Editor’s note: This article was updated on November 4, 2024.
(LifeSiteNews) — Many of us have now heard the argument that Catholics cannot vote for any candidate who supports “intrinsically evil” laws, such as those that permit abortion or same-sex “marriage.” According to this argument, if we vote for such a candidate, we are compromising our Catholic faith and thereby offending God.
This argument may seem sound until we test it based on challenging fact patterns. If it is a valid principle that we can never vote for a candidate who supports intrinsically evil laws, then that principle must hold no matter how extreme the fact pattern becomes. Otherwise, it is not a Catholic principle that can definitively guide our voting decisions in all situations.
To test the principle, suppose we have two candidates:
Candidate A enthusiastically supports all pro-life initiatives, including the banning of contraception. He also vows to ban pornography, end woke indoctrination in schools, and even promote the Traditional Latin Mass (even though he is not Catholic himself). Unfortunately, he refuses to oppose any same-sex marriage laws already in place and thereby supports intrinsically evil laws.
Candidate B is not good. She not only champions unlimited abortion but also vows to slaughter every child under five. She also promises to deport all Catholics to Iran and turn Catholic churches into discos.
How should Catholics vote in an election in which Candidate A and Candidate B are the only two options? If we are going by the principle that we can never vote for a candidate who supports intrinsically evil laws, then we must refrain from voting because (i) Candidate A supports same-sex “marriage,” and (ii) Candidate B is the evilest candidate imaginable.
But we can take this even further. This principle would necessarily guide our decision even if we personally held the vote that would sway the election. Our friends and fellow Catholics might tell us that we alone could stop the slaughter of millions of children and prevent the destruction of the Catholic faith in America. And we would have to patiently explain to them that the only way to avoid compromising our faith and offending God was to refrain from voting for either candidate and thus allow Candidate B to win. If this outcome appears incorrect, it is because the principle is not sound in situations in which the only viable candidates support intrinsically evil laws.
READ: Pope Francis says to vote for lesser of two evils, and we know abortion is the real evil
Is there any other option to guide Catholics? Yes, we do have other guidance on how Catholics should vote in situations where the viable candidates all support intrinsically evil laws. Father Titus Cranny submitted his dissertation The Moral Obligation of Voting to Catholic University of America in 1952, and it includes a chapter on “conditions under which one may vote for unworthy candidates.” Here is what Fr. Cranny wrote, based on his study of Catholic teaching:
By the term ‘unworthy candidates’ we do not necessarily mean men whose private lives are morally reprehensible, but those who, if elected, would cause grave injury to the state or to religion, as for example, men of vacillating temperament who fear to make decisions. . . When unworthy candidates are running for office, ordinarily a citizen does not have the obligation for voting for them. Indeed. he would not be permitted to vote for them if there were any reasonable way of electing a worthy man, either by organizing another party, by using the ‘write in’ method, or by any other lawful means.
On the other hand, it would be licit to vote for an unworthy man if the choice were only between or among unworthy candidates; and it might even be necessary to vote for such an unworthy candidate (if the voting were limited to such personalities) and even for one who would render harm to the Church, provided the election were only a choice from among unworthy men and the voting for the less unworthy would prevent the election of another more unworthy. Since the act of voting is good, it is lawful to vote for an unworthy candidate provided there is a proportionate cause for the evil done and the good lost. This consideration looks simply to the act of voting itself and does not consider other factors such as scandal, encouragement of unworthy men, and a bad influence upon other voters.
Obviously, if any or all of these other factors are present, the excusing cause for voting for an unworthy candidate would have to be proportionally graver. Lehmkuhl says that it is never allowed to vote absolutely for a man of evil principles, but hypothetice it may be allowed if the election is between men of evil principles. Then one should vote for him who is less evil (1) if he makes known the reason for his choice; (2) if the election is necessary to exclude a worse candidate. . . Tanquerey declares that if the vote is between a socialist and another liberal, the citizen may vote for the less evil, but he should publicly declare why he is voting this way, to avoid any scandalum pusillorum. Prümmer says the same. Actually, however, in the United States and in other countries where the balloting is secret, there seems to be no need of declaring one’s manner of voting.
READ: Jailed pro-lifer Will Goodman: Harris-Walz ticket is the ‘greater evil’ in the presidential election
If we apply this Catholic guidance to the hypothetical choice between Candidates A and B above, it would almost certainly be necessary to vote for Candidate A, and at the very least it would be permissible to do so.
Catholics of good will can be divided on these issues. However, it is not correct to argue that it would be offensive to God to vote for a candidate who supported certain evil laws if our intention in voting was to prevent the election of a candidate who supported far more evil laws. In such a situation we could vote in good conscience for the candidate best suited to establish and protect the conditions most conducive to the common good. Moreover, the Catholic rationale for voting for the candidate who supports the less evil laws becomes stronger in proportion to the increase in evil we would expect from the alternative candidate.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
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