(LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke told EWTN anchor Raymond Arroyo last night that Catholics have an obligation to vote in this year’s elections.
Both major political party candidates have “gravely morally objectionable content” in their platforms, Burke acknowledged, but “to not vote at all in a democracy like our own” is a “failure of our own duty to try to support a candidate, even if he or she is highly flawed but at least gives us some hope to advance the cause of life, and the family, and religious freedom.”
According to a study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, there are more than 32 million self-identifying Christians who are “likely” to sit out this election cycle, the majority of whom have a general “lack of interest in politics and elections.” Nineteen million Catholics are reportedly not likely to vote either.
Debates among social conservatives as to whether they should vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “the lesser of two evils” have intensified this election season in comparison to previous ones. Those who argue for withholding their support primarily point to Trump’s left-ward drift on social issues, including abortion and in-vitro fertilization. Those who are more right-wing argue Trump will not secure the border and that he has not surrounded himself with his most longtime, loyal supporters.
But Burke told Arroyo that to not vote is against the Fourth Commandment – honor your mother and father – which includes procuring the common good of your country or “fatherland.”
If there is “some good reason to think we can advance the cause of life, and the family, and religious freedom, that’s the kind of candidate we need to support,” he said.
Arroyo asked the cardinal for his reaction to comments made by Pope Francis aboard the papal airplane earlier this year when he was asked about voting in the U.S. presidential election. Francis too said Catholics should vote but added he “didn’t know” if Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or Trump is the lesser of two evils because Harris supports abortion and Trump opposes mass illegal immigration.
“Is turning away a migrant at the border equal to killing an unborn child morally?” Arroyo asked.
“No, clearly not,” replied Burke. “To take an innocent and defenseless human life is intrinsically evil. The question about migration is one of prudential judgement.”
“Open immigration,” he added, pointing to European counties that have experienced radical changes, “can change the character of a whole nation.”
He additionally noted that there are preeminent issues that “have the priority” over others and that the “fundamental” three are human life, marriage and the family, and the practice of religion.
“We must give our first attention to those,” he explained, swatting down arguments made by liberal clergy, like Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, that abortion should not be a “preeminent” voting issue.
Burke appeared on Arroyo’s program to discuss an essay that he wrote on the moral questions associated with voting. In his essay, which he posted on his personal website, he shares five things for Catholics to keep in mind when they go to the ballot box so they can vote “with moral integrity.”
First, Catholics must fast and pray so that America will “once again serve the good of all its citizens, especially of those who are threatened by the present prevalent anti-life, anti-family, and anti-religion agenda, by obedience to the moral law.”
Second, Catholics must “be abundantly clear and tirelessly steadfast in our opposition to the anti-life, anti-family, and anti-religion agenda which are destroying families, communities, and our nation. No candidate for public office should confuse a vote for him or her as support of the policies and programs of these iniquitous agenda.”
Third, Catholics must “study carefully the agenda of each candidate to see whether a candidate, even though he or she espouses morally objectionable programs and policies, will, in some way, limit the evil. If a candidate will, at least, limit the evil, we must support the limitation while insisting on the need to eradicate the evil altogether.”
Fourth, Catholics must “consider whether it is reasonable to hope that a candidate in question will, at least, hear the voice of a rightly-formed conscience on questions like procured abortion, sexual reassignment, and religious persecution, that is, whether there is hope that our opposition, as indicated in no. 2, will receive any hearing at all.”
And finally, Catholics must remember that “if there is even the smallest ray of hope to effect some change in view of effecting ever greater change for the common good, it is not right for us to fail in responding to the ray of hope.”
Burke concluded by stating that while the “present situation of national politics is morally disgusting,” Catholics are “a people of hope and can never excuse ourselves from continuing the daily work of seeking the conversion of our personal lives and the transformation of our national culture.”