As a model, they might take Sydney Callahan's effective essay in Commonweal explaining that, although a lifelong Democrat, she would vote for Dole as her only effective protest against Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban. The chosen issues should be given a careful ordering, based on Catholic moral teaching and relevance to the choosing of candidates. Issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and racism should be singled out because of their moral importance. The 1995 statement quotes liberally from Pope John Paul II's encyclical The Gospel of Life , but it does not reflect the doctrinal priority given by the encyclical to moral teaching on abortion, euthanasia, and the taking of innocent human life. Future statements must note the moral difference of the issues addressed.
Some positions are fundamental and nonnegotiable.
On other issues the bishops may have a preference for one public policy approach over another, but it is not a clear-cut case of one preference being good and the other morally unacceptable. Disagreement in these instances between the bishops' position and a candidate's need not disqualify the candidate. Further, government financial aid for Catholic education, while not a clear issue of moral evil, is a valid priority for Catholics and, whether achieved by vouchers or tax credits, should be given greater emphasis as a matter of fairness and justice. How to formulate specific questions in a timely manner remains a problem for statements on political responsibility formulated a year before the elections. The section on international affairs in the 1996 statement, for example, was quite general and composed too early to take account of later statements made by a number of bishops criticizing U.S. policies that undermine or refuse support for Catholic Relief Services.