| Politics

I do not endorse either Senator Obama's or Senator McCain's positions on life. As a Catholic, I believe both fall short of the ideal.

MALIBU, CA (Catholic Online) - Along with some 30 or so religious leaders, it was my privilege to be in discussion with Senator Obama for several hours last week.

It was a private meeting with intelligent men and women of many faith traditions not all of whom were his supporters. It was not arranged as a photo op or a meet and greet. It was a time to reflect on the meaning of faith.

Obama was poised, civil, articulate, and prepared for a wide-ranging discussion that included questions across the spectrum of issues potentially touched by Christ’s love – which, of course, is everything.

The teaching of the American bishops

Looming ever large in my mind as the meeting begins is naturally the abortion issue. The American bishops have properly reminded us that “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.”

At the same time, the bishops have instructed us that we should not use a candidate’s opposition to abortion “to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.”

Abortion and Racism

Some have concluded from these words that abortion must predominate over all other issues. There is much logic to this since of course life is fundamental to all else. Yet, with respect to the bishops’ own statements as quoted above from the Call to faithful Citizenship, it would be mistaken, one would think, to rank racism below abortion or vice versa, since they are both held out as intrinsic evils.

Is there racism remaining in the United States needful of the attention of the 2008 Catholic voter? I have never once heard Senator Obama speak of his race as an entitlement. It is not his way. He does not hold himself out as a black candidate, but as an American candidate. He would not ask you for a vote on that basis nor would I.

Yet, as I listened to Senator Obama speak with powerful empathy for those less advantaged of all races and ethnicities in our land, I thought of the many people who say in hushed voices that America is not prepared to vote for a black man. This is inconceivable to me and many, and yet, how are we to respond when political analysts proffer the Senator’s race as the explanation for his lopsided primary defeats in places like West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania?

A fuller understanding of the culture of life

Even if one puts the concern of racism aside, and focuses just on issues of life, does the way we narrow that topic to abortion alone fail to capture the fullness of what the faith requires? John Paul II defined the culture of life in paragraph 80 of Veritatis Splendor by making reference to the Second Vatican Council and paragraph 27 of Gaudium et Spes.

You will recall that there the Council tells us that “whatever is hostile to life, . . . including physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit; whatever is offensive to human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,... degrading conditions of work which treat laborers as mere instruments of profit, and not as free responsible persons: all these and the like are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”

More than one way

I take from this instruction that it is important not to just avoid invidiously ranking one grievous wrong against another, but also to consider the multiple ways in which an intrinsic evil can be worked against.

Practically, I believe all Catholics regardless of party or preferred candidate are instructed by Evangelium Vitae to work for greater recognition and respect for the culture of life. In 2008, since neither of the major political parties has fully acceptable positions from a Catholic perspective, lobbying -- and a good deal of prayer -- are required to be directed at them both.

Nobody's perfect

Before I had occasion to discuss these matters directly with Senator Obama, it was my own personal observation that Senator Obama was campaigning for the presidency in a manner dedicated toward reducing the partisanship of the past, and very responsibly and very consistently calling upon our better natures, and articulating -- long before he sought the presidency -- a genuine appreciation for the importance of faith in the public square.

But of course, good intentions and rhetorical gifts are as insufficient to address an intrinsic evil as merely proclaiming oneself to be pro-life while supporting water-boarding and other forms of torture or insisting that there are “spare embryos.”

For that reason, I do not ...