Voting With the Heart and Mind of the Church: It's More Important Than You Think

As we draw near to the mid-term elections on November 4, I once again am reminded of just how important the Catholic voice is in the political realm. Over the course of the last twelve months, we have seen some major changes sweep across our nation. Since January, sixteen states have recognized same-sex “marriage”, many states, most notably Texas, have attempted to enact stricter abortion regulations, only to have them shut down by activist judges and several states, including Oregon allow people to euthanize themselves. At the Federal and State levels, we have Senators and Representatives who support efforts to spread abortion, same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia. Many support the HHS mandate of the Affordable Care Act requiring individuals and companies to pay for medical services and procedures that may be contrary to their consciences. We as Catholics need to stand as ONE and let our voices be heard together. As Jesus said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand”¹.

As Catholics, we have a duty not only to God, but also to our fellow Americans to vote with a properly formed conscience. Being a good voter is much like being a good parent. As a parent, we do not always give our children what they want; we give our children what is best for them. Likewise, when we vote we should not vote for a candidate because they promise to give us what we want, but rather we should vote for them because they will do what is best for our country. Expanding access to abortion, redefining marriage and legalizing euthanasia do not make our country any better. In fact, they do just the opposite by diminishing the value of human life.

The Catechism reminds us of our civilian duties as faithful Catholics, it says, “Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country”². For most of us, voting is the single most important thing we can do to influence society around us. Do we want our influence to be negative or positive?

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2007 released a wonderfully informative document titled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. ⁹ In this document this bishops lay out four major areas of concern. They are Protecting Human Life, Promoting Family Life, Pursuing Social Justice and Practicing Global Solidarity. Inside of these areas of concern lie issues of extreme importance. These issues have become known as the Five Non-Negotiables and they are Abortion, Euthanasia, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning and Same-Sex “Marriage”³.

I want to briefly touch on each of these Non-Negotiable issues, beginning with abortion.

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it"⁴. While one may not directly vote for legislation which favors abortion, if they vote for a candidate who favors abortion they are just as culpable as if they favor it themselves. We must understand that our actions both in public and in private have societal effects. Voting is the place where we, as a united Church can have an extremely positive effect on society.

Second is euthanasia. This topic has become a major issue in the news recently as Brittany Maynard, a 29-year old mother in Oregon with terminal brain cancer has announced publicly through a nation-wide campaign that she plans to commit suicide on November 1 and has already obtained the prescription from the doctor to do it. We must remind those around us that we are not the authors of life and death. We do not have the right to take our own lives, nor do we have the right to take the life of any other innocent person. St. John Paul II described euthanasia like this, “In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person”⁵.

Third is embryonic stem cell research. Often clouded by the contraceptive and abortive mentality of our society, we lose sight of the fact that human embryos are human beings and as such are deserving of the same rights as any other human being, most notably the right to life. The Pontifical Council for the Family has stated, “Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo”⁶. Recent scientific studies have also shown that adult stem cell research is more promising than embryonic stem cell research. Because of this, there is no valid medical argument that can justify the use and destruction of embryonic stem cells.

Fourth is human cloning. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has stated, “attempts or hypotheses for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission’, cloning or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union”⁷. In the same document, the CDF also discusses in vitro fertilization (IVF) and its moral implications.

Fifth is same-sex “marriage”. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is the life-long union of one man and one woman ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring⁸. Any union that does not consist of one man and one woman and is not ordered toward the procreation of children cannot be considered a marriage. The legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement?. The CDF stated with regard to same-sex “marriage”, “When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral”¹°. However, lawmakers who claim to be Catholic support same-sex “marriage” every day.

It is our civic and moral duty as Catholics to see to it that we vote for candidates who will uphold Catholic principles.

Many Catholics I know will argue and say “What about the social issues impacting our nation and the world?” Social issues are very important as well; however, there is a difference between social issues and moral issues. With moral issues, there is only one right way to do something – for it is either moral or immoral. When it comes to social issues like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, welcoming immigrants, military policy, etc., these are issues of prudential judgment – meaning there is more than one way to go about handling the situation. In our current government, we see the political parties arguing over the “best” way to handle various social situations.

As Catholics, we must always vote with the heart and mind of the Church. Do not vote for a candidate solely because they are affiliated with your political party OR because they claim to be Catholic. There are many so-called Catholic politicians who are not faithful to the Magisterium. We must become educated on the issues and the candidates. Look into their previous voting records if they have held office previously, examine their individual campaign platform as well as the platform of their political party, look at issues/candidates they have endorsed in the past and also who some of their campaign partners are. They say, “Birds of a feather flock together”. If other candidates they are campaigning with are strong Pro-Life candidates, there is a good chance they are as well.

In the end, what it boils down to here is being an informed voter. As Catholics, we need to be informed not just about the issues and candidates, but also on the moral implications associated with the issues and candidates. While we cannot limit ourselves to being single-issue voters, however, we must put a higher priority on the moral issues, especially the Non-Negotiable issues.

Here are some additional sources to check out in order to better educate yourself on the responsibilities of the Catholic voter.

http://www.catholicclergy.net/app/ - This is an app for Android and iPhones that is a Non-Partisan guide to authentic moral citizenship.

https://www.catholicvote.org/

https://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm

http://www.catholicadvocate.com/voter-guide-2/voter-guide/

http://www.catholicity.com/vote/guide.html

http://www.priestsforlife.org/vote/votingwithclearconscience.htm