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Voting to Make a Difference
CatholicExchange.com ^ | September 29, 2008 | Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk

Posted on 09/29/2008 8:57:59 PM PDT by Salvation

Voting to Make a Difference

September 29th, 2008 by Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk 

In the United States, only about half of those who were eligible to vote actually cast ballots during the last national election. I admit I have not always voted in the past. When I am tempted not to vote, however, I think back to a story I once heard about a certain Aunt Katherine who died a few years ago. She was blind during the last months of her life, but she had her daughter read the ballot to her and fill it out on her behalf. She was careful to sign the ballot and make sure it was mailed. It was one of the last things she did before she went to the Lord. She believed that voting was important, and it was one way she manifested her concern for others and for the society she was a part of.

We face the daunting task of evaluating many hot-button issues and sorting through various candidates’ positions whenever we vote. We may have to consider energy policy, access to health care, education, social security, the problem of homelessness, taxes, farm subsidies and inner city violence, to mention just a few. Some issues, however, merit greater attention than others.

The life issues — extending from abortion to embryonic stem-cell research to euthanasia — are, objectively speaking, the most critical issues to weigh in on as we cast our votes, because they address the basic good of life itself. Even if we strongly approve of a candidate’s position on social security and taxation, would that ever allow us to vote for him if we knew that he condoned and promoted human slavery?

Even if we strongly agreed with a candidate’s position on health care and education, would that allow us to vote for him if we knew he supported the genocide of Jewish people?

Certain kinds of evils, known as “intrinsic” evils, can never be permitted in a society, and candidates who promote such evils need to be shown the door by our votes, regardless of their positions on other, lesser issues. In the words of Father Brian Bransfield, a truthful conscience will wince whenever it “hears a candidate claim that he can fix health care, but still agree that a child in the womb can be killed. Conscience knows that if a candidate favors human embryonic stem-cell research, which always includes the killing of a human person, then our neighborhoods can never be free of violence — because we just voted for violence.”

When casting our votes, then, we ought to begin from a key and unmovable position — that every human being has a right to life, and that fundamental right makes all other rights possible. Absolute protection for the gift of life is the foundation of all the other goods we hope to promote and enjoy within our society.

While certain kinds of violence like abortion and embryo destruction can never be directly supported under any circumstances, other forms of violence like war and the death penalty may be morally tolerated in very limited circumstances. The difference lies in the fact that human life in the womb is, by definition, completely innocent, while the criminal in the electric chair (or the unjust wartime aggressor threatening a sovereign state) is no longer innocent, but is guilty of serious wrongdoing beyond any reasonable doubt.

Inasmuch as an accused criminal or a wartime aggressor is guilty of radical evil, war and the death penalty may at times, and in limited circumstances, represent a legitimate societal response. War and capital punishment, then, cannot be deemed intrinsically immoral. Any direct attack on innocent human life — whether through abortion, embryonic stem-cell research or euthanasia — will always remain intrinsically immoral. Voting for a candidate who supports war or capital punishment in very limited circumstances is not the moral equivalent of voting for a candidate who supports the killing of innocent human life in the womb or in the research laboratory.

Would it ever be morally justifiable to vote for a candidate who supports abortion or other intrinsic evils? Possibly. To vote this way, however, would require a proportionate reason for doing so. We can begin to understand what is meant by a “proportionate reason” if we consider a hypothetical case of two candidates running for president of the United States, one of whom favors a law that would authorize the killing of all Muslims living within the country (because the candidate claims that a small percentage of them might pose a terrorist threat someday). The second candidate, meanwhile, opposes any such genocide, but supports and encourages the killing of the unborn through abortion.

It might be permissible to vote for this pro-abortion candidate, not to support his pro-abortion agenda, but as a means to prevent the killing of Muslims. Roughly 1 million children are killed annually by abortion in the United States, while there are about 5 million citizens who are Muslims. Insofar as a vote for the pro-abortion candidate would help prevent the unjust killing of nearly five times as many Muslims as unborn humans, one could safely say that there was a “proportionate reason” to vote in this way. One might prefer to refrain from voting altogether in these circumstances, considering that both candidates are supporting intrinsic evils in their platforms. We must exercise caution, however: abstaining from the voting booth can unintentionally lead to support for the more evil platform. We should probably refrain from voting only when the platforms of all candidates support intrinsic evils to a similar degree.

In sum, voting is an indispensable duty within our democracy. The attention we focus on protecting vulnerable and innocent human life when we cast our votes will determine, in large part, whether we promote a just or an unjust society for our children and grandchildren.

 

Fr. Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)



TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: catholic; mccain; muslim; obama; prolife; vote2008
For your discussion.

Do you vote to make a difference?

1 posted on 09/29/2008 8:58:04 PM PDT by Salvation
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To: nickcarraway; Lady In Blue; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; Catholicguy; RobbyS; markomalley; ...
Catholic Discussion Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.

2 posted on 09/29/2008 8:59:58 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

When casting our votes, then, we ought to begin from a key and unmovable position — that every human being has a right to life, and that fundamental right makes all other rights possible. Absolute protection for the gift of life is the foundation of all the other goods we hope to promote and enjoy within our society.

 

Amen!


3 posted on 09/29/2008 9:01:43 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation
I think back to a story I once heard about a certain Aunt Katherine who died a few years ago. She was blind during the last months of her life, but she had her daughter read the ballot to her and fill it out on her behalf.

That's nothing. There's plenty of Dems who fill out ballots after they've died....

4 posted on 09/29/2008 9:11:22 PM PDT by freebilly
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To: Salvation

Gosh, if I had to choose between the above two candidates mentioned, I would probably hide under rock!


5 posted on 09/29/2008 9:12:14 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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To: Salvation

yeah.

BTW, any Catholic who votes for Obama, or any “pro-life” politician, should be excommunicated.

No exceptions. Period, paragraph, end of discussion.


6 posted on 09/29/2008 9:12:38 PM PDT by Emperor Palpatine ("Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.")
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To: Ciexyz

Scary scenario, wasn’t it?


7 posted on 09/29/2008 9:25:36 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Emperor Palpatine
enter the Table of Contents of the Catechism of the Catholic Church here

1: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2271  (618 bytes )  preview document matches
1 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion,
URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2271.htm
97%**********

2: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2272  (580 bytes )  preview document matches
2 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A
URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2272.htm
96%**********

3: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2322  (290 bytes )  preview document matches
2 From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a "criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3),
URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2322.htm
96%**********

4: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2274  (554 bytes )  preview document matches
gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent
URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2274.htm

8 posted on 09/29/2008 9:26:32 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Emperor Palpatine
"BTW, any Catholic who votes for Obama, or any “pro-life” politician, should be excommunicated."

Do you mean "pro-choice?"

9 posted on 09/29/2008 9:50:44 PM PDT by redhead (Wasilla is finally on the map...and we are NOT happy about it.)
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To: Emperor Palpatine
BTW, any Catholic who votes for Obama, or any “pro-life” politician, should be excommunicated.

The problem (from my point of view) is that a large number of our Bishops don't have the Cojones to refuse communion to or excommunicate the likes of Kennedy, Pelosi, Kerry, etc.., and let it be known why.

If our shepherds are giving them a pass, why should we expect the sheeple to act any different?

10 posted on 09/30/2008 5:22:32 AM PDT by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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To: verga

And it’s not only bishops. A member of my apologetics class told me that the pastor of a local parish has Obama bumper stickers on his car. Somehow this clown thinks the war in Iraq is a proportionate reason to vote for the most zealously pro-abortion presidential candidate in our nation’s history.

I guess it’s a good thing I’m not in charge of the Catholic Church. Too many parishes would be without clergy.


11 posted on 09/30/2008 7:17:20 AM PDT by djrakowski
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To: djrakowski
Perhaps there are some priests' skulls there too.

"The walls of hell are lined with the skulls of bishops."
Saint John of the Cross

 

"The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops."

 

Attributed to St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, and St. John Eudes. Probably all three said it, but I like to give credit to Athanasius because he was the earliest.


12 posted on 09/30/2008 8:28:37 AM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation

Question: “One might prefer to refrain from voting altogether in these circumstances, considering that both candidates are supporting intrinsic evils in their platforms. We must exercise caution, however: abstaining from the voting booth can unintentionally lead to support for the more evil platform. We should probably refrain from voting only when the platforms of all candidates support intrinsic evils to a similar degree.”

Is it possible we’re already there?


13 posted on 09/30/2008 10:13:17 AM PDT by glide625
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To: redhead

Yes I do.

My bad.

I’m prone to split notes in Bach and Mozart, too.......


14 posted on 09/30/2008 11:04:05 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine ("Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.")
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