Why Catholics Should Vote for Trump

Sunday Masses across the country found most parishioners not getting any pastoral advice on how to vote with a properly formed conscience. In the Archdiocese of Boston, parishioners heard or saw a letter from the Vicar General on why we should vote “No” on the question of whether to legalize marijuana in the commonwealth, but not a peep about how to even think about the choices for major elective office, including pro-abortion politicians who could damage society for generations by appointing pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court!  Is that cowardice on the part of bishops like Cardinal O’Malley, or willful negligence?  Either explanation is BAD.

For those who have friends or family members still on the fence about whether they will vote at all, or not sure who to vote for, we are pleased to share this excellent video homily, which we think you should share with every Catholic you know.  It’s called, “Catholics Forbidden to Vote Hillary” but it also answers the important question, “Could or should Catholics Vote for Donald Trump.”  The answer is a resounding, YES!

The video runs about 13 minutes.  In case you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, here are a few excerpts:

In the last debate, this is the first time in any presidential election that there is a major candidate who aggressively insisted they would advocate abortion in most extreme circumstances.  Hillary Clinton advocates and will aggressively pursue abortion of children up to and including the time of birth–as a child is about to be born into this world, that its life can be snuffed out in the birth canal. What a monstrous position!  It is nothing short of diabolical. It is a demonic position.  And for the first time in history, we have someone who would be president arguing and insisting on this practice.

On the other hand in that same debate, in the first time in history of presidential elections in the U.S., we had a candidate who openly and aggressively insisted that he would do what he could to roll back the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion (Roe v Wade) and he would appoint solidly pro-life candidates to the Supreme Court.

What a contrast on this single most important political issue that we face at this time!

So, can someone in good conscience, can a Catholic in good conscience vote for Hillary Clinton?  Absolutely not!  There is not enough money in this world to buy my vote for her, and not enough tortures on the face of the earth to force me to vote for anyone who advocates the positions that Hillary Clinton holds fast to.

Can a Catholic in good conscience vote for Trump, or should a Catholic vote for Trump?

Mr. Alan Keyes, former ambassador and presidential candidate, took the position in a recent local debate that as a Catholic, we should all will the reign of Christ the King on earth.  I agree. In first lesson of this Mass, St. Paul tells us that our citizenship is in heaven, and we await the fullness of His kingdom. We should will — even now in Christ’s absence on earth — that the reign of Christ be found here and now on earth.  Christ’s Church should advance as the one true religion on earth.

That means that ideally our elected and appointed officials should not just tolerate the Catholic Church but do whatever in their power to support the Catholic religion. Of course, under present circumstances and even circumstances of decades past, that ideal hasn’t been possible.  Is it feasible, practical , and possible we can elect candidates who will do precisely that?  The fact is that while we have had a few candidates over the decades, we’re never had that as a President. Even the “Catholic” JFK made clear from the get-go that no one from the Catholic Church would guide his presidential decisions.

Fact is, while we want the will of Christ to the maximum, practically speaking, the reality is is we don’t have candidates who share that vision.

So, may we vote for someone who may not fully share that vision? The answer is YES, certainly!

Does Trump fall within those individuals on the ballot for whom a good Catholic in good conscience could or should cast their vote?  The answer is YES.  Answer is yes.  Can a good Catholic vote for Trump?  Yes.  Should a good Catholic vote for Trump?  Yes.

Given his stated position on protection of unborn and right to life and given the position of his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, who advocates murder of children even as they are being born, YES, Trump is a moral choice.

It is not a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Catholic simply may not choose someone who is evil.  In this case, we have the principle of double-effect.  Trump may not be many of your 1^st choice candidates, or 2^nd or 3^rd or 5^th or 50^th. But we have what we have, and there are only 2 candidates who can feasibly  win this election—Trump and Clinton.

Donald Trump is a moral choice—for what he stands for on the life of the unborn.  On other matters on which people could disagree—personal choices, personal behavior—those are covered in the double effect. We would seek to elect him, cast our vote for him, not because we support or endorse his personal flaws and failing, or even some lesser issues we might not agree with.  In casting a vote for him, the primary effect we seek is a good one: it is for the good he has promised, namely scaling back the murder of children by abortion, and it is to preclude a woman who holds a demonic position regarding unborn children from getting to the  highest office in the U.S.

Mr. Ferrara in that same discussion even went so far as to say it might be a moral imperative to vote for Donald Trump, given the alternative. He cites the comparison going back decades into the last century, when Pope Pius XII insisted, in order to slow the spread of Communism,  that Catholics given the opportunity to vote were morally obliged to vote for candidates who would oppose the spread of Godless communism, even acknowledging those candidates might be flawed and imperfect, but morally acceptable.

“The exercise of the right to vote is an act of grave responsibility…” Pope Pius XII 1946 AAS 38, 187. When there was a threat to the Church in Italy through the Communist party in 1948, Pope Pius XII said, “That in the present circumstances it is strictly obligatory for whoever has the right, man or woman, to take part in the elections. He who abstains, particularly through indolence or from cowardice, thereby commits a grave sin, a mortal offense.” AAS 40, 119

So can and should a Roman Catholic vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election? The answer is YES.  Absolutely!  And I intend to cast my vote for him.

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Two more thoughts from BCI here.  St. John Paul II said, “The promotion of the culture of life should be the highest priority in our societies…If the right to life is not defended decisively as a condition for all other rights of the person, all other references to human rights remain deceitful and illusory.” Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila recently said, “..the direct killing of innocent human life must be opposed at all times by every follower of Jesus Christ. There are no legitimate exceptions to this teaching.”  Then there is the clear threat to religious freedom for all of us with a Clinton presidency.

Pope Pius XI in an encyclical to Mexico in 1937 said: “Thus a Catholic will take care not to pass over his right to vote when the good of the Church or of the country requires it.” Firmissimam constantiam, March 28, 1937, AAS 29, 189.

If you’re a faithful Catholic, you can’t sit this one out. You must vote for the one viable candidate, Trump, who has promised to scale back the evil of abortion and prevent the diabolical destruction promised by Clinton if she gets into office. Feel free to share this anywhere you wish.