I'm not positive but I believe that the Church's official stance is that voting for a pro-abortion politician constitutes a mortal sin and makes them ineligible for communion.
The Church teaches that the death penalty is licit under some circumstances, and that voting for a pro-capital punishment politician is therefore not categorically a mortal sin.
The Church's reasoning on abortion is based on natural law philosophy, not merely divine revelation.
Funny you should mention all that!
Well, are you aware that the "Catholic Church" is a little like the tail that "tries" to wag the dog, and that the "dog" has increasingly different ideas of what is "moral" and what is not, and have given itself permission to check with their OWN conscience on many of those points, rather than blindly follow the dogma of the Church?
I said it was funny that you mentionned that because, although I had already come to those conclusion through my own observation and checking my OWN conscience, I just receive in the mail, this morning, (my mail had been kept at the post office for the last 5 weeks, while I was travelling, so this is the first time I had access to it), the June 9, 2011 Catholic Miscellany, with latest US Bishops findings on the Catholics opinion about these various issues:
Ibased on telephone interveiws conducted May 5-8 with a random sample of 1,018 U.S. Adults. Margin of error: + or - 45.
Morally acceptable Morally wrong
Doctor-assisted suicie 45% 48%
Abortion 39% 51%
Same-sex relations 56% 39%
Premarital sex 60% 36%
Embryonic stem-cell research 62% 36%
Pornography 30% 66%
Death Penalty 65% 28%
Divorce 69% 23%
I thought this was quite interesting and really demonstrates that, unless the "CHURCH" begins to live in the 21st century, it will become as relevant as the Koran for Catholics.
By the way, I would have LOVED to see one category that involved "birth control devises/pills." I bet the answer would have been 90% moral and 5% not moral. . .in spite of the continued "sin" it represents for the Church!
