Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2012, Day 10: Consequences for Alphabetical Voter Guides

By Deal W Hudson and Keith A Fournier
10/27/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

This really is is about being faithful citizens and voting in a manner which is morally coherent

Last November, the bishops added a "New Introduction" to "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." They wrote that "Faithful Citizenship," "does not offer a quantitative listing of issues for equal consideration, but outlines and makes important distinctions among moral issues acknowledging that some involve the clear obligation to oppose intrinsic evils which can never be justified and that others require action to pursue justice and promote the common good."

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The appearance of the 'alphabetical' voter guides from the state Catholic conferences prompted us to call it "the biggest story, thus far, in the 2012 election for Catholic voters."

With ten days until Nov. 6, the widespread use of that "authorized" voter guide remains the biggest story. Why? The paid, official representatives of the bishops issued a document that explicitly ignores the wishes of the bishops. Last November, the bishops added a "New Introduction" to "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." They wrote that "Faithful Citizenship,"

"does not offer a quantitative listing of issues for equal consideration, but outlines and makes important distinctions among moral issues acknowledging that some involve the clear obligation to oppose intrinsic evils which can never be justified and that others require action to pursue justice and promote the common good." (emphasis added)

But, a quantitative presentation of the issues is precisely what some state Catholic conferences prepared for the 2012 election. At this very moment, that guide is on display at thousands of parishes across the United States.

We've already reported on the rationale given by one state conference director for employing the alphabetical "protocol." The head of another state conference states in a press release: "The Church neither endorses nor opposes candidates for public office. The materials we developed as an agency of the Church are for informational purposes only."

Since when does the Church only supply "information" regarding one of the most morally significant acts a Catholic faces, namely, how to vote? Is it simply "information" when the Church tells us over and over not to take innocent life, to defend true marriage against the counterfeit notion of "same-sex marriage", to reject euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research? Is it only "information" when bishops and priests talk to the faithful about "social justice?"

The Social Doctrine of the Church is part of the moral teaching of the Church. This teaching is called "social" because it speaks to human society and to the formation, role and rightful place of social institutions. This social doctrine confronts what Pope Benedict XVI properly called the current "Dictatorship of Relativism" and insists there are unchangeable truths which can be known by all and should provide a framework for structuring our social life in a truly just manner.

The foundational truth is the dignity of every human person at every age and stage of life. This human dignity is present in every person because we are all made in the Image of God. It demands respect for every human life whether that life be in the first home of the womb, a wheelchair, a jail cell, a hospital room, a hospice, a senior center or a soup kitchen. Without the Right to Life there are no other rights. Rights are goods of the human person.

Another truth is that marriage is between one man and one woman, intended for life, and ordered toward the bearing and raising of children in the family. Marriage is not some social construct which can be redefined by courts or legislatures. It is the foundation for family and family is the first society, first church, first school, first economy, first government and first mediating institution.

Another truth is that authentic freedom must be guided by a respect for what is true and good and respect what the American founders called those "ianalienable rights". At the very core of this understanding of freedom is recognizing and protecting the fundamental human right to Religious Freedom - a right which is increasibly threatened.

The truths and principles contained within Catholic Social Doctrine are not merely "religious" positions, in the sense that only religious people need assent to them. They are revealed by the Natural Law and can be known through the exercise of reason.

The truths are true for all people and for all time. The Church calls us to offer them as leaven to be worked into the loaf of human culture. We are called to build a truly just and human society. This is about so much more than "information". This really is is about being faithful citizens and voting in a manner which is morally coherent.

OK, thanks for the "information," we Catholics appreciate it!

We think this is the "biggest story" thus far, and, thus far, it's been completely ignored by the mainstream media. Perhaps they know there will be no consequences for those in the state conferences and the USCCB who collaborated in creating this guide in the first place.

A good friend of ours, who for many years managed one of the largest investment houses on Wall Street, asked if there would be any ...

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

Jane
6 months ago

What about the homeless and those without health insurance. Are their spirits not murdered. They will continue to live with broken spirits under bridges, in shelters begging us for help. What about families who have worked hard and their job gets outsourced and they have no medical insurance? What about the veterans who, and the brave wariors who have fought and given their lives, or limbs, or minds for this country. Do we not fight for their rights , the very ones who have stood up to defend our country and given us the right to vote. What about torture(water boarding) yes, that is torture. My son is a navy vet. and he is so much against that. How about the unjust war that even the Pope was opposed to. How many lives and limbs were lost there on both sides. And....where were the weapons of mass destruction.
What about cultural bias, that some discount others because they have not had the same opportunities that people with wealth have, and do their loved ones go off to war. The trickle down rich rhetoric is just that - rhetoric.Yes, abortion is abosolutely evil when it is used as a birth control method and not for the health of the mother or because an evil act was committed against the mother. Same sex marriage, if you don't believe in God or nature, forget man. There won't be any. It is a shame that both sides have dropped the ball for all of us especially the poor and suffering in favor of big business. May we all start praying for whomever is elected that we will be a more perfect union under God with liberty and justice for all.
Gloria
6 months ago
Tom - you probably haven't been paying much attention but the church including my parish have said and preached and written quite a lot on "torture, unjust war, use of the death penalty, genocide, attacks against noncombatants, racism or poverty and suffering" and don't forget all the church has been doing to help reduce trafficking, immigration issues, child abuse, religious freedom, the economy, pornography, conscience formation, and practicing one's faith on public, etc. The church has been saying a lot. In my opinion Obama is not the answer and never was. Both the republicans and the democrats have dropped the ball in favor of big corporations. The fact that this country has so many billionaires and a large number of impoverished and many without health insurance should be shameful to us.
Rob
6 months ago
So long as our own house continues to have no unity, we cannot possibly expect to change the culture. We seem to be as divided as the greater society.
Thomas
6 months ago
The assault on the teaches of the Church continues, help us Bishops, help us God.
Eamon Hatley-Smith
6 months ago
"It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals".

Frankfurter, Felix (1950). Dennis V. United States, 339 U.S. 162 339 U.S. 162. Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit. No: 14, Argued November 7, 1949. Decided March 27, 1950, U.S. Supreme Court.
Tom McGuire
6 months ago
"We Are Not a One-Issue Church. " These articles and some Bishops have narrowed the choice to three issues: abortion, same sex marriage, and birth control. I am happy to say that my parish rejects this view. In this week's parish bulletin we read:

"This is part of a series of excerpts from Voting and Holiness which the Parish Faith Formation Commission is providing as part of its mission to prepare parishioners to vote in November and to act as committed Christian citizens all the rest of the time. The ideological drift rightward among some members of the Catholic hierarchy and influential Catholic pundits undermines the church’s own teachings about the role of faith in politics. In 2003, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, which warned against narrowing the broad spectrum of Catholic values to a single issue. “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,” the statement read. “A political commitment to a single isolated aspect
of the Church’s social doctrine does not exhaust one’s responsibility toward the common good.” And this from Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. bishops’ election-year document on political responsibility: “Catholic teaching about the dignity of life calls us to oppose torture, unjust war, and the use of the death penalty; to prevent genocide and attack against noncombatants; to oppose racism; and to overcome poverty and suffering.”
John Gehring, “Not a Single-Issue Church,” Voting and Holiness, p.84"

These Catholic Online election articles have made clear intrinsic evil in terms of abortion, same sex mariage and birth control, but what have they said in the context of the present political decision making process about torture, unjust war, use of the death penalty, genocide, attacks against noncombatants, racism or poverty and suffering?

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