The days are rightly over when the <em>Catholic Herald</em> took it upon itself to tell its readers how to vote, or which candidates might be trusted to protect them against an erastian Anglican ascendancy. Nevertheless, even at election time we must recall that <em>vocatus atque non vocatus, DEUS aderit</em> – "Invoked or not invoked, God is present" – and that our choice must at least be consistent with faith and good conscience.
What, then, might the main parties and their candidates have to say on matters where conscience matters? Here are four issues to consider: our children’s education, freedom of religious speech, abortion and assisted dying.
<em>Education</em>
If you want to assure your child an education in accordance with sound doctrine and cannot afford to go private, feel free to welcome one Conservative policy. The party has said it will lift the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions for religious free schools. You need to be warier of the Lib Dems, however, who, ever mistrustful of faith-based education, insisted on the cap in the first place and have shown no change of heart since; and downright sceptical of the Greens, who worryingly say they want to bar all faith-based admissions, apparently without exception.
Labour have said nothing specific. But note a vague commitment to “make sure admissions decisions account for the needs of communities and require all schools to co-operate with their local authority on school admissions”, something which, given its links with organisations opposed to faith-based admissions as such, may indicate difficulties.
Turning to what your child might encounter in RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) classes, you need to be aware that the Greens officially support “evidence-based and age-appropriate” RSE, “including LGBTIQA+ content and resources,” with no mention of either a parental opt-out or concessions for faith schools, and little indication that they would allow either.
Labour is less dogmatic officially. Note, however, that both Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, his shadow education secretary, have pointedly not promised to keep the current school guidance that discourages the teaching of controversial gender ideology or the provision of sexual instruction for those under nine.
<em>Freedom of religious speech</em>
You should welcome the manifesto promises by the Lib Dems and the Conservatives of protection for freedom of belief, and also the support from both Conservatives and Labour for suppressing intimidatory protests outside schools aimed at pressuring teachers who teach according to their conscience.
Still more worrying for anyone who wishes to promote the Faith is the fact that all major parties apart from the Conservatives support a wide-ranging ban on what is referred to as “conversion therapy”, in terms which could include even parental or spiritual guidance on matters of sexuality. You would do well to quiz candidates on where they stand on this.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/you-cant-police-belief-but-state-still-tries-to-control-our-thoughts-and-values/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">You can’t police belief but the State still tries to control our thoughts and values</mark></a></strong>
<em>Abortion</em>
Labour says nothing official on termination of pregnancy. But you still have good reason to hold your local candidate’s feet to the fire on this, since while party members’ views vary greatly, some of Labour’s leading lights, led by Stella Creasy MP, back an <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/bishop-john-sherrington-alarmed-by-proposed-amendments-on-abortion/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">extreme position of entirely decriminalising abortion</mark></a>.
Even more concerning perhaps is the explicit Lib Dem manifesto demand: everyone, says its manifesto, must have the “right to make independent decisions over their reproductive health without interference by the state and ensure access to high-quality reproductive healthcare". The Greens express no official position here, but still take care: rumour has it that many candidates take a similar view to the Lib Dems. As for the Tories and Reform there is no formal line: but opinions do vary between candidates, and you would do well to ask.
<em>Assisted dying</em>
Despite worrying pressures to legalise assisted dying, despite its potential for inhumanity and its horrific consequences in places like Canada and the Netherlands where it already exists (in the latter case even for those as young as 12), apart from the Greens, no party has yet committed to a view. As regards the Tories and Reform, one suspects most of their candidates would find it repugnant and reject it out of hand. The Lib Dems may well predominantly think otherwise. Labour views vary, though you ought to bear in mind that <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/labour-leader-keir-starmer-commits-to-assisted-suicide-vote-if-prime-minister/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Keir Starmer has publicly come out as a supporter</mark></a>.
The Green Party, however, needs a special note. Its manifesto is uncompromising: any elected MP “will support a change in the law” to legalise it for “people suffering from terminal disease". There is, it seems, not even provision for it to be left to MPs as a matter of conscience. Unless you are convinced that your Green candidate is prepared to go against the party line, you have been warned.
All this, of course, is merely a guide. Candidates come in many moral shapes and sizes, and there is no guarantee that they will toe the party line. And there can always be surprises. (Did you know, for instance, that George Galloway, political bruiser and Workers’ Party hopeful in Rochdale, is not only staunchly Catholic, but a supporter of the Latin Mass?)
In the end, the moral responsibility is ours. In working out whether to place our cross against a parliamentary hopeful’s name, we owe it to the Church to judge as best we can how far we trust them to do what is right, and how far they will respect Catholic people’s right to follow the imperatives of the faith.<br><br><em>Photo: A banner display at the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton, Somerset, England, 29 June 2024. Britons will vote on July 4 in an election widely expected to be won by main opposition Labour, a victory that would end 14 years of rule by the Conservatives. (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
