Archbishop announces new stance

As you can see from this headline, the media is playing this out like there is no tomorrow.

Burke clarifies past remarks on voting.

Published Saturday, September 4, 2004
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Archbishop Raymond Burke, who sparked a national debate on denying Holy Communion to abortion rights candidates, has given an opening to Catholics in his archdiocese who vote for such politicians.

In June, Burke said Catholics cannot vote for candidates or policies in support of abortion and be worthy to receive Communion.

He now says Catholics can at times vote for those who favor abortion rights without committing a grave sin or having to go to confession.

In clarifying his stance this week, Burke said he believes Catholics could vote for a politician who supports abortion rights as long as that’s not the reason they are voting for the candidate. Catholic voters also must believe the candidate’s stance on other moral issues outweighs the abortion rights stance.

Of course there is no discussion of what constitutes "proportionate reasons". We are only told that "a Catholic could vote for an abortion rights politician without committing a grave sin after weighing all the moral issues a candidate stands for."

However, and this part is never stated in the newspapers, Archbishop Burke has previously said he finds it difficult to imagine any "proportionate reasons" which would permit one to vote for a candidate who supports and defends abortion. He would agree that "In some political races, each candidate takes a wrong position on one or more issues involving non-negotiable moral principles. In such a case you may vote for the candidate who takes the fewest such positions or who seems least likely to be able to advance immoral legislation, or you may choose to vote for no one."

This is a far cry from what we are reading in the papers these days.

Article.