Nothing in the Republican platform that promotes intrinsic evil or serious sin

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, has come out and publicly said that Democratic Party is officially supporting intrinsic evils and serious sins and that the Republican Party is not.   Here is the relevant part of his column, in which he asks Catholics in his diocese to really think and pray about who they will elect as President of the United States in a couple of months, with Fr Z.'s comments in red.

In 1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” That was the party’s official position until 2008. Apparently “rare” is so last century that it had to be dropped, because now the Democratic Party Platform says that abortion should be “safe and legal.” [And they know that Planned Parenthood doesn't want it to be rare... and neither, really, do many of the queenpins of that party.] Moreover the Democratic Party Platform supports the right to abortion “regardless of the ability to pay.” [Ergooooo.....] Well, there are only three ways for that to happen: either taxpayers will be required to fund abortion, or insurance companies will be required to pay for them (as they are now required to pay for contraception), or hospitals will be forced to perform them for free.  [Which do you think will be the case?]
 

Moreover, the Democratic Party Platform also supports same-sex marriage, recognizes that “gay rights are human rights,” [This is NOT... NOT... a civil or human rights issue!] and calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.  [Which The First Gay President refuses to enforce.]

Now, why am I mentioning these matters in the Democratic Party Platform? There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils. [LibDems are, right now, having a nutty with little flecks of spit jetting from the corners of their mouths to either side of their monitors as they prepare to label Bp. Paprocki, and me, a Republican partisan. BUT...] My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. 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. [NB:]People of faith object to these platform positions that promote serious sins. I know that the Democratic Party’s official “unequivocal” support for abortion is deeply troubling to pro-life Democrats.

So what about the Republicans? I have read the Republican Party Platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin. [Get that?  We can disagree about the best ways to solve many burning social issues, but we cannot support things that are intrinsically evil.] The Republican Party Platform does say that courts “should have the option of imposing the death penalty in capital murder cases.” But the Catechism of the Catholic Church says (in paragraph 2267), “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”

One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils.  [LibDems, read that again slowly.]

Certainly there are “pro-choice” Republicans who support abortion rights and “Log Cabin Republicans” who promote same-sex marriage, and they are equally as wrong as their Democratic counterparts. But these positions do not have [NB] the official support of their party.

Don't be surprised if Obama doesn't make it back into the White House.  Catholic voters typically determine if a Democrat can become President, and seems that Catholic voters are really abandoning Obama if this poll is anything to go by.

Seventy four percent (74%) of Catholic men over 50 refuse to support Obama.

Moreover an almost identical 25% of Catholic men under 50 support Obama and 31% of Catholic women under 50 support him. Catholic women over fifty support Obama at just a 23% rate.

Catholics make up 24% of the American population, so they are quite a significant voting block, and would be even more so if they all went to Mass regularly, but that's another story!

Related link: An American Bishop on the Democrat Convention, intrinsic evil, and voting wisely as a Catholic ~WDTPRS