Posted November 16, 2007
With a year to go before we elect a new president, and having already listened to several debates by the candidates, it would be easy to tune out the many more debates that will continue to bombard us — to close our minds and thinking about the principles of excellence in government.
At their November meeting, the bishops issued the following moral guidelines for discerning who might be the best candidates for running our country. Much of what is stated in them is known by Catholics familiar with the Church’s moral teachings. As familiar as we may be, these guidelines make an excellent outline for parish discussions on the present and future leadership of our country. They raise three major questions that need to be repeatedly asked: Are we one nation under God? How much are we standing up for this belief? How strong is the Catholic voice?
In commenting on why Russians did not stand up to Marxism, Alexander Solzhenitsyn pointed to a weakened church in Russia under Peter the Great as one possible reason. He felt that religion is essential for the moral balance of a country. It acts as the antithesis to everything that spawns tyrannical dictatorship, injustice and immorality. For him, the church is the prophetic voice of God making straight God’s life in a country. When it fails to speak out, a country is deprived of guiding principles needed to properly govern.
One way to look at the following guidelines is to see them as a means for strengthening the Catholic voice, and, therefore, our country at a time we can use all the moral strength available.
The Challenge of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship
This brief document is a summary of the United States bishops’ reflection
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (www.faithfulcitizenship.org). It
complements the teaching of bishops in dioceses and states.
Our nation faces political challenges that demand urgent moral choices. We are a nation
at war, with all of its human costs; a country often divided by race and ethnicity; a nation of
immigrants struggling with immigration. We are an affluent society where too many live in
poverty; part of a global community confronting terrorism and facing urgent threats to our
environment; a culture built on families, where some now question the value of marriage and
family life. We pride ourselves on supporting human rights, but we fail even to protect the
fundamental right to life, especially for unborn children.
We bishops seek to help Catholics form their consciences in accordance with the truth, so
they can make sound moral choices in addressing these challenges. We do not tell Catholics how
to vote. The responsibility to make political choices rests with each person and his or her
properly formed conscience.
WHY DOES THE CHURCH TEACH ABOUT
ISSUES AFFECTING PUBLIC POLICY?
The Church’s obligation to participate in shaping the moral character of society is a
requirement of our faith, a part of the mission given to us by Jesus Christ. Faith helps us see
more clearly the truth about human life and dignity that we also understand through human
reason. As people of both faith and reason, Catholics are called to bring truth to political life and
to practice Christ’s commandment to “love one another” (Jn 13:34). According to Pope Benedict
XVI, “charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also their political
activity, lived as ‘social charity’” (Deus Caritas Est, no. 29).
The United States Constitution protects the right of individual believers and religious
bodies to participate and speak out without government interference, favoritism, or
discrimination. Civil law should recognize and protect the Church’s right and responsibility to
participate in society without abandoning our central moral convictions. Our nation’s tradition of
pluralism is enhanced, not threatened, when religious groups and people of faith bring their
convictions into public life. The Catholic community brings to the political dialogue a consistent
moral framework and broad experience serving those in need.
WHO IN THE CHURCH SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN POLITICAL LIFE?
In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political
life is a moral obligation. As Catholics, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than
by our attachment to a political party or interest group. In today’s environment, Catholics may
feel politically disenfranchised, sensing that no party and few candidates fully share our
comprehensive commitment to human life and dignity. Catholic lay women and men need to act
on the Church’s moral principles and become more involved: running for office, working within
political parties, and communicating concerns to elected officials. Even those who cannot vote
should raise their voices on matters that affect their lives and the common good.
HOW DOES THE CHURCH HELP CATHOLICS TO ADDRESS
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS?
A Well-Formed Conscience
The Church equips her members to address political questions by helping them develop
well-formed consciences. “Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person
recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act. . . . [Every person] is obliged to follow faithfully
what he [or she] knows to be just and right” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1778). We
Catholics have a lifelong obligation to form our consciences in accord with human reason,
enlightened by the teaching of Christ as it comes to us through the Church.
The Virtue of Prudence
The Church also encourages Catholics to develop the virtue of prudence, which enables
us “to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1806). Prudence shapes and informs our ability to
deliberate over available alternatives, to determine what is most fitting to a specific context, and
to act. Prudence must be accompanied by courage which calls us to act. As Catholics seek to
advance the common good, we must carefully discern which public policies are morally sound.
A good end does not justify an immoral means. At times Catholics may choose different ways to
respond to social problems, but we cannot differ on our obligation to protect human life and
dignity and help build through moral means a more just and peaceful world.
Doing Good and Avoiding Evil
There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are
always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. These intrinsically evil acts must always be
rejected and never supported. A preeminent example is the intentional taking of human life
through abortion. It is always morally wrong to destroy innocent human beings. A legal system
that allows the right to life to be violated on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.
Similarly, direct threats to the dignity of human life such as euthanasia, human cloning,
and destructive research on human embryos are also intrinsically evil and must be opposed.
Other assaults on human life and dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of
noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified. Disrespect for any human life
diminishes respect for all human life.
As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single issue is not
sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support. Yet a candidate’s position on a single issue that
involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may
legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support.
Opposition to intrinsically evil acts also prompts us to recognize our positive duty to
contribute to the common good and act in solidarity with those in need. Both opposing evil and
doing good are essential. As Pope John Paul II said, “the fact that only the negative
commandments oblige always and under all circumstances does not mean that in the moral life
prohibitions are more important than the obligation to do good indicated by the positive
commandment” (Veritatis Splendor, no. 52). The basic right to life implies and is linked to other
human rights to the goods that every person needs to live and thrive—including food, shelter,
health care, education, and meaningful work. The use of the death penalty, hunger, lack of health
care or housing, human trafficking, the human and moral costs of war, and unjust immigration
policies are some of the serious moral issues that challenge our consciences and require us to act.
Making Moral Choices
Difficult political decisions require the exercise of a well-formed conscience aided by
prudence. This exercise of conscience begins with always opposing policies that violate human
life or weaken its protection. “Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in
conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating
in evil and in sinning against the common good” (Catholics in Political Life, 2004).
When morally flawed laws already exist, prudential judgment is needed to determine how
to do what is possible to restore justice—even if partially or gradually—without ever abandoning
a moral commitment to full protection for all human life from conception to natural death (see
Evangelium Vitae, no. 73).
Prudential judgment is also needed to determine the best way to promote the common
good in areas such as housing, health care, and immigration. When Church leaders make
judgments about how to apply Catholic teaching to specific policies, this may not carry the same
binding authority as universal moral principles but cannot be dismissed as one political opinion
among others. These moral applications should inform the consciences and guide the actions of
Catholics.
WHAT DOES THE CHURCH SAY ABOUT CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE?—SEVEN KEY THEMES
A consistent ethic of life should guide all Catholic engagement in political life. This
Catholic ethic neither treats all issues as morally equivalent nor reduces Catholic teaching to one
or two issues. It anchors the Catholic commitment to defend human life and other human rights,
from conception until natural death, in the fundamental obligation to respect the dignity of every
human being as a child of God.
Catholic voters should use Catholic teaching to examine candidates’ positions on issues
and should consider candidates’ integrity, philosophy, and performance. It is important for all
citizens “to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their
political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest” (Living the
Gospel of Life, no. 33). The following themes of Catholic social teaching provide a moral
framework for decisions in public life.
The Right to Life and the Dignity of the Human Person
Human life is sacred. Direct attacks on innocent human beings are never morally
acceptable. Within our society, life is under direct attack from abortion, euthanasia, human
cloning, and destruction of human embryos for research. These intrinsic evils must always be
opposed. This teaching also compels us as Catholics to oppose genocide, torture, unjust war, and
the use of the death penalty, as well as to pursue peace and help overcome poverty, racism, and
other conditions that demean human life.
Call to Family, Community, and Participation
The family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, is the fundamental unit of
society. This sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children must not be redefined,
undermined, or neglected. Supporting families should be a priority for economic and social
policies. How our society is organized—in economics and politics, in law and public
policy—affects the well-being of individuals and of society. Every person and association has a
right and a duty to participate in shaping society to promote the well-being of individuals and the
common good.
Rights and Responsibilities
Every human being has a right to life, the fundamental right that makes all other rights
possible. Each of us has a right to religious freedom, which enables us to live and act in accord
with our God-given dignity, as well as a right to access to those things required for human
decency—food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing. Corresponding
to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger
society.
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
While the common good embraces all, those who are in greatest need deserve preferential
concern. A moral test for society is how we treat the weakest among us—the unborn, those
dealing with disabilities or terminal illness, the poor and marginalized.
Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Economic justice calls for
decent work at fair, living wages, opportunities for legal status for immigrant workers, and the
opportunity for all people to work together for the common good through their work, ownership,
enterprise, investment, participation in unions, and other forms of economic activity.
Solidarity
We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and
ideological differences. Our Catholic commitment to solidarity requires that we pursue justice,
eliminate racism, end human trafficking, protect human rights, seek peace, and avoid the use of
force except as a necessary last resort.
Caring for God’s Creation
Care for the earth is a duty of our Catholic faith. We all are called to be careful stewards
of God’s creation and to ensure a safe and hospitable environment for vulnerable human beings
now and in the future.
CONCLUSION
In light of Catholic teaching, as bishops we vigorously repeat our call for a renewed
politics that focuses on moral principles, the defense of life, the needs of the weak, and the
pursuit of the common good. This kind of political participation reflects the social teaching of
our Church and the best traditions of our nation.
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