Can U.S. Catholics Support Pro-Choice Candidates in the Coming Elections?

If you listen to some church leaders, U.S. Catholics cannot vote for a Democrat without risking the fires of hell.

That's because - this line of reasoning explains - to do so would be to support the Democratic party's more permissive stance on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. And this goes against official Catholic teaching.

Some Catholic bishops have gone so far as to say that Catholics who cast their ballots for a pro-choice politician - and that's almost always a Democrat - should not present themselves for Communion at Mass. Others have insisted they would refuse to give Communion to Catholic candidates that support abortion rights.

With the November election only two weeks away, that theme is likely to reemerge in the sermons delivered at many U.S. dioceses for the next two Sundays, causing anger and confusion among those in the pews.

But that puts Latinos in a particularly difficult spot.

While almost seven of 10 Hispanics in the U.S. are Catholic, two-thirds of Latino registered voters say they plan to support the Democratic candidate in their local congressional district, according to a survey released recently by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.

So what's a good Latino Catholic boy or girl to do?

For one, read the excellent analysis of this issue published recently in the Jesuit magazine America. Written by M. Cathleen Kaveny, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, the article is an excruciatingly detailed and nuanced dissection of whether Catholics can morally vote for pro-choice candidates.

The article can be found here: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12531