Catholic Politickin'

CWR: Why the issue of abortion is still the preeminent priority by Monica Migliorino Miller
It is the belief of this pro-life leader that those who consider abortion as merely one issue among others see abortion as just that—an issue. They don’t see 60 million dead people.

The judgment that life is a fundamental human good upon which others are founded is not identical to the claim that abortion is the most serious political problem, the first which must be addressed, nor is the latter simply a conclusion of a reasoning process from the first.

As for the "prudential" judgment about what is the worst problem? What is the fundamental problem or the fundamental injustice? I would argue that it is not abortion, which is a consequence of the problem, but the state. This judgment of particular circumstances is not the provenance of bishops or clerics but of the people who are members of a community or subject to the power of the state. The appropriate and morally correct response too may be outlined by Roman Catholic moral theology (but it hasn't really) but the judgment of whether circumstances warrant it, well, that too is left to the judgment of the people and not to clerics.

If the state is the source of all ills, we can then ask whether voting can remedy it, or whether we can only vote in order to address a limited set of issues.

The latest by James Kalb isn't of much help, unfortunately. Church and State today: What should Catholics do with politics?