Lately, one or two readers have left comments along the lines of: “You can’t say it’s wrong for Notre Dame to honor Obama, but not wrong for them to have honored Bush, because both presidents went against Catholic Church teaching.”

I thought it would be beneficial for all who read this blog to be reminded that Catholic teaching is a many-splendored thing — and that not all political stands carry the same moral weight. Indeed, a few years ago, five “non-negotiable” political issues were created, to help guide Catholic voters. These are issues which are always intrinsically evil — that is to say, by their nature, they are always morally wrong. Those issues are: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual marriage. (There are many other things that are intrinsically evil, of course — rape and racism among them — but politicians as a rule rarely come out in favor of those things.)

You can read more about all this at this link. And there you will also find this pithy insight by the man the world once knew as Cardinal Ratzinger:

“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

UPDATE: Cathleen Kaveny, over at dotCommonweal, has taken me to task. Pay a visit and see what you think. She also points readers to her essay in America on the topic, which is far more detailed.