The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently released a document titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States.” Although the document says that it does “not intend to tell Catholics for whom or against whom to vote,” but rather “help[s] Catholics form their consciences in accordance with God's truth,” a reasonable appraisal of the document reveals that the USCCB is telling Catholics not to vote for President Obama in the 2012 election.
The document mentions “intrinsically evil actions” that “must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned.” These actions, the document notes, are abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and “destructive research on human embryos.” The document states, “Those who knowingly, willingly, and directly support public policies or legislation that undermine fundamental moral principles cooperate with evil.”
“Catholics,” the document says, “must never abandon the moral requirement to seek full protection for all human life from the moment of conception until natural death.” Further, the document notes that a “Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion […], if the voter's intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil.”
The document also notes, “The [Catholic] Church equips its members to address political and social questions by helping them to develop a well-formed conscience” and that “Catholics have a serious and lifelong obligation to form their consciences in accord with human reason and the teaching of the Church.”
Conscience, according to this document is “the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us to do what is good while shunning what is evil.” The document continues noting, “In all he says and does, man is obligated to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right.” God, then, one should assume, is telling people to shun abortion and Catholics, as the document states, must follow their consciences and not support candidates who are pro-choice.
Although the USCCB says that they are not telling Catholics how to vote, it is very evident that the document is telling people not to support candidates who hold certain positions that are “intrinsic evils.” While the document does not outright say, “Catholics should not vote for President Obama in the 2012 election,” one can reasonably and easily read this document to arrive at this conclusion. If it is the case that “Catholic[s] cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil” and President Obama takes a position that is in favor of an intrinsic evil, it simply follows that Catholics cannot vote for President Obama.
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