At the beginning of 1931, the German Bishops collectively excommunicated members of the Nazi party and barred all Catholics in Germany from joining. The excommunication did not extend to those who voted for Nazis, but only those who joined the party. This ban was put in place even though not all the party platform was evil. In fact, there were certain policies that were in accord with the Common Good. Nevertheless, the party protected and promoted certain intrinsic evils that could never be overlooked and washed away in the political give and take that is inevitable in a party system. Although the ban was walked back slightly after the election of 1933, the German Bishops demonstrated a long-standing Catholic belief that political party affiliation can put one’s soul in jeopardy.
Party Affiliation and Formal Cooperation
Why this is the case can be seen once we examine the principle of formal cooperation. Recall that the principle of cooperation acknowledges that a number of people often participate in bringing about some evil action. Moral philosophy makes the distinction between formal and material cooperation. Formal cooperation means that a person aligns their will with the intention of the principal moral agent. Material cooperation means that a person offers some material support in the carrying out of an action, even if, they may not be willing participants in the evil itself.
The act of abortion offers an illustrative and relevant example. Suppose a woman is pondering an abortion so she seeks counsel with a friend. The friend says she should do it but says she cannot help her get one. The friend has formally cooperated in the abortion and thus bears the guilt of the act itself in uniting her will to the will of the woman. She did not, however, offer material support and thus her material cooperation is minimal if non-existent. When the woman gets to the abortion mill, she is greeted by the janitor outside who is emptying mop water. He hates abortion but only works here because he needs to feed his family and is unable to find another job currently. His cooperation too is material, he provides a clean environment for the abortion, but it is remote since it is not vital to the carrying out of the abortion (which is truer than most people would like to admit). Finally, she enters the abortion mill and is greeted by the nurse. The nurse too hates abortion (thus no formal cooperation) but her material cooperation is so proximate and vital to the act that she is guilty of cooperation with the evil of abortion.
In summary, because guilt lies in the will, a person is always guilty of sin when they formally cooperate with evil. A person who formally cooperates with a grave evil bears a proportionate level of guilt for that evil. They may or may not be guilty when they cooperate materially, depending on their role and their proximity to the act itself. Related to the topic at hand, a person who is Pro-Choice, even if they never directly assist or counsel a person to get an abortion, simply by making their position known, has formally cooperated with that evil and bear culpability.
The Democratic Party platform, in no uncertain terms, promotes and protects the evil of abortion: “Democrats…believe unequivocally…that every woman should be able to access…safe and legal abortion.” And because political party affiliation is a free association, any person who joins the party consents to all of the party’s platform. There is no “I am personally opposed, but …” type logic because of the principle of formal cooperation. A member of the Democratic Party is aligning their will with that of the other members of the Party. Why else would they join? If they did not believe in any of the tenets, they simply need not join. This was the logic of the German Bishops in 1931, a logic that can likewise be applied to members of the Democratic Party today.
An All-Important Distinction
Please note what has been said and what hasn’t. The contention is that because joining the Democratic Party constitutes formal cooperation, it is gravely sinful. This does not mean that voting for a Democrat is always and everywhere gravely sinful. To extend the arm of sin beyond formal cooperation is a bridge too far. This was the point that Cardinal Ratzinger made when in 2004 he said,
“A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”
The key word related to material cooperation is proportionate. There must be not only a good reason to vote, but a proportionate reason. On this level this means that if Candidate A is in favor of one intrinsically evil action and Candidate B supports a different intrinsically evil action, then we might vote so as to limit the amount of overall evil present in society. For example, suppose Candidate A supported abortion but was against Euthanasia and Candidate B supported Euthanasia but was against abortion, you might vote for B because abortion constitutes a greater evil on society as a whole. The point is that you cannot simply perform moral calculus adding up the evil on each side, but instead the proportionately is related to the presence of intrinsically evil actions, or as the Church has put it, “non-negotiables”.
But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, it is really a natural outlook that would motivate a Catholic to vote for a Democrat. A supernatural outlook of the world would never allow us to vote for someone who we know to be in an objective state of grave sin. The reason for this is simple—a person in a state of mortal sin is the Devil’s pawn. Mortal sin places a person under his dominion and they are very likely to commit further evil. If Christ is not King of their heart, then most assuredly they will be working against making Him King of our Country. This principle really goes for any politician. If the person is known to be in a state of grave sin then you should never vote for them.
This sounds “judgmental” to modern ears, but it is simply a statement of fact. A person who directly wills that abortions be provided remains in a gravely sinful state until such time as they repent. Because the support of abortion was public, true repentance would have to be public, causing the person to separate themselves from the sinful Party. A person who remains in the Party has thus remained in their sinful state.
As the November election is fast approaching, we must as Catholics, come to understand that voting is not just a political action, but a moral one and thus we must shine the light of Catholic morality on our voting decisions.