A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters
Breve Guía del Votante Católico
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship
Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics
USCCB-Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility
Posted on 07/17/2008 2:49:54 PM PDT by Teófilo
Although I agree on much of what they say, I think their voting guide falls short from being a true consensus document for U.S. Catholics.
Folks, the National Catholic Reporter published today on its online edition this report, Common good gets boost from Catholic gathering that I found of interest. These are the first few paragraphs:
The concept of the common good, an idea that winds through time from Plato to Aquinas, to the U.S. Founding Fathers and, on the way, through a number of popes, got a boost in Philadelphia July 11-13 when a crowd of more than 800, mostly Catholics, showed up to affirm a political platform based on the idea.
The Convention for the Common Good was a project of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a group that describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization formed to promote awareness of Catholic social teaching, and Network, a national Catholic social justice organization, and co-hosted by some 16 other Catholic groups, religious orders and institutions.
“What we’re trying to do is expand the debate about what faith can be in the political arena,” said John Gehring, senior writer for Catholics in Alliance. “The religious right has had a monopoly on the debate for too long. We’re seeing a change now not just in the Catholic world but among evangelicals.”
The alliance has worked to expand the notion of pro-life, said Gehring, so that in addition to “protecting innocent life in the womb,” it is also about “caring for the poor, about the silent genocide of poverty” and about opposing the death penalty and war.
Through the course of the weekend, participants discussed five areas of a platform that was affirmed on the final day of the gathering and that will be advanced to the two major parties for consideration.
Please continue reading here.
I then visited their website and found their voting guide, Voting for the Common Good. I read it and it does conform to Catholic Social Teaching and this is important because I am convinced that most Catholics in the U.S. are really unfamiliar with the depth and breadth of the Church's teaching on the whole spectrum of social issues. We need to create consciousness of the Church's full teachings on this subject as well as our duty as Catholics to live according to its principles and to vote accordingly. I agree with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good on this issue. Nevertheless, I would've emphasized or reworded a couple of things differently because I believe the current wording by the guide on some critical issues actually weakens their case to act in accordance with Catholic Social Teaching. For example, the Guide states on page 4:
Deciding how to vote is not easy, but the following three principles can help you make a sound and faithful decision:
- Inform your Conscience – on Church teaching and the candidates’ positions.
- Apply Prudence – when deciding how to apply Catholic values to voting.
- Vote for the Common Good – by focusing on what’s best for everyone, especially the poor and vulnerable.
On Page 6, the Guide concludes its explanation of Principle #2 - Apply Prudence by saying:
Since we seldom, if ever, have the opportunity to vote for a candidate with the right positions on all the issues important to Catholics, we often must vote for candidates who may hold the ‘wrong’ Catholic positions on some issues in order to maximize the good our vote achieves in other areas. Catholics must thoughtfully and prayerfully consider and debate what is most pressing and possible in our time. It is okay for us to disagree about who and what to vote for, as long as our decisions are made prudently with an informed conscience. (Their emphasis).
Although deciding "prudently with an informed conscience" is true as far as it goes, "progressive Catholics" often tend to interpret this tenet with great latitude. Many will interpret it as granting a Catholic voter permission to vote for politicians, including Catholic politicians, known for their support of so-called abortion rights, for undermining and diminishing a parents' rights to have the final say in a minor child's decision to seek or not an abortion; or those who disbelieve that abortion practitioners have the duty to inform their patients truthfully about the full consequences of abortion on the physical and psychological health of a woman; or for politicians who will either vote against a Supreme Court candidate who supports a strict-construction interpretation of the Constitution - and therefore one who might be willing to strike down Roe v Wade - or vote in favor of a candidate who favors judicial activism and therefore more likely to support a liberal interpretation of Roe v Wade. The Guide apparently seems to allow a Catholic to vote his or her "informed conscience" in favor of such politicians as long as, by means of some sort of subjective mathematical calculation, the voter concludes that the candidate is likely to support other social goals often associated with the "progressive Left" but which are also deemed urgent and legitimate by Catholic Social Teaching. This is patent in their explanation of the next point, also on page 6, Vote for the Common Good:
As politically active Catholics, our primary responsibility is to the common good.
This statement bears some significant refinement as far as Catholics in the U.S. are concerned. I would rephrase it by saying that as politically active Catholics, our primary responsibility is to ensure and protect the dignity of the human person as the basis for the pursuit of the common good. The Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church clearly rejects all such mathematical calculus when weighing moral options in this manner:
The common good does not consist in the simple sum of the particular goods of each subject of a social entity. Belonging to everyone and to each person, it is and remains “common”, because it is indivisible and because only together is it possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its effectiveness, with regard also to the future. Just as the moral actions of an individual are accomplished in doing what is good, so too the actions of a society attain their full stature when they bring about the common good. The common good, in fact, can be understood as the social and community dimension of the moral good.
A society committed to the defense Life will of necessity be committed to pursue social justice, fight poverty, and prevent war. Therefore, without a clear, unequivocal commitment to eliminate the indiscriminate killing of the unborn and of the infirm, I believe that Catholics for the Common Good undermine their own stated ends of alleviating poverty and avoiding war. In my view, this defect, this lack of sufficient emphasis on the right to Life precludes this Guide from becoming a true consensus document for all Catholics. Although I would not just dismiss Voting for the Common Good because there is much good in it, I would balance or complete it by reading these other voting guides:
Read also:
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Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by Pontifical Council For Justice And Peace Read more about this book... |
There fixed that!
Translation of article:
Marxist Liberation Theologist Catholics say it is OK to vote for a pro-abortion candidate if they are sufficiently "progressive" MARXIST enough!
Marxist Liberation Theologist Catholics make me SICK! They are found throughout the Catholic Church. They were thicker than flees at my alma mater. It is one reason why I am no longer Catholic. These guys and bishops believe more in the salvation and perfection of mankind through Karl Marx than they do Christ.
I was trying to be “nice.” (LOL)
-Theo
What really galls me are MARXIST bishops who give communion to politicians who vote pro-abortion! Pass me the barf bag!
Ahh, Catholics United wasn’t getting enough hits, so they adopted a new name?
http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/
Look under Latest News:
http://www.catholics-united.org/?q=blog
Nonsense from their voter’s guide:
“Principle I: Inform Your Conscience
Listening to one’s conscience is necessary to make any moral
decision. Fidelity to conscience joins all humankind in the
search for truth, and conscience must be developed by prayer,
reflection, and dialogue with others. We must share the truths
we have discovered in order to assist one another in the quest for
truth, and to enable each other to act prudently in accord with
the law written in all our hearts.”
Sorry, but if everyone I dialogued with told me abortion was okay, and we really needed it for the “common good,” it would still remain an abomination before GOD.
SORRY, but the Catholic Church guides us in our quest for truth, not baby-killers, or blasphemers, or liars, or rapists, or thieves, or communists, or .......
They are dying....
Go to their meetings, and laugh at them.
They offer nothing attractive to anyone else.
They hang around, desperately hoping that somebody will join their stale, rotting club, and make them feel like they’re young again.
Look at World Youth Day and compare the messages and the reception.
fyi
The problem with the social justice crowd is that they don’t preach the whole social gospel. Specifically, they forget the principle of subsidiarity.
How can Catholics for Obama rationalize their support for the pro-choice candidate?
Obama’s director of Catholic Outreach ‘dodges’ opportunity to reach Catholics
Barack Obama Slams John McCain For Opposing Abortion, Activist Judges
Catholics and Obama
COMMENTARY: Quandry for Catholics At Election Time
The Latest Refinement (Obama on Abortion)
CNN Runs Biased News Story Covering Up Barack Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record
Jill Stanek: Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide
The Battle for Catholic Voters
New Report Indicates Voters Most Interested in Barack Obama’s Position on Abortion
Deal Hudson: Obama and Infanticide?
Ad asks Obama: ‘If fatherhood begins at conception, when does life begin?’
Embryonic stem-cell research immoral, unnecessary, bishops say
Catholics should not vote for Obama
Catholic Caucus: It is a sin to vote/support Obama/DNC [abortion]
More Catholics leaning towards Democrats, poll reports (really not Catholics)
The Catholic-Obama Problem (Pope Benedict XVI instructs Catholics about pro-abortion candidates)
Obama's Abortion Bombshell: Unrestricted Abortion....
NARAL Catholics Line Up for Obama
Editorial: Disagreeing with Doug Kmiec One More Time
State-Funded Embryo Research "Makes Taxpayers Complicit in Killing", say Bishops
McCain Meets Privately with Fr. Pavone - Says Constitutional Right to Life Applies to Unborn
Faithful Citizenship: “Catholic Vote” is very sought after
Has Obama dissolved his Catholic advisory council?
Commentary: Faithful Citizenship and the Formed Conscience
Catholic League: Where's Obama's 'Catholic Advisory Council'? [Not to be found!]
Right-wing Christians beginning to lean left (Misleading headline)
Catholics Debate Obama Vote
US Bishops Urge Voters to Give Priority to Life [Ecumenical]
Corralling the Catholic vote: Political necessity or pipe dream?
DOUG KMIEC: Catholic Reasons for Hope in the General Election
EDITORIAL: Why This Catholic Dreads the Campaign
The Catholic-Obama Problem (Pope Benedict XVI instructs Catholics about pro-abortion candidates)
Thoughts On ‘Roman Catholics For Obama’
How Obama's Catholics Will Dodge the Infanticide Question
Catholic Pro-Life Leader Feuds With Barack Obama's "Catholic" Backers
McCain and the Pope: McCain cannot win in November without the Catholic vote (Reagan re-visited?)
Catholics Cannot Vote for Pols Who Support Abortion, Except for Morally Grave Reasons: KY Bishops
Thanks for the info.
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