How do we Catholics vote?

A friend of mine, from abroad, asks if “the Catholic vote” makes a difference in our political sphere, as it is sometimes said to do in the United States. I didn’t need to think long before answering him that there’s no such thing as a Catholic block vote in South Africa. There was a time when most, though not all, Catholics fought and voted, in as far as the law allowed them to, against apartheid-affiliated politics. But after 1994 things changed and got muddled up.

The Church in South Africa operates as a part of civil society, doing its best to inform and direct the conscience of not only the faithful but all citizens.

My friend asked me to explicate on my statement about South African Catholics voting with their conscience. It turned out I was not certain about what I really meant by that.

I agree with the recent Southern Cross editorial which pointed out that no political party in South Africa satisfies completely the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church. I’m not sure though if this means that South African Catholics vote for the party closest to those (and other) teachings.

The truth is that South Africans in general vote mostly based on lines of historical loyalty (such as the liberation struggle alliance), cultural or class association, or identity (race) politics.

I suspect very few South African Catholics actually take a moment to compare the party political manifestos or vision statements to see how they measure up against the Church’s Social Teaching. In fact, I suspect, very few South African Catholics know intimately the Church’s teachings on social and economic issues.

This is mostly revealed by the astonishment most Catholics (and, of course, non-Catholics) register at the utterances on the subject of economic justice by Pope Francis.

Most things the pope says on social justice can be traced back to Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum. In details, such as his critique of capitalism, Francis echoes closely his immediate predecessors, Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II.

What Pope Francis achieves brilliantly is to put a human face to the teachings of the Church by restoring not just our sense of being Catholics, but also of our faith in humankind. He has elevated mercy and grace to its rightful place within the discourse of the Catholic faith.

Recently Pope Francis’ representative at the annual economic forum in Switzerland, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, lamented the fact that in Davos all people seemed to be interested in whether the pope is a “Marxist” or not.

This suggests that they find his economic persuasions too left-leaning for their liking. It is no secret that the Church’s socio-economic teachings coincide in many ways with the positions of the left, but they certainly are not “Marxist”.

In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope

Francis makes it clear that the Church regards business as “a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life”. Karl Marx, it is safe to say, had a rather different view of business.

With all that in mind, let’s return to my friend’s original question; How do Catholics in South Africa vote? To be honest, your answer is as good as mine.