James Akin provides a complete explanation of what Cardinal Ratzinger meant in his letter about remote material cooperation, proportionate reasons, and voting for pro-abortion politicians.
I’ve been thinking that all things being equal, it wold have been a mistake for such an unexplained theological point to have been included in a public letter on this matter because of what I was saying earlier about Americans becoming a people who look for the exception as the rule. Of course, this letter was not intended for public consumption in the first place, but was sent to Cardinal McCarrick for distribution to his brother bishops, which he didn’t do, and instead misrepresented it. That necessitated getting the original letter out to the public and that left open the door to this misrepresentation.
