The Church does acknowledge that voters may vote for a pro-abortion candidate, using what Pope Benedict XVI (writing shortly before his election to the papacy) calls “proportionate reasons.”
A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. 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 in the presence of proportionate reasons.
But these proportionate reasons are largely assumed not to exist except in a single case, and that is when both candidates in a race are pro-abortion. When, however, there is a clear choice between the candidates—as in the current presidential race—a faithful Catholic must vote for the one who opposes abortion. Barack Obama receives the National Abortion Rights Action League’s highest rating (100%) and its endorsement. John McCain received 0% from NARAL, and he has always been anti-abortion.
Nobody from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church—no bishop, archbishop, cardinal, and certainly not the Pope himself—is going to endorse any candidate in the upcoming elections. Still, the teaching of the Church ought to be clear: No faithful Catholic may (with a clear conscience anyway) vote for Barack Obama or any other pro-abortion candidate. Indeed, it may well be that to do so would be a cause for the Catholic voter’s excommunication.
When asked about Mexican Church leaders who threatened to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City, Pope Benedict said:
“They [i.e., the Church leaders] did nothing new, surprising, or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church . . . which [is] that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment of life.”
The Holy Father does not mean that these politicians (or the voters who support them) are going to hell, although they ought to damn well worry about it. What he does mean is that the politicians have broken with the community of faith. Indeed, any Catholic who publicly advocates a mortal sin, which is what abortion clearly is in Catholic teaching, is subject to “automatic excommunication.” Again, no priest or bishop or the Pope himself needs to issue any formal proclamation. The excommunication is “latae sententiale,” a fine Latin phrase meaning that the sentence is already given—inherent in the sin itself, which after all can’t be hidden from God. In fact, I would be willing to speculate—and it’s only speculation on my part, although it’s also logical—that both Pelosi and Joe Biden, just to name two “pro-choice” Catholic politicians, are indeed excommunicated.
That’s harsh, but it’s also pretty clear. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the “Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.” That Speaker Pelosi missed this and considers the morality of abortion merely a matter of opinion—even within the Church—is surprising. That her modern feminism is in conflict with the traditional faith of her upbringing is no surprise; that she believes she can embrace these contradictory views is pathetic.
And, to be fair, we have the example of Rudy Giuliani on the GOP side, a smart guy and a dynamic leader, who nonetheless may also be excommunicated, latae sententiale, not only for his abortion advocacy and his divorces but also for receiving Communion (which he did at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during a Mass there by Benedict XVI), despite the fact that he is almost certainly not in unity with the Church. So why was he allowed to receive Communion? I’m not sure, but it’s pretty obvious that on any given Sunday at St. Pat’s (let alone at the Mass Pope Benedict celebrated later on at Yankee Stadium), there is simply no way everybody who steps forward to receive Communion can be scrutinized with regard to his or her advocacy of abortion or any other doctrinal matter. In fact, no priest—and that includes bishops, cardinals, and, yes, even the Pope—can necessarily deny Communion to anybody, since one can’t know in any given moment what the state of the soul of the communicant might be. That said, politicians do pose a peculiar problem, since their views are publicly stated. It seems to me that if either Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden comes to the rail before a priest who knows them and if he asks them if they repent their “pro-choice” positions and if they say they do not, the priest should withhold Communion—not punitively, as some may suppose, but in order to prevent the Speaker or the Senator from committing yet another mortal sin: sacrilege. It is sacrilegious to take Communion with un-confessed mortal sins weighing on one’s soul.
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