Catholic Vote

A friend, who said he was doing an informal survey, sought my thoughts on the so-called Catholic Vote. The term surfaces every now and then whenever the Roman Catholic Church needs the government to do, or not do, something and needs to look and sound more persuasive.

By invoking the so-called Catholic Vote, the Roman Catholic Church wants to impress upon government — okay politicians — that they risk getting voted out of office if they did not toe whatever line the Church has drawn up for them.

To be sure, this is clear meddling by the Church in State affairs. On the other hand, when 80 plus percent of the population is Christian and/or Catholic, there is not much anyone can do about the meddling.

The term meddling, sorry to say, has to be used because the Church actually has other options to pursue a certain direction on its own without having to grab the steering wheel of the government as it proceeds toward its own destination.

One such option is the use of the pulpit, from where every priest, bishop and cardinal all over the country can launch every form of harangue against a recalcitrant government and its policies.

But by foraying into the realm of politics by way of threatening a Catholic Vote against politicians, the Roman Catholic Church can only be implying, by its own choice of action, that the pulpit has ceased to become an effective tool of persuasion.

And because, for the pulpit to become effective, there has to be an agreement between the speaker and the listener, the abandonment of the pulpit in favor of a more direct attempt at persuasion can only suggest that no such agreement exists.

Now, if the speaker from the pulpit cannot seem to compel listeners to move in the direction he wants, the reason why he is forced to try unconventional means of direct meddling in state affairs, what does that realistically say then of the Catholic Vote?

The best way to shape Catholics into a giant ramrod of Catholic votes is from the pulpit, because that is where God has the back of the priest, bishop or cardinal. Not that God is not everywhere. But it is in Church that the presence of God is at its most persuasive.

When a priest, bishop or cardinal forays into the realm of politics and threatens the politicians with the wrath of God, the threats gets diluted somewhat by the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

That is unless God actually makes an appearance before a politician. But you can bet your bottom dollar that God is not willing to oblige any priest, bishop or cardinal in such folly. And that is why any fight against government is still best waged from the pulpit.

Actually, it is perplexing why the Church seems to look at government as an adversary when it is merely doing what is expected of it. The government does not regard the Church in the same way and, unlike other states, has left it to do what it pleases, like attacking government.

So, is there a Catholic Vote? There is, but only in the sense that majority of those who vote are Catholics. But is there a Catholic Vote in the sense that Catholics can be shepherded to vote in a certain way? The answer, sadly, is a big fat no.

The funny thing is, there is no Catholic Vote because the Church has abandoned the only potent weapon it has — the pulpit, where the voice of any priest, bishop or cardinal booms as if it were God’s. In the political arena, these same voices sound fragile, like a politician’s.

Listen. God is a loving, caring and forgiving God. The only time He makes a threat is when he threatens an afterlife of suffering. There is no such thing as a Catholic Vote in God’s vocabulary as applied to the present life.