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Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. (Evangelium vitae 73)

Abortion is a "Disqualifying Issue"

I urge all of you who are registered voters to exercise the great privilege of voting on election day. Today when there are so many issues before the electorate there are simple guidelines to follow to exercise good and conscientious citizenship. These are not mine, but were issued by the American Bishops several years ago.

First of all you should consider the whole range of issues before deciding for whom to vote. People are sometimes motivated to vote for a person because of one or two issues which carry overriding importance to them, such as taxes, environment, gun control, highways, etc.

But your vote should be based on more than one such issue. Candidates may differ on how to help the elderly. You may not agree with one of them but that does not make that person wrong. There are different approaches to the same issue. However if a candidate supported the extermination of everyone over 70, that would be wrong and you could not vote for that person. This isn't a "single issue," but a "disqualifying issue."

A disqualifying issue is one which is of such gravity and importance that it allows for no political maneuvering. It is an issue that strikes at the heart of the human person and is non-negotiable. A disqualifying issue is one of such enormity that by itself it renders a candidate for office unacceptable regardless of his position on other matters. A person will sacrifice their feelings on other issues because they know they cannot participate is anyway in an approval of a violent and evil violation of basic human rights.

Such an issue is abortion today, the taking of the innocent life of an unborn baby. The right to life is a paramount issue because as Pope John Paul II says it is "the first right, on which all the others are based, and which cannot be recuperated once it is lost."

A candidate for office who supports abortion rights has disqualified himself as a person a Catholic can vote for. A Catholic does not have to vote for a person because he is pro-life. But a Catholic may not vote for any candidate who supports abortion rights.

From a pastoral letter, "From The Pastor's Desk: The Catholic Vote", distributed at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. on November 4, 2000. The pastor of CIC is Rev. C. John McCloskey, known to thousands through his writings on CatholiCity's website
and from EWTN.

Les archives du Forum Catholique

JUIN 2001 A JUILLET 2003