U.S. bishops: Vote your conscience Catholics urged to weigh stands on all issues

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OK, we’ve seen the news from New Jersey. The bishops of Kansas have also made a statement about voting. You can read it here. It’s short. Pay close attention to the paragraph entitled “Judgments Concerning Moral Evils.”
 
I guess then that NJ Catholics are not being asked to follow the full teachings of the Magesterium. There are things that always take preference over social ills. Life is one of them.
 
Adonis33 said:
Nobody HAS to vote - though everybody should vote.

I think anybody has a right not to vote if that is how they feel.
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from our Catechism:

**2240 **Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country:
 
Check out this website
caaction.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=95

This will bring you to the “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics.” Its in a .pdf downloadable form.

the guide does NOT tell you who to vote for, and neither will I. But here’s what a Serious Catholic should consider.

This is clear that Catholics were never “one issue”. But its equally clear that there are issues that trump others. Thus, we must consider the candidates stance on five issues first:
  1. abortion
  2. Euthanasia
  3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
  4. Human Cloning
  5. Homosexual “marriage”
A serious Catholic voter would then chose the one that aligns with the most of these five issues. If the available candidates are equal in these positions, then, and only then, can a serious Catholic look to other social ills. Reason: these five positions respect life and family unit. These are the building blocks for correct decisions on all other social issues. If the building blocks are there, there will be no respect for life at any stage.

Perhaps this weighing is what the various Bishops mean.
 
buffalo said:
U.S. bishops: Vote your conscience
Code: 
**[Catholics urged to weigh stands on all issues](http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1217390961251120.xml&coll=5)**
LAWRENCE – If you think you know how the Catholic Church in the United States wants its members to vote in the presidential election this year, think again.
Single-issue voting, like simply choosing the anti-abortion candidate, is out.

more…
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Good advice, Catholic Social Teaching is very broad and single issue voting is basing your decision on only one thing. Catholic Social Teaching is designed to represent real life, where there are many, many, greys with many overlapping and interdependency, or even contradiction of issues at times. It is not easy because it is not supposed to be easy.
 
JB2VI said:
If the building blocks are there, there will be no respect for life at any stage.
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I meant to say: “If the building blocks are NOT there, there will be no respect for life at any stage.”

As to capital punishment, the Church allows the state to make that decision.
 
NewUlm1976_2000 said:
Good advice, Catholic Social Teaching is very broad and single issue voting is basing your decision on only one thing. Catholic Social Teaching is designed to represent real life, where there are many, many, greys with many overlapping and interdependency, or even contradiction of issues at times. It is not easy because it is not supposed to be easy.
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All social justice finds its roots in one thing - life. Life issues always trump quality of life issues.
 
buffalo said:
All social justice finds its roots in one thing - life. Life issues always trump quality of life issues.
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And in the link Dale just put up, “life” issues are intertwined with “quality of life” issues and can have many solutions and what may fall into “quality of life” can be part of a solution towards the “life” issues. That is part of what makes Catholic Social Teachings so complicated to parse through.
 
I don’t see any substantial differences between these documents and what we were told in 2004 or 2006 in our diocese here in Wisconsin.
 
NewUlm1976_2000 said:
\That is part of what makes Catholic Social Teachings so complicated to parse through.
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Yes, the document is difficult. In reading it, I found it was easier to allow my conscience to do the thinking, rather than relying solely upon rational analysis.

While rejecting the single issue voting as a necessity, the document identifies as the “preeminent” issue in the election the need to restrict abortion. The document states that Catholics may legitimately reject a candidate based upon their stance on that issue.
 
Dale_M said:
Yes, the document is difficult. In reading it, I found it was easier to allow my conscience to do the thinking, rather than relying solely upon rational analysis.

While rejecting the single issue voting as a necessity, the document identifies as the “preeminent” issue in the election the need to restrict abortion. The document states that Catholics may legitimately reject a candidate based upon their stance on that issue.
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On that issue alone? Or on that issue combined with other issues? My mind has been made up for a long time on who to vote for, it sounds to me as though they are trying to give people the go ahead if they feel other issues trump the abortion issue.🤷
 
Teelyn, yes, on that issue alone. I’ll give you a quote from page 18 of the USCCB document:

USCCB said:
42. As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support. Yet a candidate’s position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support.
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usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf
 
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