Published on the Catholic Advocate website, the following is a list of all the ways we could be deceived into voting for the wrong candidate:
1. In spite of the new “Introduction” to "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," the bishops’ document will be cherry-picked and repackaged into sound bites to justify voting for a candidate who supports abortion and same-sex marriage.
2. Pro-life Catholics will be labeled as "single issue voters" who don't care about the larger social teaching of the Church, especially concern for the poor and vulnerable.
3. The budget passed by the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI-01), a Catholic, will be relentlessly attacked as not caring about the poor because it proposed cuts and spending freezes to reduce the growing U.S. deficit that is hurting the economy.
4. “Progressive” Catholic groups will produce polling that supposedly shows Catholics disagree with Church teaching on the sanctity of life and marriage, implying those who agree are in the minority and “behind the times.”
5. Catholic politicians and leaders who support abortion and same-sex marriage will not be termed "dissenters" or "liberals" but "progressives" in order to make them sound more attractive to independent voters.
6. Catholic voters will be told the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama-care) did not contain federal funding for abortion.
7. Catholic voters will be told the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama-care) does not pose a threat to religious liberty, for example, the conscience of a Catholic health care worker.
8. Anyone supporting state collective bargaining reforms with public-sector unions, such as Wisconsin, is ignoring the importance of worker's rights in Catholic social teaching.
9. Those Catholics who opposed President Bush and Senator McCain over Operation Iraqi Freedom will not make the same argument against Obama who increased the U.S. military in Afghanistan and the use of drone aircraft to perform executions.
10. The issue of immigration will be elevated to a level of importance equal to abortion and marriage with the only acceptable 'Catholic' position being support for specific pieces of legislation such as the 'DREAM Act' (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors).
