What’s A Catholic Voter Supposed to Do?
Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship & Development
Heartland Parishes of Ellis County
I try to keep up on a variety of Catholic issues. Having attended a Catholic college that required religious education as an undergraduate and choosing a Master of Theology program at another, I’m better versed on theological issues than the average Catholic.
But I have to admit, following the discussion as to how Catholics are supposed to vote, while respecting conscience and free will, had me scratching my head for a while.
To start, Catholics have always been taught that we should vote our consciences…but our consciences need to be properly formed. In order words, we need to have a decent understanding of the moral and theological issues our faith demands of us. That, I will tell you up front, is easier said than done. These issues can be incredibly complex.
Cardinal Ratzinger has recently explained the concept of proportionality. In other words, the moral values we hold have a certain priority of order. Among the top of the order are abortion and euthanasia. Cloning and embryonic stem cell research would essentially be sub-category of abortion.
So, for a Catholic to vote for a candidate because that person is pro-abortion would be a serious sin. It would be considered material (i.e. significant) cooperation. But to vote for a pro-abortion candidate might be okay if we are voting for him/her for another reason. Yet, as we will see, even that is nuanced. The reason would have to be proportionate (i.e. of equal moral value).
Why would a Catholic who disagrees with abortion vote for a candidate who espouses it? To make this simple, let’s hypothetically pretend that abortion was the only issue in this campaign and both candidates are pro-abortion. In that case it would be the Catholic citizen’s responsibility to vote for the candidate who is less pro-abortion. In other words, the Catholic voter should vote for the lesser evil. That’s permissible. In fact, it is encouraged. To not vote because you are against abortion could end up resulting in more abortions.
Where it gets complicated is that abortion and euthanasia are not the only moral issues we Catholics should be weighing in on. What about war, taxes, poverty, the death penalty, immigration, social security, AIDS, homosexual unions, and etc? There are some pretty significant issues there.
The Church agrees. She tries to teach justice in every area. But what Cardinal Ratzinger (whose realm this falls under) and the bishops of the United States are starting to say is that, proportionately, abortion and euthanasia are the most important moral issues.
I presume that’s because when a child is aborted or a person is euthanized, the issue is over for that person. If a war is unjust, a person is in poverty, taxes are unfair, etc., those are areas that can be corrected or reversed over time. But when a person is dead, there is no changing that. And we as Catholic believe that each life has infinite value because the soul is eternal.
The bottom line question the Church seems to be trying to get us to understand/answer is what moral issue is more important than the right to life? What trumps life?
The answer I am reading is nothing. AIDS, taxes, homosexual unions, poverty, and everything else thrown into the mix don’t trump the right to life as a moral issue. The right to life is the moral anchor of the natural law. Once that is overridden, we cannot, but, have chaos. Without that anchor, the world will implode.
How do we steward the manifold gifts of God when we’re dead?