When Catholics vote. Cardinal Cupich has an issue with certain unidentified campaigners.

In his latest column, When Catholics vote, Chicago's Cardinal Cupich expresses his concern about "groups pretending to speak on behalf of all Catholics by offering a very narrow version of our teachings, often reducing it [to what?] for their own partisan aims."

Dirty pool if so, but he does not name these rapscallions, which is his prerogative but disappointing to his readers.

He urges us to keep in mind what the Second Vatican Council had to say about this, for instance that the church is "in the modern world” and not with it. (Don't say "the church and the world.")

The council was saying ("signalling") that the church exists "on its own terms, not because of an alignment with any agency that gives permission or grants a right, status or other favors."

Who are saying such an opprobrious thing? Or acting as if were so.

"No group or agency should claim to speak for 'the Catholic vote,'" he says, "insofar as there is such a thing."

Insofar? Your Eminence, please! Not sure there is such a thing? Ask any man or woman on the street and he or she will tell you it's how Catholics vote! Look it up! The polls are alive with reports of results. Put that "insofar" to a working pol and he or she will look at you funny.

Who thinks Catholics for Trump, roughly half of them, or Biden, the other half, speak for all Catholics or for the institutional, hierarchal Church itself? Or acts as if. Again, tell us who these people are, Your Eminence.

Your reminder, "being in the world . . . means that the church journeys in solidarity with all of humanity, not just with some who may claim to represent her teachings," is a grand statement of the undeniable without nailing down the specific.

And your alarming:

If the church is to preserve its identity as “a sacramental sign and an instrument of intimate union with God, and of the unity of the whole human race” (“Gaudium et Spes,”42), great care must be taken to preserve her solidarity with all of humanity.

And not just with Republicans or Democrats, right?

Her mission is to illuminate all the dimensions of human life in order “to establish and consolidate the human community according to the law of God” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 42).

Which is endangered how? By some group's campaigning? A bit much, that.

You carry it further:

“The Church, by reason of her role and competence, is not identified in any way with the political community nor bound to any political system.

Egad, these are citizens acting as they see it for the common good, not heretics.

She is at once a sign and a safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. The Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other” (“Gaudium et Spes,” No. 76).

Yes, and so we have the very sort of exercise that is my bet for what the cardinal has in mind, though probably not the only one:

. . . where you can read about and listen to lots of politics-related and a dozen other matters, including:

LOOPcast  Let’s talk about it: did the GOP drop the pro-life plank from its platform? Some Catholics head for the hills, others say stay and fight. We dip our toes into the world of wedding fashion – do we say yes to Olivia Culpo’s dress? And it’s time for Biden’s “Big Boy” presser!

Another that the cardinal is bound to be familiar with is National Catholic Reporter, where the left has its day and then some.

Winding up, then, what the cardinal has to say about the church in (but not of) the world, some good stuff:

We must be willing to speak about all that pertains to the common good, which “would include the promotion and defense of ... goods such as public order and peace, freedom and equality, respect for human life and for the environment, justice and solidarity” (From the doctrinal note published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Nov. 21, 2002, “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life”).

And last but not least. . .

The church’s proclamation of these values is not merely institutional but occurs primarily through the informed consciences of Catholics as citizens, who infuse Gospel values into the life of society and the state.

Thus, it is up to each of us as Catholics to be informed about the issues, reflect on them through the prism of all that our faith teaches us, become involved in the political process and vote. If there is a Catholic vote, it must remain in the hands of each Catholic to decide in good conscience.

Yes.