Can a Catholic support a candidate who is pro-choice?

Denver’s Archbishop has recently weighed in on the subject. This comes from the Rocky Mountain News:

Archbishop Charles Chaput left the door open Monday for Catholics to support pro-choice politicians, saying a variety of factors may be weighed when making such a decision.

“If you’re a Democrat can you legitimately vote for someone who is pro-choice? I imagine so,” Chaput told a crowd of about 150. “But you have to tell them forcefully you want them to change…voting is (just)the minimum.”

Chaput spoke at the Augustine Institute, a new graduate school of theology and evangelization at the former Teikyo Loretto Heights campus on Federal Boulevard.

The archbishop’s talk was to introduce his new book, “Render Unto Caesar,” which explores “the role of American Catholics in our nation’s public life.”

The book, to be released this summer, capitalizes on the fact that Denver will be on the national stage as host to the Democratic National Convention, and that Chaput has become a national figure with his message that Catholics – politicians and citizens – should bring their faith into their public lives.

A question-and-answer session quickly turned to the 2008 election and how a Catholic voter should weigh a candidate’s record on abortion, which the church teaches is the killing of a human being.

“I’m almost afraid to ask this question,” said the first questioner. “If there are no pro-life candidates, are we Catholics not to vote? Or vote for one who does the least harm?”

Chaput began his answer by saying “there’s no one Catholic answer to the question,” and that some Catholics might not vote at all and others might vote for the lesser evil. He said Catholics who might want to vote with a political party that’s pro- choice should “be an active part of (that) community” and work to change the party’s message.

After his talk, Chaput elaborated by saying Catholics must weigh a variety of moral issues that their vote is based on. On that basis, even a vote for a pro-choice candidate “might be OK as long as you operate out of Catholic moral principles.”