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The Catholic Vote

pearl

Well-Known Member
I never did follow single issue voting. Nice to have it reenforced though, voting according to one's conscience.


discerning whom to vote for as a faithful Catholic cannot be boiled down to a single issue and must instead focus on establishing and maintaining the common good.

“The common good is, in Catholic theology, the advancement of the whole series of issues in society which allow the fullest expression and enhancement and achievement of human life and dignity for all people in our society and in the world,” he explained. “To say that abortion is the preeminent issue in a particular political season is to reduce the common good, in effect, to one issue.”

“That’s a distortion of Catholic teaching,” he said. “In fact, the assertion that abortion is the preeminent issue in this political campaign for Catholics is itself a political statement, not a doctrinal one, because it is inevitably rooted in a political analysis of the situation.”

“The analogy is because the issue of life is foundational,” he said, and because life is foundational, then the defense of innocent, unborn lives must be paramount.
“But,” he challenged, “the house itself and the foundation rest on the earth, and the earth is at stake in climate change and in the care of creation. And so you don’t have a house and you don’t have a foundation if you don’t have the earth. If you don’t attend to the coming catastrophes we are beginning to witness now in the winds and the fires and the hurricanes...there will be no Earth in terms of a habitable place for our humanity.”

Bishop McElroy implored voters to be “attentive to a comprehensive understanding of what our faith teaches us and what Catholic social teaching teaches us. It’s a bad thing to reduce that to any one issue or any small set of issues.”

Ultimately, the role of the church is to “bring us the proclamations of the Gospel,” he said, and not to make political determinations for the faithful. That responsibility, he explained, rests on a well-formed conscience.

“Catholic teaching is always that in your core of your heart, when you are just there with God, after you’ve listened to the teachings of the church, after you’ve listened to other issues.... You sit down and you pray and ask what is God calling you to do?

“If you’re doing that authentically, then your highest authority is conscience,” he said. “In Catholic teaching, not only can you follow your conscience, you must. It is sinful not to follow a well-formed conscience.”
Voting Catholic: Should Catholics ever be single-issue voters? | America Magazine
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
I never did follow single issue voting. Nice to have it reenforced though, voting according to one's conscience.


discerning whom to vote for as a faithful Catholic cannot be boiled down to a single issue and must instead focus on establishing and maintaining the common good.

“The common good is, in Catholic theology, the advancement of the whole series of issues in society which allow the fullest expression and enhancement and achievement of human life and dignity for all people in our society and in the world,” he explained. “To say that abortion is the preeminent issue in a particular political season is to reduce the common good, in effect, to one issue.”

“That’s a distortion of Catholic teaching,” he said. “In fact, the assertion that abortion is the preeminent issue in this political campaign for Catholics is itself a political statement, not a doctrinal one, because it is inevitably rooted in a political analysis of the situation.”

“The analogy is because the issue of life is foundational,” he said, and because life is foundational, then the defense of innocent, unborn lives must be paramount.
“But,” he challenged, “the house itself and the foundation rest on the earth, and the earth is at stake in climate change and in the care of creation. And so you don’t have a house and you don’t have a foundation if you don’t have the earth. If you don’t attend to the coming catastrophes we are beginning to witness now in the winds and the fires and the hurricanes...there will be no Earth in terms of a habitable place for our humanity.”

Bishop McElroy implored voters to be “attentive to a comprehensive understanding of what our faith teaches us and what Catholic social teaching teaches us. It’s a bad thing to reduce that to any one issue or any small set of issues.”

Ultimately, the role of the church is to “bring us the proclamations of the Gospel,” he said, and not to make political determinations for the faithful. That responsibility, he explained, rests on a well-formed conscience.

“Catholic teaching is always that in your core of your heart, when you are just there with God, after you’ve listened to the teachings of the church, after you’ve listened to other issues.... You sit down and you pray and ask what is God calling you to do?

“If you’re doing that authentically, then your highest authority is conscience,” he said. “In Catholic teaching, not only can you follow your conscience, you must. It is sinful not to follow a well-formed conscience.”
Voting Catholic: Should Catholics ever be single-issue voters? | America Magazine
I am surprised that this needs to be spelled out, but in the febrile political climate of the USA it is probably just as well. Traditionalist Catholics could be faced with weighing the clamping down on abortion against the destruction of US democracy.
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
I am surprised that this needs to be spelled out, but in the febrile political climate of the USA it is probably just as well. Traditionalist Catholics could be faced with weighing the clamping down on abortion against the destruction of US democracy.

There was a time not so very long ago, that Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate was 'cooperating' with sin. Then came the possibility for voting for such a candidate if you did so in spite of the abortion issue not because of it.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
On this issue, which we will be voting for or against on the issue of abortion [Proposition 3] here in Michigan, there's a lot more at stake than just the fetus/baby. By having it as a referendum, we will see what the will of the people is.
 

Mister Emu

Emu Extraordinaire
Staff member
Premium Member
Traditionalist Catholics could be faced with weighing the clamping down on abortion against the destruction of US democracy.
Assuming that is the case, only one of those is a matter of grave moral consideration.

“The analogy is because the issue of life is foundational,” he said, and because life is foundational, then the defense of innocent, unborn lives must be paramount.
“But,” he challenged, “the house itself and the foundation rest on the earth, and the earth is at stake in climate change and in the care of creation.
I can somewhat understand the perspective that there are other considerations that in totality outweigh the abortion issue. Hopefully, someday soon those with well-formed consciences won't have to choose between eradicating evil and good stewardship of our planet and its people.
 
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