I’ll go through the documents I have to see if I can find where I came across that…it’ll take a while, but I’ll get back to you on that.
Estesbob:
Ok, it’s not my complete list but for the sake of this discussion these are the bits and pieces which helped me reach the conclusion that not voting is not being morally responsible:
From the
CCC #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.
From the USCCBs Faithful Citizenship
“Our responsibility is to measure all candidates, policies, parties, and platforms by how they protect or undermine the life, dignity, and rights of the human person, whether they protect the poor and vulnerable and advance the common good.”
…
"In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue;
participation in the political process is a moral obligation. All believers are called to faithful citizenship, to become informed, active, and responsible participants in the political process. As we have said, "We encourage
all citizens, particularly Catholics, to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate [more fully]
in building the culture of life. Every voice matters in the public forum.
Every vote counts. Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power.
From the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding The Participation of Catholics in Political Life
“By fulfilling their civic duties, «guided by a Christian conscience», in conformity with its values, the lay faithful exercise their proper task of infusing the temporal order with Christian values, all the while respecting the nature and rightful autonomy of that order, and cooperating with other citizens according to their particular competence and responsibility.The consequence of this fundamental teaching of the Second Vatican Council is that «
the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in ‘public life’, that is, in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good».This would include the promotion and defence of goods such as public order and peace, freedom and equality, respect for human life and for the environment, justice and solidarity.”
And yet according to the new
CA Voter’s Guide:
Pg. 12…“In such a case you may vote for the candidate who takes the fewest such positions or who seems least likely to be able to advance immoral legislation,
or you may choose to vote for no one…Not voting may sometimes be the only moral course of action, but we must consider whether not voting actually promotes good and limits evil in a specific instance.”
Note, however, that the CA quotations are the opinion/view of the CA authors’ interpretations of Church teaching so it doesn’t carry the same weight as their included CCC citations and quotations from Popes and such.
I tend to favor the Church’s position over that of Catholic Answers when it comes to not voting. From what I gather from the Church documents there is no mention of
not voting when the choice is dismal.
While the CA position allows a voter faced with a near impossible choice to walk away with a clear conscience, I personally get from the CCC and the other USCCB writings that turning away would be failing to do what we had the opportunity to in order to minimize the damage the obvious outcome of that particular race might inflict upon society.
By voting for the lesser of evils we at least
do something to protect our fellow brothers and sisters
as best we could. Not voting abandons our brothers and sisters to their own ignorance and misguided actions. I don’t see how that could be considered a charitable and viable option for a responsible member of Christ. Perhaps your take on the matter would differ from mine. I’d be interesting in reading your thoughts on the matter.
