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Does Contraception Minimize the Incidence of Abortion?
Secularism, Culture of Death Hothouse
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The Incredible Ever-Expanding Dead End
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Whose Values in Education?
Toppling Dominos
Anti-Christians don't have to be Hypocrites but Many Volunteer
Intolerant Tolerance
The Emperor's Clothes or a Cheap Tuxedo
The Myth of Hitler's Pope, Part I
The Myth of Hitler's Pope, Part II
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Again
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Secular-to-English Dictionary
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Christians Losing America
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Catholic Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
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Who Killed Jesus?
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You've Come a Long Way, Baby
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Things Your Media Never Told You
A Nasty Little Secret
Two Points of View on the Birth of Jesus
You Gotta Kill Them.  How Else Are They Going To Learn?
Perplexing Christmas Questions
How Do You See Christ Today?
Now that there is Another Ewe, will there be Another You?
What is Conscience Anyhow?
Divorce of Love and Life
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Good Morality or Good Medicine
Generation-X'ers Smart in Every Way But One
A Matter of Good Breeding
Herod and Pontius Pilate at the Polls
Hitler's Pope or Righteous Gentile?
The Unknown God
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Ideology Trumps Science, Reality, and Common Sense
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Infallibility and Error in the Church
Pilate Asked, "What is Truth?"
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Many are Wed but Few are Married
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Religious Persecution in the U.S.?
What Makes a Person a Person?
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Same Sex Marriages?
Pearl of Great Price
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Sexual Morality Irrelevant in Judging Public Officials?
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SOSSLQ's, not POSSLQ's
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Why Attend Mass Every Sunday?
Is it All Right to Pull the Plug?
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A Voting Catechism
A Moral Guide to Voting
Vouchers: Has Their Time Come?
What Child is This?
What did they die of?
You are the Man
You may be a liberal if...
Get Rid of that Worthless Relative
Planned Un-Parenthood
Weighing Pro-Life Issues Prior to Voting

by Monsignor James C. Brunner

Faith Points

Political pundits often speak of the Catholic vote. If there were such a thing it could have sizeable if not decisive influence. The fact is that political views among Catholics are all over the political spectrum. One area where there should be unanimity among Catholics is on moral issues. Sadly that is lacking. If Catholics voted their convictions, or what should be their convictions as practicing Catholics, it is doubtful that a pro-abortion candidate could be elected President. Since we have just had eight years of an avowedly pro-abortion President who has done everything he could to promote abortion including keeping legal partial-birth abortion, best described as infanticide in the process of birth, it is clear that Catholics do not vote in accord with their professed convictions on morality.

It might be revealing to explore why Catholics do not unanimously support pro-life candidates. I can think of at least four reasons why they vote in favor of candidates who advocate abortion.

Reason 1: They, unlike the Church, approve of abortion and so a pro-abortion vote is entirely consistent with their convictions. Such persons should examine their reason for wanting to remain in the Church. They might say that the Church’s stand on abortion is not defined doctrine and therefore they are free to espouse a view that contradicts that of the Church. They mistakenly believe that teaching is infallible only if it is defined. There is a category of ordinary teaching that is infallible though not defined. Teachings are infallible if all bishops in union with the Holy Father and one another agree on something that must be held definitively in the area of faith and morals. The condemnation of abortion surely fits that category. So, in the Church there can be no legitimate organization such as Catholics for a Free Choice (the choice sought is to kill an unborn baby). One might as well expect to have Catholics for Incest, or Adultery, or Polygamy, or Rape or Mafiosi Catholics.

Reason 2: Some Catholics do not wish to be known as one-issue voters. They do not approve of abortion but a particular pro-abortion candidate is, in their mind, "right" on all the other issues. The logical conclusion of this position is that they rank their material welfare ahead of saving innocent human life. If they cannot simultaneously save unborn babies from death and receive some entitlement, too bad for the unborn. There is nothing shameful or simplistic about being a "one-issue" voter if the issue is important enough. It is hard to think of any issue more important than the protection of innocent human life. It should not be difficult to understand that without the right to life no other right means anything. It should also be obvious that a "right" to kill the innocent who are an inconvenience can be expanded to other than the unborn including those who vote against the unborn. Life is a value that one must uphold even at some inconvenience to oneself. When would it make sense for a trade unionist to vote for a union-buster? How many Afro-Americans are likely to vote for a candidate who wants to reinstate Jim Crow laws? You can be sure that the supporters of abortion are one-issue voters in that they will vote against any candidate who would try to overturn Roe v. Wade. They are more faithful to their principles than many Catholics are to theirs; unfortunately the principles of abortionists are immoral and do great damage in society. And some Catholics are aiding and abetting them by their votes.

Reason 3: Some Catholics are opposed to abortion but do not want to impose their morality on others. Why does the reticence to impose morality on others apply only to abortion? We impose our morality on murderers without qualm. Why should the same not apply to murderers of the unborn? Why not apply the principle to other areas of morality and refuse to pass laws against theft, rape, or crack cocaine, and slander, all of which impose my morality on others. So-called Catholic politicians who say they are opposed to abortion but vote in favor of it are a disgrace to the Church. Incidentally, can anyone name for me one office holder of the Kennedy political dynasty who supports the pro-life position? Apparently in fabled Camelot citizens are free to abort a lot.

Reason 4: The subject of abortion never enters the mind of some Catholic voters and it has no influence on the way that they vote. I think that such Catholics are either immoral or stupid. They are immoral if they stand by idly while innocent human beings are being killed and refuse to do so much as cast a vote to help them. They are simply stupid if they vote without inquiring where a candidate stands on this important moral issue and are unaware of the damage their ignorant pro-abortion vote causes. In the latter case we have a pure example of a definition of democracy attributed to Winston Churchill: "one idiot, one vote."

Catholic voters who favor abortion remind me of Herod. Herod knew exactly what he must do to get rid of a perceived threat to his throne—kill all the babies in Bethlehem. These Catholics also know what they must do whenever an unwelcome pregnancy presents threat to their economic or psychological well-being—abort.

The other Catholics who vote for abortion candidates remind me of Pontius Pilate. Like Pilate they profess not to know the truth but to avoid embarrassment or difficulty they easily crucify it. They wash their hands of innocent blood that they have been complicit in shedding.

In the forthcoming election Catholics should be guided by sound morality as they cast their vote. That requires that they vote for pro-life candidates and against those who advocate a right to abortion. The words of Jesus apply in a special way to them: "Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me."