Springfield, Ill., Sep 27, 2012 / 01:11 am
Drawing particular attention to the Democratic Party platform's support for "intrinsic evils" like abortion and "same-sex marriage," Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill. has said Catholics need to "think and pray very carefully" about their votes in the upcoming election.
"My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues," Bishop Paprocki said in his Sept. 23 column for the Catholic Times diocesan paper. "I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding 'political' and didn't say anything about the morality of these issues."
He said that voting for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are "intrinsically evil and gravely sinful" makes a voter "morally complicit" and places the eternal salvation of his or her soul in "serious jeopardy."
There are "many positive and beneficial planks" in the Democratic Party platform, the bishop said, but some promote "serious sins."