Catholic Voting

It's getting closer and closer to elections and the debate is raging: are Catholics morally obliged to vote for a particular party/candidate? The best article I have seen that deals with this issue is Bill Donahue's article "Catholic Left Hangs Itself," on InsideCatholic.com. Clearly, it is a very biased article, but it nevertheless brings up a couple of crucial points.

I have always seen a clear distinction between social issues and economic issues, though I do see them as interconnected. Luckily for me, I fall on the conservative side on both counts. Yet social issues have always been more important for me. When I say "social issues," I am referring to issues such as abortion, marriage and the family, etc. By "economic issues," on the other hand, I mean the policies we implement to combat poverty, poor education, substandard housing, etc. I'm not sure that these are the most accurate terms to group these issues, but bear with me. The social issues could also be called "undebatable issues," because, for Catholics, the debate on these issues is closed. The Church does not permit a plurality of opinion about them. It has been made unequivocally clear what a faithful Catholic must believe about these topics.

Economic issues, on the other hand, could be called "debatable issues," because the Church allows for debate. With the exception of condemning Communism, the Church makes no unequivocal statements about economic systems or policy. All faithful Catholics must, certainly, strive to eliminate poverty and sub-standard housing, and improve education, certainly, but the Church permits debate about how best to do so. Liberals think that the best way to do so is to pour more and more money into failing government systems; Conservatives think that the best way to do so is to encourage private businesses and charities (including the Church!). But the Church neither condemns nor approves either opinion. Each side can find Bishops to defend their positions, but there is no consensus.

In his article, Donahue quotes Pope Benedict in an attempt to make just this point. "On May 13," he writes, "Pope Benedict XVI told Italian pro-lifers that 'the Church's Magisterium' has always proclaimed abortion to be 'non-negotiable.' He didn't use that term to refer to the minimum wage, dilapidated housing, or Third World debt."

And so the social, or undebatable, issues must always take precedence when a Catholic decides who to vote for, even when that Catholic thinks the liberal solution to economic issues is preferable. This is because to vote for a politician who stands against the Church on undebatable issues is an act of disobedience to Church teaching, whereas to vote for a politician whom you disagree with on the debatable issues is clearly not.


Another important quote Donahue uses comes from Archbishop Chaput. Chaput writes that Catholic voters may vote for a pro-choice politician when they have a "proportionate reason." He defines a proportionate reason as "the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life -- which we most certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed."

This is a powerful quote, and one that should give any Catholic considering voting for a pro-choice candidate pause. What Donahue doesn't tackle, but I think this quote speaks to, is the question of war. One of the most popular arguments of Catholics who vote for pro-choice Democrats is that the Democrats are less bellicose. Although Bush may be pro-life, pro-marriage, etc., he has led us into an unjust war that has led to the deaths of millions of people. This is certainly true, and as Catholics we are called on to pray for the end to all wars. However, it A) has no bearing whatsoever on who we choose to vote for in this election and B) doesn't strike me as a proportional reason, at all.

Now, I am not a utilitarian, but in this case I think it is relevant to look at numbers. McCain, the current Republican nominee, supports a war that has led to the deaths of up to 4,000 coalition troops and about 100,000 Iraqis (some from violence, some from disease, etc.) since it began 5 years ago. Hillary and Obama, on the other hand, support policy that leads to the death of the same number of utterly defenseless unborn children EVERY MONTH. Since we apparently can't have it both ways (and in point of fact neither Obama nor Hillary will be able to stem the violence in Iraq better than can McCain), I think we should heed Archbishop Chaput and consider how we will explain our voting choices in the hereafter.

Conclusion: McCain '08.