Dear Editor:
What is the duty of Catholic voters when it comes to voting in an election? The answer is in an article reprinted in the November Catholic Digest by Colin B. Donovan, STL. They reprinted it from EWTN.com/vote. To quote the article "Voters should try to minimize the damage done to society by the outcome of an election, even if that outcome is not wholly satisfactory by Catholic principles."
What does that mean to us in the race between Todd Akin and Claire McCaskill?
Claire McCaskill has a 100 percent favorable rating with Naral and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood and NARAL both support killing babies in the womb. The Catholic Church teaches that this is a grave sin. Todd Akin has a 0 percent favorable rating with Naral and Planned Parenthood.
To quote the article by Colin B Donovan "The fact is that most candidates will imperfectly embrace Catholic principles and voting for any candidate contains many unknowns about what that candidate believes and will do. Thus, to vote for a candidate because he favors abortion is formal cooperation in his evil political acts. However, to vote for someone in order to limit a greater evil, that is to restrict in so far as possible the evil that another candidate might do if elected, is to have a good purpose in voting. The voter's will has as its object this limitation of evil and not the evil which the imperfect politician might do in his less than perfect adherence to Catholic moral principles. Such cooperation is called material, and is permitted for a serious reason, such as preventing the election of a worse candidate."
In January, our Holy Father, the Pope, encouraged the Knights with these words. "At a time when concerted efforts are being made (think Obamacare and the HHS mandate) to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom, the Knights of Columbus have worked tirelessly to help the Catholic Community recognize and respond to the unprecedented gravity of these new threats to the Churches' liberty and public moral witness. By defending the right of all religious believers, as individual citizens and in their intuitions, to work responsibly in shaping a democratic society inspired by their deepest beliefs, values and aspirations your Order has proudly lived up to the high religious and patriotic principles which inspired its founding."
Who is the greater evil?