Catholic Voting

Photo of Marty Barrack

by Marty Barrack

Catholic voters who seek to understand Church teaching on voting for elected representatives have good guidance available.

Pro-Life

Abortion is an intrinsic evil. We may not support an intrinsic evil in any way, even when we intend that good come of it.

Sometimes we hear that abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. But abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother. When a serious medical situation occurs, the doctor has two patients: one large, one small. He tries to protect the life of both mother and child. If he can save both, he is committed in Catholic morality to do so. If his best efforts cannot save both lives, he is committed in Catholic morality to save whichever life he has a greater probability of saving.

It is monstrous for a mother to use her size and power to decide that she should live and the child should die. If a mother and child are on a sinking ship and there is only room for one in the last lifeboat, what would we say of a mother who hurls her child into the sea and climbs into the boat herself?

Abortion is the deliberate killing of a child in the womb. More on abortion. Trying to save a life and being unable to do so is not an abortion.

The same for the mother's health. An abortion is never necessary to protect the mother's health. The physician is committed in Catholic morality to protect the health of both mother and child, and he does the best he can.

The principles of Catholic social teaching are based firmly on Christ's divine revelation, but how to accomplish it is left to prudential judgment. A Catholic may in good conscience believe that a man's dignity is better preserved by the application of market principles or by direct government assistance. If all else is equal, a Catholic may vote either way.

However, an intrinsic evil always outweighs a prudential judgment. If a Catholic has to choose between a candidate whose position on abortion is consistent with Catholic teaching (pro-life), and a candidate whose position on social welfare issues is better, he is committed in Catholic morality to vote for the pro-life candidate.

Catholics interested in a more detailed analysis of Church teaching on voting should read Catholic Answers' Catholic Voters Guide and also Archbishop Burke's Civic Responsibility for the Common Good.

Food, Clothing, Shelter

Some Catholics believe that the best way to provide the essentials of food, clothing and shelter to those who have little or no cash income is through government programs. They point out that the size and scope of government programs for the needy far exceed anything that private charity is doing, and believe that many people would starve if these programs were replaced by private charity.

Others observe that when Christians and others give private and voluntary donations that Christ blesses them for it and gives them grace. By contrast, when the government takes money from a Christian by force through the tax system and gives it to the poor, Christ gives no grace because the money was not freely given.

First, taking that much money by force leaves the Christian much less disposable income to donate privately. It is reasonable to suppose that some part of what the government would leave us would go into donations.

Second, when the government at any level gets into anything, the first thing it does is write a body of regulations. Governments, in fact all bureaucracies, have to do this to be sure that each person approaching the system gets treated more or less consistently with every other person. The alternative is arbitrary and capricious treatment of persons who approach the system as each agency staff person, using public tax money, applies his own personal judgment. As soon as these regulations are published, anyone who wants to receive benefits from the system reads them and figures out how to get as much as he can. This soon produces a large number of persons who find it easier to draw benefits without working than to go out and work.

Church-based charity does not work that way. When someone goes into a Catholic parish church asking for sustained assistance, the parish can deal with each person as an individual, as Christ taught. If the pastor's assessment is that the person really cannot work, the parish will do what it can to help. But if the pastor sees before him an able-bodied man capable of earning his own living, he may well call up a parishioner or friend who has hiring authority at a company and ask him to interview the man for a job. If the person shows up ready to work, the parish will probably help him along until he can actually get hired. But if the person shows up at the interview and shows no interest in the job, or simply does not show up at all, word will soon get back to the pastor, who will probably not give the person any more money.

The person can show up at several churches to ask each one for help. But this will usually be discovered. Many communities have a cooperative organization of all Christian churches in the area, and they compare notes. Often the individual churches refer charity seekers to the cooperative organization itself. Either way, word soon gets out when someone tries to game the system, and the churches ask him to seek help elsewhere.

Third, government agencies have a built-in incentive to keep their “clients” in the program. The more welfare-dependent people on their rolls, the more secure their jobs are. Christian churches, by contrast, have a built-in incentive to help those seeking their aid to become fully self-sufficient, which restores their dignity. The Church has a maxim, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.”

So there is a strong case in Christian compassion that church-based charity is good and that government-based charity is not good. The subject remains a matter of prudential judgment.

But again, an intrinsic evil always outweighs a prudential judgment. Even if a Catholic concludes that in his prudential judgment government-based welfare is than church-based welfare, he still must vote against politicians who support intrinsic evil.