BROWNSVILLE, September 21, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rene Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi Texas, has written a letter to the editor of the Brownsville Herald, giving his clarification on the contentious issue of ‘proportionate reasons’ for a Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion politician. Naming names, he writes that Catholics cannot vote for presidential candidate John Kerry. To do so, he says, “would be formal cooperation in the sin of abortion if that candidate were to be elected and assist in passing legislation that would remove restrictions on abortion on demand.” He says that it is not enough to make a mental reservation that a voter is not supporting a pro-abortion politician because of his stand on abortion. The reasons to support the politician must be objectively ‘proportionate.’ He further states that the usual reasons cited, a candidate’s stand “on war, or taxes, or the death penalty, or immigration, or a national health plan, or Social Security, or AIDS, or homosexuality, or marriage,” are not important enough. They are, he says, “simply lacking in proportionality.” There is only one reason, says the retired bishop, that would be proportional to the killing of millions of innocent children through abortion. The bishop addresses a question that frequently vexes pro-life voters, that of having three bad choices. “Consider the case of a Catholic voter who must choose between three candidates: Kerry, who is completely for abortion on demand, Bush, who is in favor of very limited abortion, i.e., in favor of greatly restricting abortion and Peroutka, a candidate who is completely against abortion but who is universally recognized as being unelectable,” he writes.
Without directly telling Catholic voters to support Bush, the bishop makes a strong logical case that this could be considered the only choice. “The Catholic can vote for Peroutka, but that will probably only help ensure the election of Kerry. Therefore the Catholic voter has a proportionate reason to vote for Bush, since his vote might help to ensure the defeat of Kerry and might result in the saving of some innocent human lives.” To read Bishop Gracida’s full letter: https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/opinions_more.php?id=61217_0_11_0_C ph