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Wednesday 18 November 2015

Disappointed in EWTN Nightly News

I expect slant from EWTN's other, (senior,) major news program, (Raymond Arroyo has a skill in inflecting words to make virtually everything he says editorial rather than reportage,) but I hope for more from the Brian Patrick anchored "News Nightly."

While reporting on the USCCB meeting and their disucssion of the voters' guide usually referred to as "Faithful Citizneship" yesterday, a reporter claimed that it, "says a Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who votes in favor of abortion," which I think is not true.
In what I believe is the most current available edition, Forming Faithful Citizens guidance is more nuanced than that.
On page 11:
34. Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter’s intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.

35. There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.
[emphasis supplied]
One might wish it were a bit more doctrinaire, but it is dishonest to claim that it says what we wish for it to have said.

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