Thomist Fr. Ripperger: "[T]he faithful have an obligation to vote for the lesser of two evils..John Paul II..talked about it" vs. Might Feser be a Practical Kantian & Jansenist Rigorist unlike St. Thomas & St. Alphonsus?

Father Chad Ripperger, a philosopher, theologian, and one of the most experienced exorcists in the Catholic Church, says that the faithful have an “obligation” to vote for the lesser of two evils. However, that’s not the same as “voting for evil.”

“And so people will say, ‘Well, yeah, but right now we’ve got, for example, candidates who are not perfect,” Ripperger recently told hosts Jesse Romero and Terry Barber on Virgin Most Powerful Radio (VMPR). “One actually holds stuff that’s really evil, another guy holds stuff that’s also evil, but it’s not as bad,’ etc…

“Discussion of this has been reiterated throughout the history of the church, all the way up and through John Paul II had actually talked about it. So, but the basic principle is, in a situation like that, then your obligation is to vote for the lesser of two evils.”

“And the reason being is because in the lesser of two evils, people say, ‘Well, you’re voting for evil.’ No, actually, you’re not voting for evil. When you’re voting for a lesser evil, you’re not voting for the person’s evil or the evil that the thing is doing. What you’re voting to is to preserve the good that would be lost if the other opponent got in, who’s more evil, or if the legislation got passed, which was actually even worse, or what have you.” [https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2024/08/21/video-leading-exorcist-explains-how-vote-lesser-two-evils/]

In short, where our vote will make a difference in the outcome, we must vote for the lesser of two evils, but we must not do so without loudly voicing our opposition to the evil the Party stands for. Otherwise, we are complicit in that evil. Feser is adamant that voting for the lesser of two evils does not satisfy our moral duty: we must also make our protest of the evil known. To not do so would give scandal. - Barbara Farrah [https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/donald-trump-and-the-sovereign-rights-of-god]

Kant's Universalism: [Ed Feser's apparent] Kantian ethics emphasizes the categorical imperative, requiring individuals to act according to rules that could be applied universally without contradiction. This means judging actions based on their inherent morality, regardless of the specific context or people involved. 

Casuistry's Contextualism: In contrast, [the enemy of Jansenist Calvinist-like rigorism St. Alphonsus's] casuistry prioritizes examining the specific details and nuances of a situation to determine the most morally appropriate action. It draws on historical precedents, legal reasoning, and practical wisdom to navigate complex moral dilemmas. - Google AI Overview

The author refers to a Catholic casuistry best exemplified by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787) and his book Theologia Moralis.

Fleming writes, “Rejecting absolutism as both impractical and, in this human world, impossible, he argued from the basis of probability, always making allowances for human frailty. The result of his method is a mature and humane approach to moral problems that have never been equaled.”

The ancients better understood the fallen nature of man than any contemporary philosopher. The application of moral laws to such a frail creature is not an easy job. Fleming explains, “Different casuists, whether philosophers or novelists, will come to different conclusions, because ethics is not (as St. Alphonsus acknowledged) an abstract science; it is more like the art of tuning a piano or tacking a sailing ship against the wind. The rules are as fixed as the points of a compass or the overtone series, but applying them to the imperfections of human life is a messy and sometimes dangerous business.”

The author explains that casuistry was pushed to the background by the early twentieth century when the [modern Vatican II] Catholic Church embraced a rigid neo-[apparently Kantian] Thomism and mainstream Protestantism had similarly embraced the liberal philosophies of John Locke and Adam Smith, or “retreated into the austere rigorism of a [Jansenist] puritanical Calvinism.” - Robert Cheeks [https://calitreview.com/the-morality-of-everyday-life-by-thomas-fleming/

Ed Feser is supposed to be an old school Thomist and not an apparent Kantian neo-Thomist, but lately it has appeared that he may have more in common with Kant's philosophy and Jansenist Calvinist-like rigorism than Catholic "casuistry... [which includes] practitioners... [like] Aristotle, Cicero and St. Thomas" as well as St. Alphonsus according to scholar Thomas Fleming.   

Fleming's "The Morality of Everyday Life," shows how a mother's love for the good of her family is not below the Kantian Categorical Imperative of purely abstract, universal principles like those espoused by Immanuel Kant highlighting how such principles can sometimes clash with the concrete realities of motherly love and the needs of her husband and children as well as the need to live in a non-tyrannical country while fulfilling the “'obligation' to vote for the lesser of two evil."

It appears that Feser may think that the Kantian Categorical Imperative of abstract formulas is the most important principle for voting unlike the simple family man who wrote the following:

The Democrats are not just the godless Party of evil. They are the godless totalitarian Party of compelled evil - participation is mandatory, not voluntary.

They are changing the basic rules of governance, shredding the Constitution and imposing a tyranny by fiat. There is no opt-out in the future Bolshevik States of America. Civic rules and morals is whatever they say it is and all must agree in thought, word and deed.

Christians who refuse to support the “flawed” Party over the “evil” Party are tacitly accepting this impending revolution of Bolshevik tyrannical evil.

As has been seen by some commenters on this blog … many Christians are doing just that -

https://www.newsweek.com/christians-not-voting-five-alarm-fire-trump-1965304

This is a terrible mistake of prudential judgement - and perhaps fatal. [https://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2024/10/vote-for-party-that-inflicts-lesser.html]

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html

– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1

– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1

What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 

Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.

Pray an Our Father now for America.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.