Holding Your Nose: How to Vote Catholic

Oct 30

If you have not yet voted by mail, you will hopefully be standing in a long line to do what is your right and your responsibility. As we all know all too well, this is a very close race. Each vote matters. Though we may disagree with others concerning their choice, I think we agree that we cannot wait for this to be over. We are exhausted with the commercials and the often-mean-spirited rhetoric. Just today, there was footage of ballot boxes on fire.

Perhaps you saw on the news, people getting out of a car and knocking down the signs of various candidates. Some sections of the city may be peppered with signs for the same party with others living in that area afraid to post opposing signs for fear of safety or retribution. Some of us may even dislike some signs of the candidate for whom we are voting!

As Catholics, we may find ourselves exiled with the platform of both candidates. Theologians will tell you that there is no such thing as the Catholic vote, as Catholics will vote evenly for each candidate. The title of this reflection comes from an article written for the last election and still holds true for this one. The inference is that when we go to the polls, we should hold our noses for with the choice we have, we may be saying to ourselves, “some choice!”

I cannot do justice to the article cited above, but I urge you to read it slowly - not to persuade anyone but rather because it speaks well regarding voting from a Catholic perspective. I liked how the author noted that religion is privatized in Western culture with political extremism filling the gaps which cannot make any claims on ultimate meaning, sacrifice, and salvation. I also appreciate how he notes that we don’t critique the platform of our party with the Gospel. Let me be honest, as a preacher, I have walked a delicate line preferring not to upset anyone, which is a compromise, safety instead of witness or truth.

So, what are we to do? We are to vote using our informed conscience. It is a matter of prudential judgment. That is, how do we best apply moral principles in complex real-life circumstances? This allows for two Catholics, with well-informed consciences, to vote for different candidates based on their assessment of the many issues and their prioritization of them. This allows for one parishioner to see her/his candidate just as “pro-life” as another parishioner voting for the opposition. It comes down to what one values. For example, one lawn sign in our area reads, “I’m voting for climate, sustainability, and resilience.”

In truth, I am not putting a lot of stock in the promises the candidates are making. Many times, I feel they are saying what we want to hear with little possibility of following through or the ability to do so as the party not in the White House will frustrate this. We have to be better, and this is why we vote.

I am writing this on Monday knowing that I have spiritual direction the next day and want to deal primarily with how this election has caused me at times, to demonize the other side, not so much the candidate, but those supporting the candidate. I want to uncover what this says about me and how I can become a better person.

Let’s pray for the common good which Cardinal McElroy describes as “the advancement of the whole series of issues in society, which allow the fullest expression and enhancement and achievement of human life and dignity for all people in our society and in the world.”

If we are struggling with some issues of the candidate whom we support, Brett Salkeld, the author of the article whose title is above, offers a practical suggestion, “if your well-formed Catholic conscience leads you to make the prudential judgment to vote for a candidate who supports a given evil, ask yourself what you can do practically to work against that evil in other ways in your life and make a plan to do it. Finally, we should ask ourselves, with all the honesty we can muster, before God in prayer, what our engagement in the political process has done for our souls. Has it made us more honest, more generous, more patient, more charitable, more self-controlled, more holy? Because what God really uses to change the world is not votes, but saints.”

Having finished this reflection, I was struck by a comment Tuesday morning that noted regardless of who wins, the outcome may say more about us (who we are as a nation) than anything else.