Use your vote wisely

Use your vote wisely
When considering your vote, Christians should consider the concept of the ‘common good’, writes Editor Michael Kelly

Voters in the Republic go to the polls next week to elect the members who will make up the 32nd Dáil. To this point, it’s been a particularly dull election campaign and many of the party leaders are tightly stage-managed by spin doctors to the point where every public appearance is scripted to the nth degree.

There are many competing interests vying for public attention and much of the discussion centres on the management of the economy. The coalition is keen to talk up economic growth and the recovery whilst opposition parties are keen to target the lack of fairness evident in our society in the midst of economic growth.

Voters must consider a range of issues in deciding who to vote for. From the earliest centuries, Christians have spoken of the concept of the ‘common good’ – what we might describe as a good that is shared and beneficial for all or most members of a given community.

Referring to the common good, Vatican II taught that “every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family” (Gaudium et Spes 26).

In The Irish Catholic this week we have asked a number of people to reflect on the issues that voters should have to the fore of their minds in discerning who to vote for. Amongst the issues discussed are:

  • the need to create an economic recovery that is fairer;
  • the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and the treatment of asylum seekers in Ireland;
  • the plight of people who are trafficked into Ireland for exploitation in the sex trade and other spheres;
  • the duty to care for creation and take decisive action to tackle climate change;
  • the importance of solidarity with people in the developing world;
  • homelessness and the aspiration for people to have a home of their own;
  • the legitimate rights of parents to educate their children and have State support for education that is in line with their values;
  • the vital role strong families play in building a just society and the need for policies that support families;
  • the inalienable right to life from conception to natural death in the light of what Pope St John Paul II described as a “veritable culture of death”.

All of these issues are important and Church leaders have spoken of a ‘consistent life ethic’. The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, coined the phrase ‘seamless garment’ in the 1980s in a bid to unite Catholics around an inter-connected vision of Church teaching. For example, if someone is passionately opposed to abortion, one should also be passionate about poverty reduction as a pro-life cause – in the broader sense – encompasses a variety of issues that make life better.

Payments

The vital distinction, of course, is that not all issues are of equal weight or value. There’s also the fact that on issues like poverty reduction, there is a legitimate space for disagreement between Catholics on the issue. One Catholic, for example, may think that generous social welfare payments are the best way to help people who are struggling. Another may believe that a generous welfare state disincentives work and, therefore, benefits should be limited.

However, there are other issues that are non-negotiable for Catholics. The most obvious – and pressing – example is abortion. Catholics can’t legitimately favour a little bit of abortion or believe that there are certain circumstances in which an unborn child’s life is not worthy of protection and defence.

It’s not legitimate for a Catholic who is serious about their faith to say, for example, that they vote for a candidate who is in favour of abortion because that candidate has praiseworthy things to say about tackling climate change.

The right to life is such a fundamental right that other issues – worthy as they are – pale into insignificance in comparison. Currently there is a vocal, well-funded and media-supported campaign to repeal the life equality amendment in the Irish Constitution leaving unborn children vulnerable to even wider access to abortion. The Fine Gael-Labour coalition opened the door to abortion through the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, and while Government spokespeople have been keen to insist that the legislation is extremely restrictive, that law actually permits abortion up to birth in certain circumstances.

Serious threat

However, the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment wants to go a step further and permit abortion in even wider circumstances. Other right-to-life issues such as assisted-dying are also likely to before the next Dáil.

The right to life is under serious threat. The Labour party has insisted that it will make a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment a condition of entering another coalition with Fine Gael meaning that the return of the present Government makes a push for abortion an inevitability.

Catholics who are conscientious about their faith and are passionate about the right to life must prioritise this issue in deciding who to cast their vote for. Other issues are important, but there is no more vital issue than the right to life and there is no more noble cause than standing up for those, the unborn, who cannot speak up for themselves.