E
estesbob
Guest
Perhaps this will help:Okay bob, I totally agree with the above statement. I am against unjust wars, or a rush to war especially in light of a Pope calling for ‘patience’. I am against the death penalty. I am at liberty to be at odds with the Pope, and other Catholics, on those issues. I am against abortion and euthanasia, which is in agreement with the Pope, and what should be all Catholics, on those issues.
Now, staying with only what the Pope said, or says, the Pope did give a statement, and I’m paraphrasing, that one could vote for a pro-abortion politician, as long as it was not in support of abortion itself.
He did specify because of proportionate reasons; however, I have not seen where the Pope, himself, defines acceptable, or unacceptable, proportionate reasons. I have seen statements provided by some Catholics of individual Bishops, but the Bishops were not united 100% during the last presidential election. It was easy for either side to find a Bishop’s statement to ‘fit their own personal view’.
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“You may in some circumstances where you don’t have any candidate who is proposing to eliminate all abortion, choose the candidate who will most limit this grave evil in our country, but you could never justify voting for a candidate who not only does not want to limit abortion but believes that it should be available to everyone,” he said.
Cardinal Raymond Burke
Explaining Ratzinger’s "Proportionate Reasons"
Abortion Is the Black Hole of Moral Issues
Jobs? The economy? Taxes? Education? The environment? Immigration? Forget it. We do not have nine million people dying in a typical president’s term of office due to bad job programs, bad economic policies, bad taxes, bad education, bad environmental law, bad immigration rules—or even all of these combined. All of them together cannot provide a reason proportionate to the need to end abortion.
Make no mistake: Abortion is the preeminent moral issue of our time. It is the black hole that out-masses every other issue. Presenting any other issues as if they were proportionate to it is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Jimmy Akin
catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0411fea4.asp
**"But [Catholics who support ‘pro-choice’ candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason tojustify 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."
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Archbishop Charles Chaput
archden.org/images/Archbi…_webcolumn.pdf
An example of the “proportionate reasons” that would justify voting for a candidate who approved of some abortions would be the case when the only two candidates able to win an election were both in favor of abortion. It is morally permissible to vote for the one who supports fewer abortions than his opponent.
*The Pope and bishops have indicated that other human rights issues, like health, education, and poverty, are not proportionate to abortion and euthanasia. *
Priests for Lfe
priestsforlife.org/electi…ngerletter.htm