Archbishop John J. Myers, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, provides clear leadership on whether a Catholic may vote for a pro-abortion politician. He directly addresses the media confusion and outright lies concerning Cardinal Ratzinger’s statement on the issue. He is very clear:
Thus for a Catholic citizen to vote for a candidate who supports abortion and embryo-destructive research, one of the following circumstances would have to obtain: either (a) both candidates would have to be in favor of embryo killing on roughly an equal scale or (b) the candidate with the superior position on abortion and embryo-destructive research would have to be a supporter of objective evils of a gravity and magnitude beyond that of 1.3 million yearly abortions plus the killing that would take place if public funds were made available for embryo-destructive research.
He goes on to say that circumstance (b) seems almost unimaginable. What could be worse than the murder of 1.3 million unborn children every year? And then to answer the next question of those who claim to be “Catholics for Kerry”, he says:
Certainly policies on welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, taken singly or in any combination, do not provide a proportionate reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate.
He then explicates why Bush’s position on the war in Iraq is not justification to vote for Kerry. We need more of this clear leadership from our bishops. Of course, this then begs the next question: If a pro-abortion Catholic candidate should not receive our votes, should he receive Communion? If we’ve made a judgment on the former, can the bishop not make a judgment on the latter?
