www.votingcatholic.org

[Apollo]

I found this article very interesting and helpful in my decision making process of who to vote for. I am still undecided, but every extra viewpoint helps me construct a more educated, less narrow-minded view.

God Bless.

Apollo

Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion
By MARK W. ROCHE

Published: October 11, 2004



South Bend, Ind. — For more than a century, from the wave of immigrants in the
19th century to the election of the first Catholic president in 1960, American
Catholics overwhelmingly identified with the Democratic Party. In the past few
decades, however, that allegiance has largely faded. Now Catholics are
prototypical "swing voters": in 2000, they split almost evenly between Al Gore
and George W. Bush, and recent polls show Mr. Bush ahead of Senator John
Kerry, himself a Catholic, among white Catholics.

There are compelling reasons - cultural, socioeconomic and political - for
this shift. But if Catholic voters honestly examine the issues of consequence
in this election, they may find themselves returning to their Democratic roots
in 2004.

The parties appeal to Catholics in different ways. The Republican Party
opposes abortion and the destruction of embryos for stem-cell research, both
positions in accord with Catholic doctrine. Also, Republican support of
various faith-based initiatives, including school vouchers, tends to resonate
with Catholic voters.

Members of the Democratic Party, meanwhile, are more likely to criticize the
handling of the war in Iraq, to oppose capital punishment and to support
universal heath care, environmental stewardship, a just welfare state and more
equitable taxes. These stances are also in harmony with Catholic teachings,
even if they may be less popular among individual Catholics.

When values come into conflict, it is useful to develop principles that help
place those values in a hierarchy. One reasonable principle is that issues of
life and death are more important than other issues. This seems to be the
strategy of some Catholic and church leaders, who directly or indirectly
support the Republican Party because of its unambiguous critique of abortion.
Indeed, many Catholics seem to think that if they are truly religious, they
must cast their ballots for Republicans.

This position has two problems. First, abortion is not the only life-and-death
issue in this election. While the Republicans line up with the Catholic stance
on abortion and stem-cell research, the Democrats are closer to the Catholic
position on the death penalty, universal health care and environmental
protection.

More important, given the most distinctive issue of the current election,
Catholics who support President Bush must reckon with the Catholic doctrine of
"just war." This doctrine stipulates that a war is just only if all possible
alternative strategies have been pursued to their ultimate conclusion; the war
is conducted in accordance with moral principles (for example, the avoidance
of unnecessary civilian casualties and the treatment of prisoners with
dignity); and the war leads to a more moral state of affairs than existed
before it began. While Mr. Kerry, like many other Democrats, voted for the
war, he has since objected to the way it was planned and waged.

Second, politics is the art of the possible. During the eight years of the
Reagan presidency, the number of legal abortions increased by more than 5
percent; during the eight years of the Clinton presidency, the number dropped
by 36 percent. The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of
abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less
stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped
by 11 percent.

There are many reasons for this shift. Yet surely the traditional Democratic
concern with the social safety net makes it easier for pregnant women to make
responsible decisions and for young life to flourish; among the most
economically disadvantaged, abortion rates have always been and remain the
highest. The world's lowest abortion rates are in Belgium and the Netherlands,
where abortion is legal but where the welfare state is strong. Latin America,
where almost all abortions are illegal, has one of the highest rates in the
world.

None of this is to argue that abortion should be acceptable. History will
judge our society's support of abortion in much the same way we view earlier
generations' support of torture and slavery - it will be universally
condemned. The moral condemnation of abortion, however, need not lead to the
conclusion that criminal prosecution is the best way to limit the number of
abortions. Those who view abortion as the most significant issue in this
campaign may well want to supplement their abstract desire for moral rectitude
with a more realistic focus on how best to ensure that fewer abortions take
place.

In many ways, Catholic voters' growing political independence has led to a
profusion of moral dilemmas: they often feel they must abandon one good for
the sake of another. But while they may be dismayed at John Kerry's position
on abortion and stem-cell research, they should be no less troubled by George
W. Bush's stance on the death penalty, health care, the environment and just
war. Given the recent history of higher rates of abortion with Republicans in
the White House, along with the tradition of Democratic support of equitable
taxes and greater integration into the world community, more Catholics may
want to reaffirm their tradition of allegiance to the Democratic Party in
2004.



[color=red]Mark W. Roche is dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of
Notre Dame.[/color]

[popestpiusx]

The only decision to make is between Peroutka and Bush (or who to write in). Kerry cannot be an option for anyone who considers himself Catholic.