Voting - Chaput: On the courage to be a Christian

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archden.org/dcr//news.php?e=485&s=2&a=10155

In our day, sanctity of life issues are foundational—not because of anyone’s “religious” views about abortion, although these are important; but because the act of dehumanizing and killing the unborn child attacks human dignity in a uniquely grave way. Deliberately killing the innocent is always, inexcusably wrong. It sets a pattern of contempt for every other aspect of human dignity. In redefining when human life begins and what is and isn’t a human person, the logic behind permissive abortion makes all human rights politically contingent.

In offering his own thoughts on Catholic social teaching, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin warned against the misuse of his “seamless garment” imagery to falsely invest different social issues with the same moral gravity. Many social issues are important. Many require our attention. But some issues have more weight than others. Deliberately killing innocent human life, or standing by and allowing it, dwarfs all other social issues. Trying to avoid this fact by calling the unborn child a lump of pre-human cells is simply a corrupt and corrupting form of verbal gymnastics.

Real Catholic citizenship requires much more than a tribal loyalty to any political party. It demands that we work (and make noise) within our political parties to change them; to force them to recognize and defend the sanctity of human life, beginning with the unborn child and extending to the poor, the immigrant, the disabled and the elderly.

This “article” is an excerpt from Archbishop Chaput’s new book Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life* . *I haven’t had a chance to buy/read it, but I’m sure it’s excellent.

I bolded the section above, because we get a lot of threads/posts that try to demean pro-life voters for not giving equal wait to issues of poverty, healthcare, etc. The Archbishop’s comments (and echoing of theh late Cardinal Bernardin) are important to keep in mind. It is not that poverty and healthcare issues aren’t important (though, as I have pointed out, there is not one Catholic solution to those problems), but the abortion issue “dwarfs all other social issues.”