| U.S. News

In the Oct. 6 Catholic Conference of Illinois statement, “Elections, Conscience and the Responsibility to Vote,” the 12 bishops stressed that with one-quarter of the Midwest U.S. state’s population and almost one-third of the U.S. citizenry being Catholic “a renewed ‘Catholic vote’ could become a political force for justice in Illinois and the nation.”

Further, they urged “Catholics to become more aware of Catholic moral and social teaching and to become more involved in the political process.”

Noting that “elections can be difficult for Catholics” as the choices are critical to the future and as debate is often characterized by “partisan bickering,” the Illinois bishops stressed the importance that voting be seen as “about fundamental moral choices.”

“As citizens, we ought to desire the best possible political leaders to help us achieve the common good, and we have a responsibility to participate in the political process by voting,” Chicago Cardinal Francis George, the state’s five other ordinaries and six auxiliary bishops said.

“We must cast our vote through prayerful consideration and in accordance with our conscience formed by the Catholic faith” based upon “the authentic moral teaching of the church,” they said.

The bishops said that Catholics must “inform and form our consciences as citizens in accordance with the principles of Catholic social teaching.”

They called “the dignity of every human person and each one’s basic right to life from conception to natural death” a non-negotiable principle of Catholic faith and for non-Catholics who believe that society “should protect its weakest members.”

“Other principles,” the Illinois bishops added, “include the call to community and participation, the centrality of the family, the dignity of work and rights of workers, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and the commitment to stewardship of the environment.”

Catholics should make their voting decisions based on the candidates “most committed to being a public servant dedicated to the common good,” the 12 bishops said, adding that that dedication requires the inclusive protection of law of the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.

“Any candidate who supports a public policy where part of humanity – such as the pre-born, the elderly, the handicapped or the sick – is excluded from the protection of law and treated as if they were non-persons,” they said, “is gravely deficient in his or her view of the requirements of a just society.”

Faced with the possibility of finding the candidates for public office falling “short of a vision of the common good as rich and full as Catholic social teaching,” the Catholic voter should consider becoming more active in the political process.

“We call on Catholics who understand and accept the church’s teaching to become more engaged in political life,” the Illinois bishops said. “We urge Catholics to run for office, work within the political parties, contribute time to campaigns and join diocesan legislative networks, community organizations and other efforts to apply Catholic principles in the public square.”

Besides Cardinal George, other signers of the statement were Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Bishop George J. Lucas of Springfield-in-Illinois, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Bishop J. Peter Sartain of Joliet and Chicago auxiliary bishops George J. Rassas, Francis J. Kane, John R. Manz, Thomas J. Paprocki, Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Joseph N. Perry.

In an Oct. 15 column, “Religion, reason, voting,” that appeared in The Catholic New World, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal George followed up with the Catholic conference statement, stressing that Catholics must form their consciences and “use that formation to make political choices.”

“Conscience is not an excuse for doing something irrational,” he said. “This is not easy, because principles are clear but practice often is clouded by confusion of fact and the distraction of various forms of self-interest.”

He called “intellectually dishonest” the actions of the Catholic politician “who excuses his or her decision to allow the killing of the unborn and of others who can’t protect themselves because he or she doesn’t want to ‘impose Catholic doctrine on others.’”

The protection of right to life is “a principle of reason” and “a matter of the common good,” the cardinal said. “It is not imposing Catholic morality on anybody.”

He said there is a disconnect which leads to a sense of frustration when comparing the church’s “beautiful teaching with the political, economic and social order in which we now live.”

“It’s important to vote in a democratic society, even though much of our life is governed by decisions of unelected bureaucrats and judges and editors and economic players whose names we do not recognize unless there is a scandal of some sort,” he added.

He asked that the faithful be guided by the church’s social doctrine in fulfilling their civic duty.