against humanity, and Catholics can never do it in good conscience. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls such an attitude and action “formal cooperation” in evil (#2272). This does not mean that I commit the evil myself. It means that I agree with it and have made it possible for a person in public office to continue and/or advance that evil in my society.
...the degree to which the candidate would promote something as heinous as abortion can literally nullify all the other "good" that he or she would do for humanity! When the fundamental right to life is denied in society, all other rights and goods are therefore threatened. The very moral foundation of a people is eroded. So the answer has to be no, it is not legitimate to disagree on abortion and still vote for a radical abortion candidate. read newsletter
"Save our children! How can a so-called good Catholic vote for a candidate that supports laws that take the life of innocent children, when there is an alternative? "
- St Louis Bishop Robert Hermann writes in the St. Louis Review, "I Thought You Should Know"
"Save our children! More than anything else, this election is about saving our children or killing our children. This life issue is the overriding issue facing each of us in this coming election. All other issues, including the economy, have to take second place to the issue of life.
Save our children! How can a so-called good Catholic vote for a candidate that supports laws that take the life of innocent children, when there is an alternative? If there were two candidates who supported abortion, but not equally, we would have the obligation to mitigate the evil by voting for the less-permissive candidate.
Save our children! How can a so-called good Catholic vote for a candidate that supports laws that justify the killing of a child that survived a botched abortion? How can such a so-called good Catholic receive the Holy Eucharist?" read entire statement
"...people who claim that the abortion struggle is ”lost” as a matter of law, or that supporting an outspoken defender of legal abortion is somehow ”prolife,” are not just wrong; they’re betraying the witness of every person who continues the work of defending the unborn child.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput: Address ENDOW - "The Homicides Involved in Abortion Are 'Little Murders'”
In an address delivered on October 17, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput stated that ''Prof. Douglas Kmiec has a strong record of service to the Church and the nation in his past. But I think his activism for Senator Barack Obama, and the work of Democratic-friendly groups like Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.''
. . . I believe that Senator Obama, whatever his other talents, is the most committed ”abortion-rights” presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973. Despite what Prof. Kmiec suggests, the party platform Senator Obama runs on this year is not only aggressively ”pro-choice;” it has also removed any suggestion that killing an unborn child might be a regrettable thing . . .
Prof. Kmiec argues that there are defensible motives to support Senator Obama. Speaking for myself, I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than 40 million unborn children killed by abortion and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates. . . .read more Witherspoon
Texas Bishops to Catholics: Voting for pro-choice candidates is “morally impermissible”
- Bishops of the Dallas and Forth Worth:
In a two-page encyclical issued last week, the Bishops of the Dallas and Forth Worth dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church decried pro-choice political candidates and told church members that voting for pro-choice candidates was “morally impermissible.”
"...there are no 'truly grave moral' or 'proportionate' reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year. To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or 'abortion rights' when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil -- and, therefore, morally impermissible."
The document uses the word “evil” no less than 16 times to describe abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Pro-Abortion Candidates are "Disqualified"
- Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa: “The conditions under which an individual may be able to vote for a pro-abortion candidate would apply only if all the candidates are equally pro-abortion… “When we have someone who has that stand on a disqualifying issue, then the other issues, in many ways, do not matter because they are already wrong on that absolutely fundamental issue… Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country.” read story
"What could possibly be a proportionate reason for the more than 45 million children killed by abortion in the past 35 years?"
- Kansas Bishops Issue "Moral Principles For Catholic Voters":"There are, however, some issues that always involve doing evil, such as legalized abortion, the promotion of same-sex unions and 'marriages,' repression of religious liberty, as well as public policies permitting euthanasia, racial discrimination or destructive human embryonic stem cell research. A properly formed conscience must give such issues priority even over other matters with important moral dimensions.To vote for a candidate who supports these intrinsic evils because he or she supports these evils is to participate in a grave moral evil. It can never be justified."
"Catholic teaching does not treat all issues as morally equivalent.The protection of human life from conception until natural death is the preeminent obligation of a truly just society."
- Pennsylvania Bishops: "A Call to Faithful Citizenship and Respect for Life"
"We wish to reiterate that the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia, is not just one issue among many. Time and time again, we bishops have taught that the right to life is the most basic and fundamental human right and must always be defended. Intrinsic evils can never be supported. Catholic teaching does not treat all issues as morally equivalent. The protection of human life from conception until natural death is the preeminent obligation of a truly just society." read statement
Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics - Catholic Vote 2008
by CatholicAnswers
As you know, the majority of American Catholics have traditionally voted for political candidates who take the WRONG positions on the key moral issues of our day. Why do Catholics vote for the very things they’re bound in conscience to oppose?
The answer is simple: They aren’t really aware of what they’re doing!
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship:
A Call to Political Responsibility from the Bishops of the United States
"The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many," the bishops stated. "It must always be opposed."
- Why Does the Church Teach About Issues Affecting Public Policy?
- Who in the Church Should Participate in Political Life?
- How Does the Church Help the Faithful to Address Social and Political Questions?
- What Does the Church Say about Catholic Social Teaching in the Public
Square?—Seven Key Themes
- Applying Catholic Teaching to Major Issues: A Summary of Policy
Positions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- Goals for Political Life: Challenges for Citizens, Candidates, and
Public Officials
Doctrinal Note: The Participation of Catholics in Political Life
In the face of fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, Christians must recognize that what is at stake is the essence of the moral law, which concerns the integral good of the human person.
This is the case with laws concerning abortion and euthanasia (not to be confused with the decision to forgo extraordinary treatments, which is morally legitimate). Such laws must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death. In the same way, it is necessary to recall the duty to respect and protect the rights of the human embryo.
Analogously, the family needs to be safeguarded and promoted, based on monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and protected in its unity and stability in the face of modern laws on divorce: in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such.
How To Vote Catholic
by Deal W. Hudson
W. Hudson provides the framework in which we as Catholics are to participate in the political arena. He provides the voter a clear understanding of the principles of Catholic moral and social teaching and addresses the confusion among Catholics regarding non-negotiable issues grounded in fundamental truth and non-binding prudential judgments on policy issues.
Click here for PDF of "How to Vote Catholic" Guide
The CATHOLIC VOTE
Father Frank Pavone, National Director for Priests for Life, presents a six-part series on the relevance of upcoming elections in the United States for the protection of human life. He cites several ways to get further involved in the political process.
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Ten Easy Steps to… Voting with a Clear Conscience
by Fr. Frank Pavone
Fr. Frank Pavone has put together a booklet called “Voting with a Clear Conscience,” which summarizes the message he delivers around the country regarding the moral considerations of voting. EWTN
Fr. Pavone provides answers to the following.
- What do the Pope and Bishops say about our duty to vote?
- What issues are most important in deciding which candidate to support?
- What if no candidate seems right?
In 1998, the United States Catholic Bishops issued Living the Gospel of Life, their most comprehensive statement on the political responsibility of Americans. In that document they made this plea: “We encourage all citizens, particularly Catholics, to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building the culture of life. Every voice matters in the public forum. Every vote counts. Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power” (n. 34).
read “Voting with a Clear Conscience”
Catholics In The Public Square
by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted encourages Catholics to take an active role in politics, addressing the folllowing questions...
Should Catholics take into account their own faith at the moment of voting?
It only makes sense that if Catholics are supposed to live their faith in all of their daily activities that they should also take their faith into account while voting. As noted in the Second Vatican Council's teaching, " every citizen ought to be mindful of his right and his duty to promote the common good by using his vote ." ( Gaudium et Spes , 75)
In preparing to vote, Catholics need to understand their faith so that their consciences are properly formed. Subsequent to this formation, it is important to research all of the important issues and candidates that will appear on the ballot. Only after sufficient preparation and prayer, is a Catholic fully ready to discharge his or her responsibilities as a faithful citizen and cast a meaningful vote.
Can Catholics honestly disagree in matters of politics, social or cultural issues?
In 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document entitled Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding Participation of Catholics in Political Life , that addresses the existence of political matters in which Catholics may disagree. There are, indeed, many issues upon which Catholics may legitimately differ such as the best methods to achieve welfare reform or to address illegal immigration.
Conversely, however, there are other issues that are intrinsically evil and can never legitimately be supported. For example, Catholics may never legitimately promote or vote for any law that attacks innocent human life.