As we approach an election we have to decide who and what to vote for. Catholics are not told who to vote for, but are given guiding principles about voting. We are then called to be spiritual and civic adults who research, pray, and weigh out our decisions. It is possible we come up with different conclusions. I encourage you to read “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” a 2007 U.S. Bishops’ Conference document (go to USCCB.org and you will see a link to it on the home page). I include some quotes from it that I think particularly relevant and helpful:
34. Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, or racist behavior, if the voter's intent is to support that position. In such cases, a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate's opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.
35. There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate's unacceptable position even on policies promoting an intrinsically evil act may reasonably decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.
36. When all candidates hold a position that promotes an intrinsically evil act, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other
authentic human goods.
37. In making these decisions, it is essential for Catholics to be guided by a well-formed conscience that recognizes that all issues do not carry the same moral weight and that the moral obligation to oppose policies promoting intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on our consciences and our actions. These decisions should take into account a candidate's commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue. In the end, this is a decision to be made by each Catholic guided by a conscience formed by Catholic moral teaching.
My own brief commentary is this. As I suspect you already know, we all have to wrestle especially with the issue of abortion in voting because as Catholics we find this issue to involve an “intrinsic evil” of the gravest magnitude. I quote Archbishop Naumann on this: “Last November, the U.S. bishops reaffirmed that ‘the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.’
I also quote Archbishop Charles Chaput, who in 2008, said that Catholics who support pro-choice candidates “need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it.” “What is a ‘proportionate’ reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life — which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed,” Chaput said.
To be clear, these are guiding principles, and this is not a veiled attempt to tell you who to vote for. I do think we indeed face some difficult but important choices. You have to seriously consider these things, research candidates, pray, and make your own decision. May the Holy Spirit truly guide us and our country in these elections.