The 2021 Virginia elections are quickly approaching. You still have time to register – October 12th deadline for the November 2nd election! Thanks to the parish VOICE ministry for their recent voter registration drive.
The U.S. Catholic bishops have updated their “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”, a teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics. This statement represents guidance for Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our democracy. The statement lifts up our dual heritage as both faithful Catholics and American citizens with rights and duties as participants in the civil order. You can download and read the document from the usccb.org website.
As the Church teaches: “the just ordering of society and of the state is a central responsibility of politics,” the Church, “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 183). As the bishops note in their document:
We are a nation founded on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but the right to life itself is not fully protected, especially for unborn children, the terminally ill, and the elderly, the most vulnerable members of the American family. We are called to be peacemakers in a nation at war. We are a country pledged to pursue “liberty and justice for all,” but we are too often divided across lines of race, ethnicity, and economic inequality. We are a nation of immigrants, struggling to address the challenges of many new immigrants in our midst. We are a society built on the strength of our families, called to defend marriage and offer moral and economic support for family life. We are a powerful nation in a violent world, confronting terror and trying to build a safer, more just, more peaceful world. We are an affluent society where too many live in poverty and lack health care and other necessities of life. We are part of a global community charged with being good stewards of the earth’s environment, what Pope Francis calls “our common home,” which is being threatened. (Faithful Citizenship, #2)
That is a wide-ranging list! And yet that is the teaching of the Church of what it means to be Pro-Life – fully pro-life from conceptions to natural death. We all too easily reduce ourselves to single-issue focus and hold one issue, not above the others, but to the exclusion of the others. As the bishops write: “The right to life implies and is linked to other human rights-to the basic goods that every human person needs to live and thrive. All the life issues are connected, for erosion of respect for the life of any individual or group in society necessarily diminishes respect for all life. The moral imperative to respond to the needs of our neighbors-basic needs such as food, shelter, health care, education, and meaningful work-is universally binding on our consciences…” (Faithful Citizenship, #25) They also tell us we must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care – it’s all Pro-Life.
The bishops recognize that modern politics is complex and often, no candidate is fully pro-life as the Church and our bishops define it. But then some “actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called “intrinsically evil” actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia.” (Faithful Citizenship, #22: quoting John Paul II’s Gospel of Life) In our day “euthanasia” is politely called “doctor assisted death.”
The Bishops also write: “ Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, or racist behavior, if the voter’s intent is to support that position. In such cases, a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.” (Faithful Citizenship, #35)
We strongly encourage you to know the candidates and their positions on abortion, euthanasia, and the range of fully and truly Pro-Life topics. Your vote, your voice. It is our duty as Faithful Citizens.