Catholic Values and the Election

As citizens we all have a duty to vote, Catholics included. This election is troublesome for many and there have been many Catholics and other Christians who have tried to claim that voting for the party of death (you know who I mean) is in accord with their faith. Surprisingly, many of them acknowledge that the platform of that party first and foremost wants unrestricted abortion. By acknowledging that fact they are admitting that their vote is a vote for unrestricted abortion. All other issues pale in comparison.

Pope St. John Paul II commented on these people thusly, “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” Pope St. John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, Dec 1988

This past weekend one of them even managed to get a letter printed in the Wall Street Journal. I sent in a rebuttal, but it wasn’t printed. The first thing this woman did was acknowledge Kamala Harris’s extreme position on abortion as well as the fact that some Church teachings are more important than others. She then claimed that “Ms. Harris better upholds the Christian values of the golden rule,” including serving the poor and welcoming the stranger. Even Pope Francis acknowledged that we are in a position where we have to choose the lesser evil. If one reads the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship or their letter concerning this election which make these important points we find this statement: “... all issues do not carry the same moral weight and that the moral obligation to oppose policies promoting intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on our consciences and our actions.” The bishops in Virginia have restated this and summed up Catholic teaching as follows: “three principles must guide how we vote:
·      Many issues are important.
·      Not all issues have equal moral weight.
·      Protecting life is paramount.”

What is more welcoming of the stranger than to protect the child in the womb? As for immigration, read the whole of article 2241 in the Catechism which notes that countries have the right to control immigration – controlled immigration is not rejecting the immigrant. Furthermore, controlled immigration better supports the common good as we can see from the negative effects of uncontrolled immigration; crime, property damage, theft, and even murder. Similarly, issues with the poor tend to be issues of implementation. The old saying, “give a man a fish and he eats for one day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for the rest of his life,” is applicable here. One should not conflate negotiable acts and policies with non-negotiable ones. Opposition to abortion is non-negotiable. It is more of a human rights issue than the supposed rights of the mother to her “reproductive freedom” because, once she becomes pregnant (a precondition for abortion), reproduction has already occurred. In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all inalienable rights are founded and from which they develop.”

In discussions with several other Catholics we all agreed that the whole culture of death is pure evil. Many want to deny evil exists, but Pope St. Paul VI put his finger on it in a homily in 1972: “The evil which exists in the world is the result and the effect of an attack on society by a dark and hostile agent, the devil. Evil is not only a privation but a living, spiritual corrupt and corrupting being. A terrible reality, mysterious and frightening. The testimony of both Bible and Church tells us that people refuse to acknowledge his existence, … or is explained away as a pseudo-reality, …” This is why we have people belonging to the Satanic Temple who say they don’t really worship Satan but advocate a satanic religious abortion rite.

This is also the party of “hope and change.”

“A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.” Pope St. John Paul II

Consider the Catechism: “One may not do evil that good may come from it.” (CCC 1756, 1761, 1789)