Kerry should prepare an ad on Vatican "OK to vote for pro-choice"position

[papau]

On 6/15/04 yje Vatican says OK to vote for pro-choice Kerry - but our US Media says nothing? IMHO Kerry should prepare an ad on this Vatican position

Democrats.com points out: the Vatican has OK'd Catholics Voting for Pro-choice Candidates.

"Vatican officials clearly told the Bishops that voters are free to support pro-abortion politicans without sinning, if they support them for other policies... The Vatican's official position is that abortion IS NOT an issue that trumps every other issue politically. By the logic of this statement, the Vatican is saying that if a poltician is pro-choice, but supports many other priorities of the Church, it is quite reasonable for Catholic voters to support them over a politican who is pro-life, but fails to support Catholic doctrine on many other issues.

Which leaves John Kerry is a great position, since by at least one measure, he is the best Catholic in the Senate on supporting the priorities of the Bishops on non-abortion issues. So repeat this as a mantra until the media gets it. The Vatican says a) abortion is NOT the only important issue politically, and b) voters are free to support pro-abortion politicians as long as they are proportionately good on other Church priorities"

http://www.nathannewman.org/log/index.shtml#001780
http://www.usccb.org/bishops/intreflections.htm

Interim Reflections Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians

Cardinal McCarrick Bishops’ Spring Meeting Denver June 15, 2004

<snip>As many of you know, Vatican officials offered both principles and advised caution and pastoral prudence in the use of sanctions. . .It is important to note that Cardinal Ratzinger makes a clear distinction between public officials and voters, explaining that a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil only if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion. However, when a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted if there are proportionate reasons.<snip>

[noahmijo]

1. Phew good...

As a Catholic I was afraid for a moment I was going to have to lay low...

Ah I'm kidding but this is still cool, but realistically step into Catholic Church run mostly by Latinos and goofy Irish guys and just TRY to find freeper types trying to control who you vote for....

Bush aside from being anti-Catholic (his sucking up to Bob Jones proved that) totally stands against many of our basic doctrines.

[theivoryqueen]

2. aaaargh! these people aren't even in our country!

Why are they offering voting advice? Isn't telling people how to vote illegal? Especially coming from a religion? Comparison: the southern baptist convention giving UK citizens instructions on labor revolt. WTF???

[cmf]

3. Thank you!!!

I'm going to send this to my friend whose sister-in-law has been harassing her on this. She's been sending her voting guides, etc. that say that abortion does trump every issue and that she'd be sinning by voting for Kerry. Finally my friend can retort!

[dflprincess]

4. It looks like the Vatican has adopted the 80/20 rule

If the candidate is 80% with us - good enough. Given reports that the Pope is said to fear that Bush* is the anti-Christ I think this is an excellent move by the Vatican. The Church is putting the brakes on Bishops like the one in Colorado who said Catholics who vote for a prochoice politician should not take Communion.

I agree that the Vatican should not mess with our elections but I'm glad to see they're doing something about Bishops who are trying to make abortion the only issue. They are telling Catholic voters to look at all the issues.