Voting For Pro-Choice Or Gay-Rights Politicians Is A Mortal Sin

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is an old story, but just as applicable today as it was four years ago. I've said it right here on this blog multiple times, and received some grief for doing it, but it is true, and it would appear that multiple bishops around the world agree. Catholics who knowingly vote for pro-choice and gay-rights politicians commit a mortal sin, and cannot receive communion until they repent. When Catholics are confronted with limited choices, between two pro-choice and gay-rights politicians, the Catholic must vote in favor of the candidate that is more pro-life and is more opposed to gay-marriage...

(Christianity Today) - Catholics who vote for politicians who support abortion rights or gay marriage will be banned from Communion until they have "recanted their positions" and confessed their sin, a Colorado bishop warned.

Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs said any Catholic who does not reflect church teaching in the voting booth "makes a mockery of that faith and belies his identity as a Catholic."

Sheridan's May 1 directive is believed to be the first in the nation that would apply to voters the same controversial sanctions proposed by some bishops against abortion-rights Catholic politicians.

It is also one of the most drastic—equating a particular vote with sinful activity. Sheridan's order applies only to his diocese of 125,000 Catholics....

read full story here

How would this apply to the U.S. presidential election of 2008? To sum it up, Democratic nominee Barack Obama is the worst possible choice for a Catholic voter, and a vote for him would most certainly qualify as a mortal sin. Republican nominee John McCain is not the ideal choice for Catholics either, but it would not necessarily be a mortal sin to vote for him, if the intention was to vote against Barack Obama. In this case, the Catholic voter would be voting for the lesser of two evils. The most ideal choice for Catholic voters would be Independent candidate Alan Keyes, who is a practicing Catholic himself, is militantly pro-life and opposes gay-marriage.