My Own Take on Catholics and the Presidential Election

I've not heard anyone claim that a faithful Catholic cannot conscientiously vote for President Bush. Nor have I heard anyone claim that a faithful Catholic cannot conscientiously decline to vote either for President Bush or for Senator Kerry. (Have I missed something?)

However, I have heard many argue to the effect that a faithful Catholic cannot conscientiously vote for Senator Kerry--and, moreover, that there is no room for a reasonable difference of judgment about whether a faithful Catholic can conscientiously vote for Kerry. Gerry Bradley and Robby George make an argument to that effect in the National Review Online piece to which Rick Garnett posted a link on October 12, 2004. This argument is implausible.

Consider, in that regard, John Langan, SJ, Observations on Abortion and Politics, AMERICA, Oct. 25, 2004, at pp. 9-12. (Father Langan is the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Professor of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.)

Consider, too, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Time to Choose: Voting With a Catholic Conscience, COMMONWEAL, Oct. 22, 2004, at pp. 10-13. (Ms. Steinfels was editor of COMMONWEAL from 1988-2002.)

Now, I'm confident that Gerry Bradley and Robby George and many others do not agree with Father Langan and Ms. Steinfels. Nothing wrong with that. But for Bradley or George or anyone else to insist that Father Langan's argument and Ms. Steinfels kindred argument are unreasonable is breathtakingly arrogant. Read Father Langan's and Ms. Steinfels' essays. See for yourself.

The Steinfels essay is here.

The Langan essay, in a somewhat longer version than the one just published in AMERICA, is here.

If you disagree with me--if you think that, Father Langan and Ms. Steinfels to the contrary notwithstanding, a faithful Catholic cannot conscientiously vote for Kerry, and, moreover, that there is no room for a reasonable difference of judgment about whether a faithful Catholic can conscientiously vote for Kerry--then please tell me and the other readers of this blog precisely where, in your view, Father Langan's and/or Ms. Steinfels' arguments are not merely arguments that you reject, but unreasonable arguments that any faithful Catholic must, in good conscience, reject.

Michael P.