(Arch)Episcopal Spine Alert!

I had the opportunity today to speak to an elderly and respected conservative canonist. He was very happy. He had come across Archbishop Burke's new pastoral letter (seventeen pages) laying down the obligation of Catholics to vote for the common good, particularly as it concerned life issues, according to well-formed Catholic conscience. The letter is nothing short of awesome! The Archbishop pulled no punches and you can read the entire text here -- including an excellent Q&A at the end that clearly explains our Catholic obligation to vote pro-life. Also, you can read the following (what appears to be official) summary of the main text of the letter:

1. The archbishop is impelled to speak to Catholics and all people of good will in the metropolitan community on our civic responsibility for the common good on account of his responsibility as a bishop to teach clearly the moral law.

2. Scripture teaches definitively that we are our "brother's keeper," good Samaritans charged to exercise our civic responsibility to promote the common good. Above all, we must promote and protect the inviolable dignity of all human life.

We are called to be "Christians Without Borders," without boundaries to our love of neighbor.

3. Our civic responsibility to promote the common good is informed by our life in Christ, which unites us in a bond of charity.

4. As citizens of Heaven and Earth, we are bound by the moral law to act with respect for the rights of others and to promote the common good.

5. The right to act in accord with conscience presupposes that it is informed with the truth God has inscribed in our hearts and revealed in Sacred Scripture. Conscience is the voice of God within us, assisting us to choose good and to avoid evil, in accord with God's law.

6. We are morally bound in conscience to choose government leaders who will serve the common good. The first priority of the common good is the protection of human life, the basis of all other social conditions.

There can never be justification for directly and deliberately taking innocent human life: abortion, destruction of human embryos, euthanasia, human cloning.

Legal recognition of same-sex relationships undermines the truth about marriage and sanctions gravely immoral acts.

For the sake of the common good we must safeguard the good of human life and the good of marriage and family life.

The death penalty and war are different from procured abortion and same-sex "marriage," since these latter acts are intrinsically evil and therefore can never be justified. Although war and capital punishment can rarely be justified, they are not intrinsically evil.

7. To ensure the common good, Catholics have a responsibility to vote for a worthy candidate, because the welfare of the community depends upon the persons elected and appointed to office.

8. It is never right to vote for a candidate in order to promote immoral practices; this is "formal cooperation" in evil.

In some circumstances it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports some immoral practices while opposing other immoral practices. This is called "material cooperation" and is permissible under certain conditions and when it is impossible to avoid all cooperation with evil, as may well be true in selecting a candidate for public office.

There is no element of the common good that could justify voting for a candidate who also endorses, without restriction or limitation, the deliberate killing of the innocent, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning or same-sex marriage.

9. If a candidate supports abortion in a limited number of cases, but is opposed otherwise, Catholics may vote for this person. This is not a question of choosing a lesser evil but of limiting all the evil one is able to limit at the time.

10. As Catholics we cannot remain silent. We have a serious obligation to bring the moral law to bear upon our life in society, so that the good of all will be served.