saying that Catholics can vote for a politician who supports abortion rights as long they have other reasons for supporting the candidate and believe the politician's stance on other moral issues outweighs their abortion-rights position, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/2).

In January, while serving as a bishop in Wisconsin, Burke ordered priests in the Diocese of LaCrosse to refuse to give Communion to any Roman Catholic state or federal lawmakers who support abortion rights.

The decree requires priests of parishes where lawmakers attend mass to withhold Communion until the lawmakers agree to publicly renounce their support of abortion rights. The decree says, "A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion ... after knowing the teaching of the church, commits a manifestly grave sin, which is a cause of most serious scandal to others. Therefore, universal church law provides that such persons are not to be admitted to Holy Communion" (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 8/10).

Then in June, after moving to St. Louis, Burke said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch that "it doesn't make a lot of difference" why a Catholic votes for a politician who supports abortion rights, "they would still be supporting someone who is cooperating in the promotion of abortion." Earlier that month, Burke said in a separate interview with the Post-Dispatch, "If someone knowingly and intentionally commits a grave sin, which it certainly would be if someone were to support a pro-abortion candidate, then that person would need to confess that sin."

'Proportionate Reason' vs. 'Formal Cooperation'

Burke said on Thursday that he had not changed his position but realized he needed to offer a clarification for Catholics who were confused by his earlier comments, the Post-Dispatch reports.

"People couldn't understand why I was saying what I was saying. I believe now it is important to make the distinction in order to make the discussion full, to articulate the matter as fully as possible." Burke said the one scenario when a Catholic could vote for a politician who supports abortion rights would be if that voter had weighed all moral issues and had "proportionate reason[s]" for supporting the candidate.

"And that is called remote material cooperation and if the reasons are really proportionate, and the person remains clear about his or her opposition to abortion, that can be done," Burke said. He added, "The sticking point is this -- and this is the hard part: What is a proportionate reason to justify favoring the taking of an innocent, defenseless human life?"

However, Burke said that if a Catholic votes for a politician because of that candidate's support for abortion rights, then the voter is committing a grave sin. "That is what's called formal cooperation in an intrinsically evil act," Burke said, adding that he is preparing a pastoral letter on the issue to further "distinguish the two cases."

Vatican Position

Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently said in an Italian magazine that Catholics can vote for a political candidate who supports abortion rights if the voter opposes abortion rights and votes for the candidate because the candidate's "other positions outweigh the politician's support for abortion rights," according to the Detroit Free Press.

Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the national Catholic weekly magazine America, said that the Vatican's position could be translated as, "If the voter says, 'I like the candidate only because he or she is pro-abortion,' that's clearly a no-no. If, on the other hand, the voter says, 'and I like this candidate because he or she supports everything I like, but is wrong on abortion, and I've decided to vote for the person on these other issues,' that's all right."

However, Ratzinger also said that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights are showing "formal cooperation with evil" and that Catholic priests and bishops should warn politicians that their support for abortion rights could lead to the denial of Communion, according to the Free Press (Montemurri, Detroit Free Press, 9/7). Ratzinger in early June sent a letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., saying that bishops are required to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.

However, McCarrick in a June meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops downplayed the letter, saying during a speech that it "clearly leaves it to us as teachers, pastors and leaders whether to pursue this path" of denying Communion (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 7/8).

Reaction

Robert Rodes, a professor of legal ethics at the University of Notre Dame, called Burke's comments on cooperation and intent "standard Catholic moral teaching." St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (D), who opposes abortion rights, said that Burke's latest comments are "a more reasonable position."

Slay said, "I, for instance, make decisions on whether or not to support candidates based on whether they are willing to help us improve the city of St. Louis. We have a great many challenges and opportunities that impact the dignity of human life" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/2).

USCCB in June at a closed meeting in Englewood, Colo., voted 183-6 to approve a statement saying that Catholic politicians should work against legalized abortion "lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good." The statement, titled "Catholics in Political Life," said that abortion is "always intrinsically evil and can never be justified." The statement also said the decision to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be left to individual bishops (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 8/6).

However, Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, an organization of Catholics who support abortion rights, has said that "nothing" in Catholic theology or canon law supports denying Communion to politicians based on their voting record. "Not only would denying Communion be bad faith, it would be bad politics," Kissling said, adding, "It would effectively isolate the Catholic bishops from those politicians who are most supportive of the Catholic social justice agenda" (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 6/17).