Catholic Social Teaching and Your Vote, Part I

As members of the one true body of Christ, Catholics are united by common citizenship and identity. Christians commonly claim to be in the world but not of the world. Such a unique position requires us to enter the activities of the public square with the unwavering pursuit of building the Kingdom of God on Earth. Holy Mother Church prepares Her children for this responsibility by giving us moral teachings based on the Gospel and natural law to form our consciousness.

This essay aims to provide the Catholic voter a nonpartisan guide by which to discern their choices in the upcoming elections based on the objective truth of Catholic social teaching (CST). We cannot and should not identify entirely with any existing political party, but instead must make the most moral choices possible.

Catholic Social Teaching: Subsidiarity

Three principles govern Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity, and solidarity. The greatest of the three principles and that by which the other two follows is human dignity. Human beings are created in God’s image and likeness and enjoy a distinction from other created beings. The mystery of the incarnation speaks to the dignity of the human person in the highest order. Every decision in our private and public lives must be discerned through the lens of life and human dignity.

Next is the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity involves organizing a society in a way that supports the life of families and local communities. While some societal needs are appropriately met at national and international levels of government, we must entrust decisions to the most local units of organization: the individual, family, and community.

To best understand how subsidiarity is moral while the welfare state is inherently immoral, we must consider the common good concept. At first blush, one may recognize the term common good to mean programs and policies directed toward what the state considers to be the good of the masses. Social programs and policies widely seen in the modern welfare state are instituted most often by those rich and powerful members of society that often stand to benefit financially or by increasing power.

The glaring problem with this form of assistance is that it fails to recognize the dignity of the human family or person by treating the poor and marginalized as victims, unable to realize their fulfillment by nature of their victimhood. The best way to think about human dignity is we should never do for others what they can do themselves. It remains the responsibility of the smallest unit of organization, i.e., the family and community, to assist their neighbors with personal love and dignity that is not possible from larger societal structures.

Catholic Social Teaching: Solidarity

Solidarity is the virtue that enables the human family to recognize each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and to work meaningfully for the good of each other. Christ’s teaching to love one’s neighbor as one’s self emblemizes the virtue of solidarity.

We are called, not to a passive love or concern for our neighbor, but a deeply personal love achieved only through encountering God in our fellow man. This profoundly personal love requires the faithful to get their hands dirty. This is not possible when our brethren’s needs are left to the state’s care. The responsibility of solidarity rests firmly with the bride of Christ, the Church.

Solidarity is the result of justice. The concept of justice has been bastardized in the current time. Today, many people consider justice to be the idea that the underprivileged or traditionally marginalized groups in society should be given rights or treasures at others’ expense. Such a concept is the work of the devil, who would tempt us to the sin of pride by the thought that we are morally superior as we wage battle behind our keyboards or with violence in the streets.

Justice is the principle by which each person, in full recognition of their human dignity, has access to the resources they need to meet their needs and fulfill their human potential. When justice prevails, peace follows.  Pope St. Paul VI said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” Working for justice remains the calling of a Christian society.

One Non-Negotiable

Fully armed with a knowledge of CST and the principles of human dignity, subsidiarity, and solidarity, you may prayerfully and confidently discern your position on the issues of our time remaining faithful to the Gospel and natural law.

I intend to make this guide nonpartisan. To accomplish that goal, I will refrain from pointing out differences in candidates or parties, although such differences may leap out at the reader. My prayer is that you take the time to discern your choices based upon which candidates adhere as closely as possible to CST and which can be most impactful on the primary issue of human life and dignity.

I would be remiss, however, if I did not give one non-negotiable. Any candidate who does not adhere to the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life from conception to natural death should be disqualified from consideration. With that said, there are candidates of both parties running for different offices that do honor this essential credo.

Life Issues

Every issue must be evaluated first and foremost with the consideration of human life and dignity. This section treats the issues most identified as crucial to the teaching of the sanctity of human life from birth to natural death. Perhaps no issue has been thrust upon the national stage like the fight over abortion. There is no debate as to where a Catholic must stand on this issue to be in communion with the Church. Abortion under any circumstances is inherently evil and constitutes a grave sin, as does the support for politicians and policies that support abortion.

Those politicians claiming to be Catholic while espousing views or policies promoting or accepting this practice are anathema. They should be called upon by their Bishops to recant their error or face excommunication publicly. One only must look at the history of this issue to see the hand of Satan. What was once supposed to be safe, rare, and legal is now unapologetically on-demand and unrestricted. We have “progressed” from abortion to infanticide, with those who would dare oppose its practice declared enemies of a woman’s right to healthcare. Catholics should consider what the consequences of indifference on this issue will mean in the next twenty years.

Medically assisted suicide is permitted under the law in many states. Like many issues that we face today, euthanasia is a grave sin masqueraded as an act of dignity and mercy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church leaves no room for doubt in the sinfulness of suicide. Artificially ending life even under the declared cause of alleviating suffering is inherently unmerciful, as the soul is deprived of the graces received as a result of sharing in the Passion of Christ.

The third life issue to discuss is one that finds support among many Catholics, even those who consider themselves pro-life. Capital punishment, once an acceptable last form of punishment when it was impossible to protect society from a violent criminal, is no longer deemed acceptable under any circumstances. The appetite of the flesh ordered toward revenge or the misconception of justice is the reason behind capital punishment’s widespread support.

To those who would maintain that this form of punishment is the way to achieve justice, I will remind you that vengeance is the Lord’s alone (Romans 12:19). If we profess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ’s infinite mercy, then it is fundamentally unjust to rob a soul of the possibility of redemption, for once death occurs, it is impossible to work for salvation.