I disagree that deciding not to vote for either presidential candidate us a mortal sin.
In itself, it is not even remote material cooperation in evil, nor is it, by any stretch of the imagination, formal cooperation.
If abstaining from the top line is *motivated*, in whole or in part, by approval of gravely intrinsically wrong things (i.e. abortion,sodomy, sacrilege, attack on the Church), then we’re in the mortal sin category through intending grave evil.
But if it’s motivated by the desire to avoid complicity in grave evil, the intent is just, and the choice is an example of prudential judgement.
“Not voting” is not the same as cooperation, just as taking a vow of silence is not the same as lying.
Is it your contention that voting is always morally obligatory?
Whenever there is a candidate who, like Hillary, promises to do monstrous evils, such as genocide or mass abortion, it is a strict, grave obligation to vote for a candidate who will not commit crimes of equal gravity.
In this election, the only candidate who can possibly defeat Hillary is Trump. Thus, voting for Trump is a strict, grave obligation.
If Trump IS going to do some evil, putting him in office is NOT formal cooperation in that evil, because the purpose of voting for Trump is to keep Hillary out.
As it happens, nothing that Trump is committed to doing is evil.
Assuming Trump is a serial groper—for which there is no evidence—this is relevant to voting ONLY if it is demonstrable that all serial gropers, once in office, gravely damage the common good more than lifelong abortion fanatics who get into office.
(BTW: By far the MOST idiotic statement by any bishop this cycle is Conley’s statement that Catholics should not believe themselves obligated to vote for anyone in order to keep someone out of office. That is absolutely false. It is when one candidate is monstrously evil that a Catholic IS strictly, gravely obligated to vote for the person who has a chance of keeping the evil person out of office.)
Claiming that not voting at all is not formal cooperation in the evil Hillary will do is like standing next to a person having a heart attack, and doing nothing, and calling for nobody to help, and declaring, “I am innocent because I didn’t cause the heart attack.” Or similarly standing by when one COULD prevent a grave crime.
Refusing to vote for Trump so as not to “soil” oneself with Trump’s faults is like going into the voting booth and masturbating while yelling, “I am so pure! I am so pure! I am so pure!”
KEEPING a vow of silence, when a word would save an innocent man from the gallows, is murder.
Most moral theologians have said that it is. I would agree with them in most elections.
The only time there is no obligation to vote is when the candidates are truly indistinguishable. This is NEVER the case in our country, where one party has expelled EVERY candidate who was not fanatically pro-abortion and in favor of other crimes such as dissolving the borders, persecuting Christians, importing a beheading army, etc.
Even before the Democrat party became the Communist party in America (1994), it was pro-abortion.
Thus, in ALL cases where people (since 1972) adopt the "they're all liars" or "they're all crooks" or "they're all the same" are not making an honest judgment, but adopting a mortally sinful POSE.
In his column of August 12, Archbp. Chaput confessed his intention to commit a mortal sin, and belittled those who do not intend to join him in mortal sin. (I.e., he asserted that ONLY a "mysterious calculus" could lead anyone to refrain from joining him in mortal sin.)
http://catholicphilly.com/2016/08/think-tank/archbishop-chaput-column/some-personal-thoughts-on-the-months-ahead/