Catholics head to polls

Catholics, along with other Americans, will troop to the polls Nov. 2 to elect a president for the next four years. But perhaps never before has so much information—overt and subtle—about how to vote and even for whom been directed at Catholic voters in a national election.

Almost certainly, given some of the apparent contradicting information, the average Catholic in the pews can be left wondering where the church stands.

The official church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been careful to present a multidimensional view of how Catholic teaching intersects with public policy and observe that neither major political party supports the whole of Catholic teaching.

Meanwhile, a few bishops and independent Catholic organizations have been accused of directing voters to support only President Bush because of his opposition to abortion. One independent group, Catholic Answers, produced a widely disseminated booklet called “A Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics” which while not specifically endorsing a candidate, stresses that Catholics cannot vote for a candidate who supports abortion, such as Sen. John Kerry.

A few bishops, notably St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, have told their dioceses similarly that to vote for a politician who supports abortion is, in itself, sinful.

Other Catholic groups, not officially connected with the hierarchy, have issued voter guides which seek to reflect a wider range of issues in the Catholic agenda.

Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace organization, has placed ads in some diocesan newspapers proclaiming that “Life Does Not End at Birth” and encouraging voters to look deeply into Catholic social teaching on all the issues, including war and poverty.

“We are looking at a broader picture, a more global picture,” Pax Christi president Bishop Gabino Zavala, an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, told media earlier this month.

Neither the “Voter’s Guide” nor the others, however, are official church documents; the U.S. bishops’ “Faithful Citizenship” is a broader, more comprehensive guide to Catholic’s political responsibility, said Bill Purcell, director of the archdiocesan Office for Peace and Justice.

At the core of the dispute is the Catholic teaching that abortion is “intrinsically immoral,” said Cardinal George in his Oct. 10 column in The Catholic New World.

A memo written in the summer by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ committee on political responsibility, said that voting for a candidate precisely because of his or her pro-abortion position was sinful, but Catholics could consider other issues in selecting a candidate if they considered “proportionate” reasons which were more important than abortion.

Neither presidential candidate responded this year to the traditional request of the U.S. Bishops to complete a questionnaire detailing their views on several dozen policy issues which the church considers important, including abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. Other issues included poverty, international relations, war, capital punishment, health care, bioethics, education, immigration and others.

The bishops, while reasserting the obligation of Catholics to vote according to the teachings of the church, issue a “Faithful Citizenship” document every four years. It encourages participation in the political process.

Purcell called “Faithful Citizenship” is a vital document.

“Going out to parishes several nights a week, I find the Catholic electorate energized, but very divided,” he said. “The reality is that if a faithful Catholic examines the moral priorities and the Catholic social teaching principles, they would feel politically homeless. The U.S. bishops reflect the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church when they state in ‘Faithful Citizenship,’ ‘In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue; participation in the political process is a moral obligation.’”

He said the Catholic Church “brings immense assets to the public sphere, and that is why we have a legitimacy to do advocacy.” In Chicago, the church has the largest Catholic Charities, the largest Catholic school system, the largest supporter of community organizing, and the third largest supporter of international relief and development in the country, Purcell said.

“‘Faithful Citizenship’ is an official Catholic document approved by the whole body of bishops,” Purcell said. “It follows the guidelines of the Vatican in the Doctrinal Note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which states, “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine. A political commitment to a single isolated aspect of the church’s social doctrine does not exhaust one’s responsibility towards the common good.”

He said Catholics “need to make a prudential judgment about the stance of the candidates on a variety of issues. The issue of life has priority and is indispensable, but it is not the only issue. What is truly clear for all is to go out and vote.”

Illinois has been largely spared the glut of ads and commentary directed at Catholics because the candidates have been focusing on what are considered “swing” states that are crucial to achieving a win in the all-important Electoral College.

Nevertheless, news stories, direct mail and a flurry of e-mails are designed to influence the “Catholic vote.”

Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s six dioceses, also stays close to the election process and the campaigning.

“There is a sentence in ‘Faithful Citizenship’ that I often wonder if anyone is really examining,” he said. “The challenges today are not political, economic or technical; they are ethical, spiritual and moral.”

He said the bishops are urging us to inform our consciences, yet many of us are stuck to political alliances, both on the right and on the left, that need to be re-examined.

“This election cycle should serve as a wake-up call to Catholics, motivating all of us to become more informed about what our faith says about the principles of Catholic social teaching. Let’s consider how we can work to protect life and human dignity, work toward peace and justice, and care for the poor and the most vulnerable,” Gilligan said.

“It’s not just what we do on Election Day,” he said. “Let’s work to change both major political parties so one day Catholics will not be considered politically homeless, but are given credit with transforming the political parties or creating another that reflects the values of Catholic social teaching.”

For information on Faithful Citizenship, visit www.usccb.org.