Important message regarding abortion/voters

I need to remind both Catholic priests and laity that despite the correct position of the Church of being "pro-life" (opposition to abortion) the support by an individual of a candidate who supports abortion is not a sin.

The Catholic Church has no business telling parishioners who to vote for and, in fact, obviously everyone is entitled to the freedom to vote their secret ballot for the candidates of their choice.

I am very concerned because there is an erroneous blurring between the correct stance of priests and bishops to communicate that the pro-life teaching of the Catholic Church is essential to its catechism and further, the correct questioning of giving the Holy Eucharist to those who in the public work against this teaching of the Church, and the right of people to vote for whoever they want, including pro-abort candidates.

These are 3 different issues:
1. The Church must always teach the pro-life truth of the Catholic Catechism. Yes.
2. Bishops and priest must discern whether to have dialogue with politicians or other abortion supporters who are in their flock and who flaunt the teachings of the Church by their public actions (not just their words), and as a result of that dialogue, possibly decide to deny receiving Holy Eucharist to those who are in public working against the teaching of the Church in this matter. Yes.
3. Preaching from the pulpit about who to vote for and discriminating among members by the flock based on individual votes that they cast for candidates. NO.

If a Catholic believes in his or her heart that the Church is "wrong" to be "against abortion," that Catholic is in error in his or her faith. However, everyone that I know has some flaw in their faith, to be honest. I don't know anyone who is one hundred percent having full sincerity and accord with every aspect of their faith. That is the wounded nature of humans and their continual faith work.

If a Catholic believes in the full doctrine of the Church, they may or may not vote for a politician based on harmony of beliefs. That is the fact of life of having a side that is of the faith and a side that is of the reality of the political and social world. Jesus said to render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.

For example, I have said for a LONG time that abortion will never be eliminated or at least become "legal, but rare and repugnant" unless individuals experience a national and global conversion of heart. It should be obvious to anyone that what the President of the USA believes has little or no impact on the prevalence of abortion in society. It is the "normalizing" of killing babies in society that is the problem, not the pro-life or pro-abort stance of the President. If everyone were disgusted by abortion AND sought to finance real alternatives it would disappear, and that would have nothing to do with what the President, Supreme Court or US Congress believes or does.

Catholics must hold firm in the correctness of their teachings and in the moral and virtuous reality that springs from it. But that does not mean that one issue, no matter how important to our faith and to the survival of humanity itself, can be a litmus test for an individual parishioner in an individual election.

Let me pose an example. (And I'm deliberately choosing an example that does not apply to the current election). Suppose one candidate is a pro-life candidate, but has poor understanding of the social conditions that promote abortion. Suppose the other candidate is a pro-abort candidate, but has an excellent understanding of what social conditions promotes abortion and genuinely deplores them. One could morally vote for the second candidate if you felt that abortion is wrong, agreeing with the Church, but believing that you could obtain funding for adoption and other pro-life alternatives easier from the second candidate than from the first.

Catholic voters must have, and do have, some sophistication of understanding of talents and priorities of the different candidates, and of multiple ways to arrive at an improved condition.

So it is wrong and counter productive to believe that an individual Catholic who supports a pro-abort is automatically committing a sin or an error. If they are doing it because they are a pro-abort in their heart of hearts, then they have a weakness in their faith that is serious and sad, but that is not exactly rare in this world.

But understand that there are many who might vote for a pro-abort because they believe that in the many other issues that they can get to a societal condition that can be more pro-life in its reality and implementation. They may be wrong and naive in this regard but again, that's not exactly rare in this world either.

I have voted for many candidates who have a pro-abort stance. They are hard to avoid. However, I take a number of things into account. I have always been an old fashioned "liberal" in the classic sense of the term that no longer really exists in society anymore. Liberals used to have a firm grounding in their faith, their patriotism, love of family, morality, and the Constitution, but they had a desire to have a deep sense of charity inform their public policy. THAT is a liberal. That is not what "liberals" are today, sadly. However I continued for quite a while to vote "liberally" as I lived in hope that various candidates would tap back into the true waters of genuine liberal thought and belief, which would actually promote a society where abortion (even if they individually were pro-aborts) could turn policy into directions that would allow alternatives to abortion to flourish and a decline in birth control=abortion horror stories. My voting for a liberal pro-abort was never an endorsement of abortion (reminder, votes are supposed to be private, by the way) and I never made a secret of who I voted for, if asked. But I have a sophistication of purpose and thought, as do most voters nowadays, where I would take the overall direction that I wished to nudge the candidates and their parties into account.

So I am horrified at the demonizing of Catholic voters who wish to vote for Barack Obama. Some vote for him because he is pro-abort and the voter is internally in conflict with the correct teaching of the Church to be pro-life. But I believe the vast majority of voters take the entire package of the candidate into consideration. Litmus tests for pro-life or pro-abort have not worked and will never work. It puts a warlike dividing line that has already harmed the pro-life reality for decades now.

Abortion could have been mitigated decades ago if those who opposed it put their money where their mouth is. I said so to anyone who would listen right after Roe v. Wade. I said that pro-lifers must stop picketing and screaming at the pro-aborts and instead perform interventions to enable women to at least deliver a live baby through direct financial intervention. I am on record as saying that for thirty years now, and if people had done what I said we'd have a flourishing of adoption and intact families rather than birth control=abortion horror story that we live in today. I put my money where my mouth is because as long as I had a good income with real paying jobs I helped support multiple Native American families who do not believe in birth control and had a total pro-life stance. While I myself had no children I paid to help others who had children (including one family with over eight children!) and I did so for decades.

So a person can be anti-abort and still vote for a pro-abort because there are many factors that go into choosing where you believe a candidate will put his or her priorities. I also believe that candidates have conversion in their hearts. What if you voted for a pro-abort and found to your joy that in office he or she had a conversion? That is what the Catholic faith is also about, which is not to demonize, but to preach the truth and never give up on the chance for conversion on an issue as important as coming to the pro-life side. And as I said, pro-life politicians have been so verbal but with lack of substance that sometimes they do not help the cause.

The Catholic Church needs to continue to preach pro-life, but shut up regarding how an individual person casts their vote. Do not become like the hypocrites we see who have one issue voting drives but then miss that "the other guy" might actually have gotten them to their goals faster and more fully.