CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Catholic voters must demand respect for their moral convictions and the Church's freedom in 2012 and beyond, the head of the Knights of Columbus said in a June 22 speech.<\/p>\n\tThe faithful \u201cmust have the courage to act boldly,\u201d by insisting that candidates \u201crespect the integrity and mission of the Catholic Church and its institutions,\u201d Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson told journalists gathered for the 2012 Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
\tAs they cast their votes, Catholics \u201cmust have the courage to tell candidates that if they want Catholic votes they will have to respect the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching,\u201d the head of the Catholic fraternal order said.<\/p>\n
\tAnderson said the faithful should seek to \u201cdebate and vote on the full range of Catholic social teaching \u2013 including prudential issues that raise serious moral questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut this can only be accomplished if Church members stop supporting \u201ccandidates who advocate policies that are intrinsically evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOnly by withholding the vote from unacceptable candidates, will Catholics eventually become able to \u201cchoose between candidates who are in agreement on the fundamental social teaching of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Supreme Knight began his address on Friday evening by acknowledging the \u201csad state of today's political environment,\u201d characterized by \u201cthe intransigence and the partisanship\u201d that \u201cmake the search for solutions virtually impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCatholics, he said, \u201care uniquely positioned to offer a solution\u201d to this dilemma, through fidelity to the Church's teachings.<\/p>\n
\tThis transformation, Anderson suggested, requires a commitment to civility in the discussion of controversial issues. Since Christians hope for the salvation even of their \u201cmost strident adversaries,\u201d they must seek \u201cthe conversion, not the destruction\u201d of political opponents.<\/p>\n
\tCatholics can also change American society by implementing the Church's vision of charity, which is \u201cnot simply a mechanism for the more efficient or cost-effective delivery of social services.\u201d Rather, it is rooted in the value of solidarity, \u201cthe Christian vision that we are our brother\u2019s keeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAlongside these commitments to civility and charity, Anderson called on U.S. Catholics to make a \u201cconsistent commitment to the social teaching of our Church\u201d for the good of the nation.<\/p>\n
\tThe Supreme Knight, who was directly involved in national politics during the 1970s and 1980s, recounted his decision to leave the Reagan administration \u201cto serve a higher calling and to promote key elements of Catholic social teaching beyond the political realm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs I told President Reagan then,\u201d he recalled, \u201cI believed these issues could not simply be limited to \u2013 or dismissed as \u2013 the domain of a single political party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDuring the 1980s, however, key principles of Church teaching were abandoned by a generation of Catholic politicians \u2013 beginning with former New York Governor Mario Cuomo \u2013 who proclaimed themselves \u201cpersonally opposed\u201d to abortion, but unwilling to restrict it in law.<\/p>\n
\tBut Cuomo's argument, Anderson noted, had a \u201cfatal flaw,\u201d since science proved the full humanity of the unborn child \u201cirrespective of one\u2019s religious conviction.\u201d The pro-life movement did not seek to impose religion, but to extend the protection of innocent life found in \u201cevery civilized society.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNonetheless, the \u201cCuomo doctrine\u201d spawned \u201ca generation of 'pro-choice' Catholic politicians.\u201d The result, according to the Supreme Knight, \u201chas been a political stalemate on the abortion issue for nearly three decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut there was also another effect,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernor Cuomo\u2019s rationale created an environment in which it became easier for candidates to dismiss other principles of Catholic social teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSo every election year many Catholic voters see their choice as between the lesser of two evils. They face candidates who argue that while they may not be consistent with Catholic values on all issues, they are consistent on some and that should be good enough. But it is not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd as bad as this situation is, it has produced an even worse result. It has blocked the potential of Catholic social teaching to transform our nation's politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAmerica's political parties have been dramatically transformed in the past, Anderson noted, as in the case of the Democratic Party's rejection of segregation during the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\tAt present, he suggested, a similar change in American politics is not just possible, but necessary.<\/p>\n
\tThe supposed \u201ctruce\u201d between Catholics and a hostile culture \u2013 brokered by Cuomo and other \u201cpersonally opposed\u201d politicians \u2013 has been shattered by the Obama administration, Anderson said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis year many Catholics sense that this 'peaceful co-existence' with secular culture has ended as a result of the HHS mandate,\u201d the Supreme Knight said, pointing to the federal rule forcing virtually all employers to cover contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.<\/p>\n
\tThe mandate threatens \u201cthe autonomy and the integrity of our Church and its institutions,\u201d and could \u201cdramatically change the mission of the Catholic Church in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFor this reason, the contraception mandate \u201cconfronts us with a challenge which is a very different one from that of social issues such as legalized abortion. It is different because it is a challenge to the integrity of our Catholic institutions and our own lives as Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhile the abortion issue raises questions about Catholics' public policy choices, the mandate dispute involves a more direct threat to the Church \u2013 through the \u201cre-definition of religion itself and the reduction of the role of religion in America's public square.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn light of this threat from the HHS Mandate, Anderson said, Catholic voters\u00a0 \u201cshould no longer accept politics as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCatholic voters should insist that candidates measure their political platforms by Catholic social teaching \u2013 especially if those candidates are Catholics,\u201d the Supreme Knight declared.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCatholic voters should have the courage not to settle for anything less than this. And they should have the courage to withhold their vote from candidates who fail this test,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n
\tThe Supreme Knight urged the faithful to consult the U.S. bishops' \u201cFaithful Citizenship\u201d document, which \u201ctells us that there are some actions that are intrinsically evil and must always be opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHaving formed their consciences according to these non-negotiable principles, Anderson said, Catholics must \u201cexercise our right to vote on our own terms, as Catholics, and not on the terms of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf we do, America will be a better place. I believe that as Americans and as Catholics, you and I have a responsibility to try and make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
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Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 22, 2012 \/ 09:00 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Catholic voters must demand respect for their moral convictions and the Church's freedom in 2012 and beyond, the head of the Knights of Columbus said in a June 22 speech.<\/p>\n
\tThe faithful …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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