Who Should Catholics Vote For?

[thatbrownguy]

So say you are a good Catholic-Christian. Looking at the four front runners before Super-Tuesday, who do you vote for. I am not a "ONE-ISSUE" voter, so want to look beyond the Anti-Abortion or Pro Choice issue (I am pro-life of course, and see pro-life as an issue extending beyond just the first nine months of human life, including birth, childhood (healthcare) adulthood (anti-war and anti-death penalty) and elderly (healthcare again with euthenasia). So which candidate suits us best? I am leaning towards Obama, because he is who I see as an agent of change, and though might not be everything I as a Catholic want, no one on the Rep. side is appealing either because of their lack of Social-justice for the poor, their poor ideas of health care, their support of the war, or their support of the death penalty...all equally dangerous for Catholics who support LIFE! What do you think?

[ardillacid]

[quote name='thatbrownguy' post='1455331' date='Feb 4 2008, 11:31 AM']all equally dangerous[/quote]
lol

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='thatbrownguy' post='1455331' date='Feb 4 2008, 12:31 PM']So say you are a good Catholic-Christian. Looking at the four front runners before Super-Tuesday, who do you vote for. I am not a "ONE-ISSUE" voter, so want to look beyond the Anti-Abortion or Pro Choice issue (I am pro-life of course, and see pro-life as an issue extending beyond just the first nine months of human life, including birth, childhood (healthcare) adulthood (anti-war and anti-death penalty) and elderly (healthcare again with euthenasia). So which candidate suits us best? I am leaning towards Obama, because he is who I see as an agent of change, and though might not be everything I as a Catholic want, no one on the Rep. side is appealing either because of their lack of Social-justice for the poor, their poor ideas of health care, their support of the war, or their support of the death penalty...all equally dangerous for Catholics who support LIFE! What do you think?[/quote]
You may want to look beyond abortion, but as a Catholic that is not one of my options. Slice and dice politicos are not even on my slate, and never will be.

[Ash Wednesday]

While I like Obama as a person, in most likelihood I could not vote for him and keep a clear conscience. I used to vote for pro-choice Democrats back in college but came to realize that there are some issues which are simply not negotiable -- such as abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research. I do not agree with the way we went to war in Iraq, but as a perspective, over 6 million abortions have taken place since the first invasion.

I wouldn't say that Republicans "do nothing" in terms of social justice -- generally they just trust and prefer private charity, private choices and self-responsibility and sufficiency rather than big government making the decisions for you. I am not affiliated with either party and see advantages and disadvantages of both in practice but after living overseas in Europe I've come to a greater understanding of the right's point of view. I know Pope JP2 has spoken critically of both systems being taken to extremes (socialism vs. unbridled capitalism)

Here are some starting resources as a Catholic and a voter:

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/vote/index.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/vote/index.htm[/url]

[url="http://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm[/url]

[quote]14. Is it a mortal sin to vote for a pro-abortion candidate?

Except in the case in which a voter is faced with all pro-abortion candidates (in which case, as explained in question 8 above, he or she strives to determine which of them would cause the let damage in this regard), a candidate that is pro-abortion disqualifies himself from receiving a Catholic’s vote. This is because being pro-abortion cannot simply be placed alongside the candidate's other positions on Medicare and unemployment, for example; and this is because abortion is intrinsically evil and cannot be morally justified for any reason or set of circumstances. To vote for such a candidate even with the knowledge that the candidate is pro-abortion is to become an accomplice in the moral evil of abortion. If the voter also knows this, then the voter sins mortally.[/quote]