Political Series Show 5 "Party Loyalty and Loyalty to Christ"

Our duty to vote is an aspect of our duty to the Covenant. In the Old Testament, we see that the Kings either led their people in obedience to the Covenant, or broke the Covenant and led others to do so. Such actions brought destruction upon the nation. The prophets foretold that this would happen, as they admonished the rulers to keep the Covenant.

We can not only admonish our public officials; we can choose them. Our duties toward the Covenant demand that we protect it against those who in public life would violate it.

Political parties have a purpose, and it is all right to belong to them. But our loyalty to a party must never exceed our loyalty to God and moral principles.

Parties are important in our American system of government, and voters need to know what the parties stand for. Whether certain kinds of legislation get passed, or even introduced, in Congress depends, in large part, on which party is in power, that is, which party has the majority of representatives. The party in power controls the committees which in turn control what bills are brought before the entire Congress. If the party is opposed to certain types of legislation, then the committee it controls will usually not let that legislation come up for a vote.

We interviewed some officials at the Vatican recently regarding political parties. Their comments follow:

Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications:

"Parties are a human invention. They're handy because they help people to organize for a political expression but political parties are not God. They are not even divinely instituted organizations. And so if the platform of a particular political party would advocate something which is contrary to our beliefs we cannot support that aspect of the party's program and I don't think that candidates who are Catholics can be expected to advocate part of that political program."

Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace:

"The Doctrinal Note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stresses the fact that a person, a Catholic or anyone with a well formed conscience, a well formed understanding of right and wrong; good and evil can NEVER vote for a political program or law "which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.

"A Catholic politician or a Catholic voter can not separate himself or herself from his or her moral responsibility. You cannot choose when and where to be Catholic and that includes political life and voter responsibility.

"It is in the voting booth and the ballot that the average citizen can exercise that involvement, not only in the political life of their neighbourhood, city or nation but also to become involved in assuring, as Blessed Pope John told us, "that every institution, whether economic, social, cultural or political ...facilitate man's self betterment.

"A mentality of "anything goes" or "what ever I want to do is my right" is not a correct mentality and government has the obligation to help people understand rights and responsibilities."

Bishop Karl Romer, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family: "Party loyalty is and must be a secondary value, albeit important, often very important, but nonetheless, secondary. Political parties have the obligation to defend the common good, and where the political party no longer defends the common good, but rather only ideological interests, then the members of that party are obliged to vote against the party. They are obliged."

A vote is not a canonization. Many are confused about what they should do when all the viable candidates are objectionable. On this point, the officials we interviewed in Rome explained it as follows:

Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications:

"Sometimes we are obliged to choose the lesser of many evils or the least of many evils in order to avoid a greater evil. So even the legislators who are asked if they can vote in favor of something which restricts but does not completely outlaw something which we would consider to be intrinsically immoral may vote for that particular legislation which restricts even though it permits something. Not because the favor the permission of something but because they favor the restriction of something."

Bishop Karl Romer, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family: "To avoid a greater evil, I may, in certain circumstances, vote for a person who favors certain forms of abortion, if this man will help to diminish the evil of abortion -- to reduce the number of cases. I must publicly demonstrate that I am opposed to all forms of abortion, but in order to reduce the evil in society, I can vote for the man or woman who will at least help to diminish the immense, shameful evil of abortion today. . . "

Back to Main Page