Catholic Election Considerations: Preparing to Vote

“The devil can tempt you to do something wrong, but ultimately you choose.” Fr. William Casey, You Shall Stand Firm, p. 145

Having worked on the proper formation of our consciences, we must look at the candidates, the issues, and the platforms of each party.

Having looked carefully at Church teaching as part of conscience formation we should now know what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, and where to go to find additional answers. Intrinsic evils can never be supported. Some of these, as delineated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church include: abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, research on human embryos, and In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Similarly, “One may never do evil so that good may result from it.” (CCC 1789)

A close look at the platforms of the two parties reveals many life issues that should be of concern to Catholics even if they do not rise to the significance of intrinsic evil.  Other issues that complicate election decisions are other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism, environmental concerns, poverty, and the death penalty. For example, one side avidly supports freedom of religion while the other has removed God from its platform and encouraged (or actively engaged in) targeting Catholic faithful. Furthermore, that side wants to subjugate religious beliefs to secular opinions.

Examining the facts and background information about various choices is important. So, while the secular society advocates for several things that are opposed to Catholic teaching, some of which may not seem to be truly bad on the surface, we must look deeper into the issues. The current trend in transgenderism would falls into this category. Once one looks into the issue, one finds that the Church is correct in opposing transgender therapy and operations. Studies show that the claim that we need to support those with transgender tendencies in order to reduce the potential for suicide, continued anxiety and depression are false. A study by the secular community reports that, “There is a consistently observed higher risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender subpopulations compared to the general population. These outcomes include depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and most alarmingly, suicide. For example, among the transgender subpopulation in the United States, the rate of attempted suicide is estimated to be as high as 41%, ten times higher than in the general population.” (The New Atlantis, Fall 2016) They also report that, “Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood.” As a result, some European nations have stopped these operations in favor of psychiatric therapy. The country of Sweden after looking at this and similar research now prohibits chemical and surgical transgender treatment for minors as they do not solve the problem establishing “mental health support and psychological care” as the first line of treatment.

So how do we treat situations where there is no clear-cut option between candidates? The temptation to moral equivalence that makes no ethical distinctions between different kinds of issues involving human life and dignity is destructive and contrary to the Gospel and Church teaching. “The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed.” Forming Consciences, 28 Obviously we must come up with some prioritization scheme to decide. This is easy if one side is a proponent of intrinsic evils while the other is opposed. But what if both sides have some intrinsic evil in their platforms as is the current situation with IVF. One would need to weigh the relative significance between the parties on this and other evils. So, while both favor IVF, in my view, the case of abortion seems more serious and the overwhelming support for abortion by one party is a major strike against them. There’s a reason Cardinal Dolan called them the party of death.

Therefore, one needs to look at the truths of the various arguments of each candidate and their party.

Here are a few questions that, in light of Church teaching, may help us to decide (and keep in mind, most politicians will vote party lines, so know about their party, too).

·      Which candidate supports policies the Church has identified as intrinsic evils?

·      Which party supports items of interest to the Church (and society), such as religious freedom, school choice, free speech, etc.

·      Which candidate has a record of truth and transparency?
·      Which candidate supports the fullness of human sexuality as taught by the Church (e.g., the complementarity of the sexes, reality of birth gender, etc.)?
·      Which candidate supports the sanctity of the family?
·      Which candidate supports the sanctity of the elderly?
·      Which candidate supports personal responsibility?
·      Which candidate supports the sanctity of marriage and marital relations?
·      Which candidate takes you further from God?

 We must not be taken in by those who try to convince us that they are not personally in favor of these evils but don’t want to inflict their views on others. Every time they pass a law it inflicts their views on others, particularly if it is contrary to the will of the majority. For example, the majority of parents want to be informed about what is happening with their children, including transgender tendencies, abortion, sex indoctrination, etc., yet all levels of government have tried (and in many cases succeeded) in keeping parents in the dark.

Moral relativism, which declares that we each make our own truths, is a lie and destructive and must be opposed. Following that logic, there would be no need for any laws, as we could do whatever we pleased. But everyone knows that would not work. We all know there are limits. They are written into our hearts by God. Pope Francis, while reaffirming the necessity to vote, recently noted that this election appears to be selecting the lesser of two evils. We must be careful to avoid moral relativism in that selection. So, while abortion (murder as Pope Francis put it) is anti-life, so is not welcoming migrants. BUT, they are NOT morally equivalent. One, abortion, is intrinsically evil.

“In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.” Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 16

Intrinsic evil can never be supported.