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What effect to the U.S. bishops’ teachings have on the Catholic in the pew? It’s a good question, I think. I know their teachings weigh heavily on the lives of Catholic Sun staff members. But, judging by the number of Catholics who don’t adhere to the Church teaching against contraception, that’s clearly not always the case.

In a column published today on insidecatholic.com, Deal W. Hudson suggests the U.S. bishops “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship“ has helped Barrack Obama win Catholic votes.

“‘Faithful Citizenship’ provided Obama’s Catholic supporters the escape clauses needed to convince Catholics they could vote for a pro-abortion candidate in ‘good conscience,’” he writes.

Hudson calls for the bishops to clarify this statement in particular:

There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil. (§35)

“The document is so abstract that it invites just the kind of abuse it is receiving at the hands of the Obama campaign,” Hudson writes of “Faithful Citizenship.”

It’s an interesting article, but I question whether it’s the document that’s persuading the majority of Catholic voters. Catholics don’t vote as a block. Catholics haven’t been persuaded by the bishops’ nuanced teaching on immigration, for example. I doubt, then, that it’s this document that’s pulling Catholics toward Obama. I’m more apt to think it’s the charismatic Obama that’s pulling Catholic voters, or an unpopular presidency that’s pushing them away from the Republican ticket.

Whether it’s Obama or McCain that wins on Nov. 4, we Catholics need to do more to create a culture of life. We cannot rely on our elected officials or our government. (McCain, like Obama, supports embryonic stem cell research, another unacceptable position. If McCain does come from behind to win, we’ll have to our part to promote the dignity of embryonic life.)

Whichever candidate wins, some of us will be disappointed. I, for one, take comfort in the words of our bishop.

“When we seem to lose and when we go through difficult times, we are prompted to more deeply root ourselves in Christ,” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said in an interview last year with Lay Witness Magazine. “Ultimately, He’s the One who is the Redeemer of all humankind and of history. So we need to trust, whether things look successful or not in the political realm, that God is still at work in history. We continue to do our part, our little part, wherever He puts us.”