Methodology
Render is a Catholic Social Teaching political alignment index. It scores politicians on how closely their legislative record aligns with CST. Every score is sourced, tiered, weighted by recency, and fully auditable.
What Render Is
Render measures how closely a politician's legislative record aligns with positions derived from Catholic Social Teaching (CST). It is nonpartisan and non-denominational. It does not care which party a politician belongs to, what they say in speeches, or whether they identify as Catholic.
Every score is based on evidence: votes, executive actions, sponsored legislation, and official written positions — never rhetoric alone. Every piece of evidence is tagged with a source tier, a date, a decay weight, and a link to the original record.
CST is a 2,000-year tradition articulated in papal encyclicals, conciliar documents, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Its positions on political issues range from absolute moral prohibitions (abortion, torture) to prudential judgements on which reasonable Catholics may disagree about means while agreeing on ends.
Issue List
Render tracks 13 issues. The first four are Intrinsic Evils — acts the Church holds to be wrong in every circumstance, admitting no exceptions — and carry a 2.0× weight multiplier. The remaining nine are Prudential Issues — areas where the Church mandates certain ends but allows debate about means — and carry a 1.0× weight multiplier.
Intrinsic Evils — 2.0× Multiplier
Abortion
The Church holds that human life begins at conception and that direct abortion is a grave moral evil that admits no exceptions (Evangelium Vitae §62; CCC 2270–2275).
End of Life Policy
The Church opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide as violations of human dignity at its most vulnerable moment, while affirming the right to refuse disproportionate treatment and calling for robust palliative care (CCC 2276–2279).
Torture
Torture — the deliberate infliction of severe physical or mental suffering on a person — is intrinsically evil and unconditionally prohibited regardless of motive (CCC 2297–2298; Gaudium et Spes §27).
Capital Punishment
The Church holds capital punishment inadmissible in all cases, as it violates human dignity and forecloses the possibility of repentance and rehabilitation (CCC 2267; Pope Francis, Letter to the Bishops, 2018).
Prudential Issues — 1.0× Multiplier
Immigration
The Church affirms the right to migrate in search of safety and a dignified life, the duty of receiving nations to welcome migrants to the extent possible, and the obligation to treat all migrants with the dignity owed to human persons (CCC 2241; Laudato Si §175; Strangers No Longer).
Labor Rights
Work is a fundamental expression of human dignity. The right to organize, to receive just wages, and to safe working conditions are not privileges but duties owed by society (Rerum Novarum; Laborem Exercens §§6–10; Centesimus Annus §15).
Criminal Justice Reform
Punishment must serve rehabilitation and reintegration, not retribution. The Church calls for restorative justice, humane conditions of incarceration, and investment in healing broken social bonds (Compendium of the Social Doctrine §§402–405).
Healthcare
Access to healthcare is a right rooted in human dignity. Society has an obligation to ensure that all people — especially the poorest — can receive the medical care necessary to live a dignified life (Caritas in Veritate §43; Compendium §166).
Housing
Adequate shelter is a fundamental human right. Society must ensure that no person is left without a home through active public investment, fair housing enforcement, and protection of the vulnerable from displacement (Gaudium et Spes §26; Compendium §167).
Foreign Aid & Global Poverty
The goods of the earth are destined for all of humanity. Wealthy nations bear a positive duty of solidarity to the global poor through foreign aid, debt relief, fair trade, and international development investment (Populorum Progressio §§43–55; Caritas in Veritate §§36–38).
Economic Policy
Economic systems must be evaluated by their treatment of the poorest. The Church demands a preferential option for the poor, condemns structural sin that produces inequality, and calls for economic institutions that serve human dignity rather than profit alone (Centesimus Annus §§11–12; Laudato Si §§109–110).
Environment
Care for creation is a moral obligation, not a political preference. The earth belongs to all, and environmental degradation is a form of injustice that disproportionately harms the poor. Climate change is a moral crisis requiring urgent collective action (Laudato Si §§24–26, 49–52; Laudate Deum).
Foreign Wars & Interventions
War is permissible only as a last resort, when all peaceful means have been exhausted, and only when conducted with strict proportionality and discrimination between combatants and civilians. Arms sales without humanitarian conditionality are complicit in unjust violence (CCC 2309; Gaudium et Spes §§78–82; Compendium §§438–442).
Universal Doctrinal Scale (1.0–5.0)
Every issue receives a doctrinal score from 1.0 to 5.0 reflecting how closely the politician's legislative record aligns with Church teaching on that issue.
±0.5 Ecosystem Adjustment
After the doctrinal score is assigned, a ±0.5 ecosystem adjustment is applied when the broader policy ecosystem — the agencies, budgets, and legislation surrounding a given issue — materially supports (+0.5) or undermines (−0.5) the same value the doctrinal score measures.
The adjustment requires Tier 1 or Tier 2 evidence (see Source Tier System below). Rhetoric alone — no matter how aligned — cannot trigger the adjustment. The adjustment extends the effective score range to 0.5–5.5.
Each issue has a specific ecosystem clarifier defining what qualifies for each adjustment direction:
Abortion
Apply +0.5 when the broader policy ecosystem actively supports maternal care, paid family leave, adoption infrastructure, and prenatal investment that affirms life. Apply −0.5 when the ecosystem actively undermines these supports.
End of Life Policy
Apply +0.5 when the ecosystem invests in hospice, palliative care, and elderly dignity. Apply −0.5 when assisted dying is expanded without corresponding investment in dignified alternatives.
Torture
Apply +0.5 when the broader institutional ecosystem (law enforcement standards, detention policy, military doctrine) reinforces human dignity norms. Apply −0.5 when rhetoric or policy normalizes dehumanizing treatment.
Capital Punishment
Apply +0.5 when the ecosystem moves toward abolition through DA reform, sentencing reform, and decarceration investment. Apply −0.5 when execution is expanded or rhetoric endorses its use.
Immigration
Apply +0.5 when the enforcement and integration ecosystem actively supports migrant dignity through legal aid, healthcare access, and pathways to stability. Apply −0.5 when the ecosystem employs mass enforcement, family separation, or dehumanizing detention.
Labor Rights
Apply +0.5 when the policy ecosystem actively protects collective bargaining, enforces just wages, and invests in worker dignity. Apply −0.5 when the ecosystem undermines unions, suppresses wages, or strips worker protections.
Criminal Justice Reform
Apply +0.5 when the ecosystem invests in reentry, rehabilitation, and restorative alternatives to incarceration. Apply −0.5 when retributive rhetoric, mass incarceration, or punitive excess characterize the policy environment.
Healthcare
Apply +0.5 when the policy ecosystem moves toward universal coverage and eliminates barriers for the vulnerable. Apply −0.5 when cuts to Medicaid, uninsurance, or coverage gaps disproportionately harm the poor.
Housing
Apply +0.5 when the ecosystem includes meaningful affordable housing investment, tenant protections, and homelessness reduction. Apply −0.5 when deregulation, displacement, or speculative housing markets price out the poor.
Foreign Aid & Global Poverty
Apply +0.5 when the ecosystem actively advances global solidarity through robust international development investment. Apply −0.5 when foreign aid is weaponized as leverage, systematically cut, or withdrawn from multilateral institutions.
Economic Policy
Apply +0.5 when the economic ecosystem — tax policy, regulation, labor standards — systematically prioritizes the poor and reduces inequality. Apply −0.5 when the ecosystem concentrates wealth, erodes safety nets, or externalizes costs onto the vulnerable.
Environment
Apply +0.5 when the policy ecosystem includes binding climate targets, clean energy investment, and environmental justice provisions. Apply −0.5 when the ecosystem actively rolls back protections, enables fossil fuel expansion, or denies climate science in policy.
Foreign Wars & Interventions
Apply +0.5 when the policy ecosystem applies humanitarian conditionality, pursues diplomacy first, and reduces arms transfer to regimes committing atrocities. Apply −0.5 when unconditional arms transfers, veto of ceasefire resolutions, or rejection of diplomatic options characterize the posture.
Source Tier System
Every dossier entry is assigned one of four tiers reflecting the strength and directness of the evidence. Higher tiers are given more weight in scoring; Tier 4 alone can never determine a score.
Votes + Executive Actions
Roll-call votes on legislation, signed or vetoed bills, executive orders, and agency rulemaking with direct legal effect. The gold standard of evidence.
Sponsored / Co-sponsored Legislation
Bills introduced or formally co-sponsored. Indicates a deliberate legislative commitment, though without the finality of a vote or signature.
Official Written Positions / Committee Actions
Formal written statements, party platform endorsements, committee votes, or official agency policy documents. Reliable but less binding than Tier 1 or 2.
Public Statements — Tiebreaker Only
Speeches, interviews, social media posts, campaign materials. Admissible only as a tiebreaker when Tier 1–3 evidence is ambiguous. Never the primary basis for a score.
Decay Model
Legislative records age. An action from ten years ago is less probative of current alignment than one from last month. Render applies an exponential decay model to each dossier entry:
weight = e(-0.1733 × modifier × t)where t = years since action date
- Half-life: 4 years — an action 4 years old carries half the weight of a current action.
- Rhetoric modifier: 0.75 if rhetoric reinforces the action (slower decay), 1.00 if neutral, 1.50 if rhetoric contradicts the action (faster decay).
- Recantation: A Tier 1 or Tier 2 action that directly contradicts a prior record zeroes the prior record entirely.
Decay weights are shown in each dossier entry. They do not change the raw score — they inform the scorer when reassessing records in future updates.
Composite Scores
Every politician receives two composite scores, each normalized to a 0–10 scale, and a gap metric.
Composite A — Doctrinal Purity
A weighted average of final issue scores (doctrinal + adjustment), weighted by issue multiplier. Measures how closely the politician's overall record aligns with Church teaching, treating intrinsic evils twice as heavily.
Composite B — Pragmatic Catholic
Weights each issue by the politician's actionability on that issue — how much institutional power they actually have to move it. A senator scores high on Composite B for issues within Senate jurisdiction; a governor for state-level issues. Composite B rewards alignment where it can actually translate into change.
Gap Metric: B − A
The gap between Composite B and Composite A. A positive gap means the politician pragmatically outperforms their doctrinal alignment — they are moving the issues they are positioned to move. A negative gap means their doctrinal alignment is stronger on issues where they have less power to act.
Both composites are always shown together. Neither is superior — they measure different things. Composite A reflects principle; Composite B reflects impact.
Actionability Scale (1–5)
Each politician receives an actionability score per issue reflecting how much institutional power their current office gives them to move that issue.
Dossier Protocol
Every issue score is backed by a dossier of specific actions, each with:
- A source tier (1–4)
- A one-sentence description of the action
- The date of the action
- A source label and URL
- A computed decay weight
Entries marked NEEDS SOURCE are placeholders where a known action has not yet been verified with a direct primary source link. These are included to represent the scope of the dossier but must be verified before a score is considered final.
Scores are always grounded in Tier 1–3 evidence. Tier 4 statements may appear in the dossier as context but are never the sole basis for a score.
Disclaimers
Render does not evaluate the faith, sincerity, or Catholic identity of any politician. We measure legislative records against policy positions derived from Catholic Social Teaching. A low score does not mean someone is a bad Catholic. A high score does not mean someone is a good one.
Render is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of the Catholic Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), or any Catholic institution, diocese, parish, or organization.
On prudential issues, Render scores whether politicians are moving toward the ends the Church mandates, not whether they are choosing the exact means the Church would prefer. Reasonable Catholics may disagree on means. Render scores ends.