As we approach Election Day Nov. 5, we are confronted as Catholics by our moral responsibility to engage in the public square as faithful citizens.
Certainly, the elections will decide who will serve as our next president. As Virginians, we know they will also determine who will represent our commonwealth in Congress and in the many vital offices that shape our lives on a local level. In order to vote as faithful citizens, we must put on “the mind of Christ” as St. Paul says in sacred Scripture.
As my fellow American bishops and I affirm in “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” it is imperative that every Catholic earnestly strives to properly form his or her conscience according to the church’s teaching.
As Catholics, faith must inform our participation in public life and in the political process. What we say we believe at Mass and how we live in our private lives should always be consistent with how we live our public lives.
Conscience refers simply to our capacity as human persons to discern good and evil in light of our moral knowledge. A properly formed conscience bears great fruit, ensuring in the individual heart a harmony of faith and reason that serves the good of the person and our wider society.
Conscience is not simply a feeling, intuition or opinion. It does not mean that we may rightly act in whatever way we please. Conscience, properly formed, means acting with the moral knowledge provided by faith and reason — acting according to the reality of God’s revelation. No Catholic can say they are acting in “good conscience” if they advocate for grave evil. A properly formed conscience is always in accord with the church’s teachings.
The teachings of the U.S. bishops on faithful citizenship can be summarized by three principles that must guide how we vote: first, that many issues are important; second, that not all issues have equal moral weight; and third, that protecting human life is paramount. The Virginia Catholic Conference offers essential Election Day resources that further convey these principles, as well as the positions of candidates and practical tips for voters. You may visit vacatholic.org to access these materials.
As Catholics, we must continue to recognize that any threat to the human right to life represents a singular threat to any and every other human right. The human right to life is the first and foundational human right, which is why the U.S. bishops observe that the tragedy of abortion is the “pre-eminent priority because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.”
Our faith offers us the tremendous gift of seeing glimpses of the City of God while still living in this earthly city of man. As important as our engagement in public life may be, our faithfulness to Our Lord remains our essential task. Though this world is our temporary home, we are called to use our time and our gifts in this life to work out our salvation, which we cannot achieve alone.
Although voting is a great and important responsibility, Catholics should recognize that our call to faithful citizenship must be expressed every day in how we engage in public life and how we grow in relationship with our brothers and sisters. This responsibility can manifest itself in a particular way for some of us through dedicated social and political action. We are all called, according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, to act in some way toward the reorientation of our social order in line with the Christian vision of the human person.
Although this challenge may at times feel daunting, the Lord is always equipping each one of us who call upon him with an earnest heart. Our Lord gives us the grace to accept and fulfill his promptings.
All this we must try to do with the spirit of St. Paul, who rejoiced that, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” All of politics, and all human history, finds its fulfillment in God. God alone is the true political victor and he alone sustains us. May we grow in our faithfulness to God’s call and by his grace act as faithful citizens on Election Day and in all our days to come.
