Pick Up and Read!

The top headline today in the Chicago Tribune, my local newspaper, proclaimed that "Catholic bishops say voters' souls at stake." It worked and I picked up a copy (yes, despite being able to read it on-line. I was looking for hard news.) Having recently given a talk, entitled for me by the organizers, "Voting for Pontius Pilate: Washing Our Hands of Abortion," I wondered what the news was all about. From the (on-line!) story:

... the nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday issued instructions to Catholic voters that their eternal salvation could be at stake when they cast ballots.

Bishops emphasized that voters must consider the church's teachings on abortion and other moral issues when they select a candidate for the White House or any other office. If they don't, bishops said, it's not clergy who will judge them but God.

The question for me was any guidance given about the issues? The story says that
voters are implored not to support abortion-rights political candidates but also advised that views on abortion should not be the sole factor. Catholics should also weigh church teaching on such moral issues as immigration, just war and poverty, bishops said. That's not new.

If the Church can teach about immigration, I ask, then might it not also be capable of teaching about How to prioritize moral issues as a voting citizen, especially if our souls are at stake? Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn. said:

What we did provide for the first time in this document is some concrete guidance in how a voter goes about making prudential judgments.

That's good news (since we've written about the lack of such guidance among Christians generally and the muddying of the waters). Still, I am wondering, since I don't have the text of the statement at the moment (and must move on to other things), how clear or what the guidance is. I say this because Karl Maurer, a director of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, said,

"If the statement had been more stern and clear" it would impact the behavior of voters as well as the politicians

If he's right, and it doesn't change anyone's behavior, then the headline worked despite the non-importance of the story: I bought the paper. It's all about "selling copy," isn't it?