Cardinal: It's not automatic sin to vote for pro-abortion candidate

Published: 2005-10-06

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A leading expert on church law said Catholics are not necessarily sinning if they vote for a candidate who supports legal abortion. Cardinal Mario Pompedda, the retired head of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's supreme court, said Catholics might find sufficient reasons to consider such a candidate a "lesser evil" in a field of imperfect choices. The cardinal made the remarks in an interview published Oct. 6 by the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, following a discussion at the Synod of Bishops on the question of Communion, politics and human life issues. Cardinal Pompedda said that while the church punishes the act of procuring abortion with automatic excommunication voting for a candidate who supports legal abortion is an indirect act that should be viewed differently. "I would be cautious in applying the word 'sin,' which implies intentionality. It would be more accurate to speak of risk or imprudence," he said. "Of course, whoever votes for a 'pro-abortion' candidate assumes a responsibility, but it does not necessarily involve sin as an immediate consequence," he said.

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