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Voting for Catholic Dummies

Which Catholic Voter's Guide Should We Use?

BY STANFORD ESPEDAL

In August my daughter and I drove up to San Luis Obispo where she'll be attending Cal Poly in the fall. While there we visited Saint Anne Byzantine Catholic Church, her parish away from home. After our tour of the church, I was taking a bulletin in the narthex when the priest pointed out a booklet on the table with a red white and blue cover. "Have you seen this," he asked? It was entitled Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics. Quickly flipping through it I noted two things: It was short -- only ten pages -- and it was published by Catholic Answers. [An ad with the text of the Catholic Answers voting guide can be found on page 19.]

I read it in the car in six minutes. I was impressed. It identified five non-negotiable moral issues -- abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual "marriage." It explained that no one may vote in support of these; that anyone who does so rejects the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church. I planned to refer it to others.

A few days later I learned that controversy surrounds the Voter's Guide. Legal counsel for the U.S. Bishops' Conference has questioned whether the guide violates the nonpartisan requirements of Catholic Answers' 501(c)(3) tax status, and hence whether Catholic dioceses would jeopardize their own tax status by promoting it. In response, Catholic Answers published on their website a letter from pro-life attorneys James Bopp and Barry Bostrom of Bopp, Coleson and Bostrom in Terre Haute, Indiana. The letter states in part, "We have reviewed the Voter's Guide and it is our opinion that it may be published and distributed by organizations income tax exempt under IRC 501(c)(3).... The Voter's Guide does not identify particular candidates for public office and therefore is similar to issue advocacy communications." Nevertheless, staffers at the bishops' conference have asked that only their voter's guide, Faithful Citizenship, be distributed.

Faithful Citizenship, A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, first appeared in 1976 and is reissued each election year. The central section of the rather long document considers themes of catholic social teaching, covering life and dignity of the human person; call to family, community, and participation; right and responsibilities; options for the poor and vulnerable; dignity of work and the rights of workers; solidarity; and caring for God's creation. It is distributed directly by the bishops' conference and through dioceses.

Meanwhile, Catholic Answers is distributing its Voter's Guide full steam ahead. Currently two million copies are in print. The total may reach four million copies. On August 31, the guide appeared as a full-page advertisement in USA Today in ten major cities. They hope to run it in October in every edition of USA Today nationwide.

In fact, neither of the voter's guides is partisan. Proof of this is the fact that the Archdiocese of Saint Louis promotes both side by side on their web site. Yet Catholics have become quite partisan about which guide represents the best political philosophy.

Representing one side of the spectrum is the Catholic Voting Project. Describing themselves on their web site, they write, "A small group of young Catholics came together in the spring of 2004 to promote the U.S. Bishops' statement on Faithful Citizenship. They were concerned that public debate surrounding the Catholic vote in the 2004 Presidential Election was beginning to focus on only a narrow range of issues, and wanted to develop an online resource to highlight the richness of Church teaching on matters of political importance."

The reference to a "narrow range of issues" is explained in an introduction called Why A Catholic Voting Guide? "There are many other voter guides for the 2004 elections that claim to be ‘Catholic,' yet they focus on only a handful of issues, depending largely on the ideology of the sponsor. Some voter guides look only at abortion, stem cell research, and homosexual marriage -- issues on which from a Catholic perspective President Bush gets better marks than Kerry. Other voter guides focus only on domestic economic issues, such as tax policy and social programs for the poorest Americans -- issues on which Senator Kerry prevails. The Catholic Voting Project's voter guide is unique in that it considers all the issues highlighted by the U.S. Catholic Bishops."

Catholics on the other side in this debate, while acknowledging Faithful Citizenship as a helpful study tool, consider the document problematic. The primary criticism is that it places side by side with the evil of abortion such debatable issues as nuclear weapons and the death penalty. There is no real distinction made between non-negotiable and negotiable issues. Hence one could come away thinking that ending abortion, ending war, ending the death penalty, providing living wages and affordable housing are all of equal importance. As Bob Laird, director of the Family Life Office of the Diocese Arlington, Virginia, said, "It equates abortion with debt relief. They are not equal."

The Catholic Answers website offers a similar observation in its Q & A on the Voter's Guide: "The fact is that issues are not all on the same level morally. Whether a child dies through abortion is more important than whether a child gets a free school lunch."

And in an August 26 missive on the issue, Catholic Answers stated, "On these five non-negotiables, there is only one possible position for a conscientious Catholic to take: complete opposition. A Catholic is free to support or to oppose any politician or ballot measure on issues such as jobs, trade, taxes, or the war in Iraq. But with issues such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, human cloning, and embryonic stem cell research, all Catholics are forbidden to endorse them or vote for them."

I asked local Catholics who had read both guides to share their opinion. Dr. Derry Connolly, president of New Catholic University replied via e-mail: "The Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics published by Catholic Answers very quickly focuses the reader on the five ‘top-of-mind' current and non-negotiable Catholic issues being debated in the political arena today. The reader very quickly gets a reasoned and prescriptive approach as to how they should and should not vote. It's ideal for a quick read, giving the reader critical information, and telling them what to do.

Faithful Citizenship is a lengthy, very well-reasoned and well written document that carefully, clearly and very politely describes the Catholic position on a wide array of current moral, social and ethical issues that should be of concern to the citizen, but in a way that is much less prescriptive. It is carefully written not to offend but to teach. However, if many Catholic politicians and voters were to read the document carefully, they would find problems with their political positions and voting records. [For example] ‘The Church is called to be principled but not ideological. We cannot compromise our basic values or teaching, but we should be open to different ways to advance them.' Sadly, too many Catholic politicians and voters have compromised over the past four decades and have contributed to the moral morass the country finds itself in today. So, maybe some prescriptive ‘fire and brimstone' teaching is needed to impress on Catholic voters and politicians that their continual practice of ignoring Catholic principles must stop for the sake of our citizens and the future of our great nation. Just ask any parent how well a reasoned gentle plea works with a wayward teenager."

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