Bulletin column from November 6, 2022

Dear Friends at Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Frances Cabrini Parish:

Praised be Jesus Christ! This Tuesday the 8^th is yet another Election Day in our Nation. More so than in prior years, I’ve been relatively quiet on the topic this time around, in part for lack of profound wisdom to offer about it all. Certainly the Church has long-standing teachings about a variety of ethical topics that are critically important for persons and for society. These same teachings are the guidelines that we utilize to help us decide which candidates to support or which ones to oppose in an election. Simply put: a Catholic should vote differently than a secular, non-believer. That said, it has grown increasingly difficult to match up a candidate of best fit who aligns with all or even most of our Catholic teachings. Moreover, our political climate has grown increasingly dysfunctional which contributes to the growing sentiment that the electoral process as we have known it is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Simply put: why bother voting at all?

These are challenging dilemmas in our democratic process to be sure. In the aftermath of the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, the pro-life movement no longer coalesces against a common, national legal foe. Certainly we are all opposed to abortion, but with Roe now gone, what exactly does it look like to advance a pro-life legislative agenda? It appears to vary by state, circumstance, and location and this puts strains on the customarily Republican lock on this issue that for many years had served as the default decider in Catholic voting behavior for large segments of the faithful. With opposition to Roe no longer holding the bloc together in the same way it used to, the Republican Party has become fragmented on another key ethical issue which is the opposition to same sex unions. It is a gut-punching realization that in some situations a Catholic may have to vote for a candidate who is opposed to abortion but who also has no qualms about protecting the legal status of same sex unions. How does one weigh those issues out in the balancing scales of what is more important? I suppose abortion would be the decider but it comes at the cost of supporting a candidate that is not going to support God’s plan for the family and traditional marriage which is gravely unfortunate.

Perhaps the most compelling (albeit tedious) question a Catholic voter can ask as we hit election day would be this: of the two candidates of each major party and the choice before me, which of the two seems less likely to directly attack and oppose the Church’s freedom to operate freely according to our Gospel principles? Depending upon the major party platform in question, or the stated political aims of a given candidate, which one is going to let the Church carry out our mission without forcing us to conform to mandate after mandate imposed in the name of secular notions of equality? This seems to be the most pressing question of this current campaign and of this moment in history. As time passes I would not be surprised if even this question becomes irrelevant as we simply make peace as believers with the fact that no matter who is in power, we are going to be persecuted, and we will be dealing with an agenda that as believers we simply cannot agree with.

At that point it probably will be a truly meaningless exercise to vote, and at that point maybe the Church’s modern flirtation with mild endorsements of liberal democratic models of government as the preferred means to order society will be over with. I do not sense that this point of total despair for our nations electoral process has arrived yet. Therefore, voting is still an important activity if it is viewed, as I am viewing it in this election, at least at a minimum as a way to protect the Church’s room to operate without harassment. The fact is that we do live in a fallen world which means that no system of governance is perfect, nor will any nation (including our own) last forever. Christians live in a world of ever shifting political realities while the one, common Gospel endures. This brings needed perspective on the rising dysfunction around us. Christians are also called to hope, and we are commanded to work for a better and more Christian world. For now that still means voting. What it will mean in later years is not for us to know right now, and we quietly place those questions about “tomorrow” into the provident hands of God as we engage the reality he has placed before us today.