Bishop Parkes Shares Guidance for Catholics as They Prepare to Vote
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...As Catholics, it is our responsibility to learn more about Catholic teaching and tradition, to participate in Church life, to learn from trustworthy sources about the issues facing our communities, and to do our best to make wise judgments about candidates and government actions.
As Catholics, it is our responsibility to learn more about Catholic teaching and tradition, to participate in Church life, to learn from trustworthy sources about the issues facing our communities, and to do our best to make wise judgments about candidates and government actions.
The teachings of the Church offer a vision of hope, where justice and mercy abound, because God is the infinite source of all goodness and love.
With this wisdom and hope, we can find a way to bend down as the Good Samaritan did, through the fear and divisions, to touch and heal the wounds.
As Catholics and Americans, we are blessed to be able to participate in our nation’s political and public life. Our freedoms respect the dignity of individuals and their consciences and allow us to come together for the common good. Election season, therefore, should contain a sense of gratitude and hope. Our love for this country, our patriotism, properly impels us to vote.
But increasingly, it seems, election season is a time of anxiety and spiritual trial. Political rhetoric is increasingly angry, seeking to motivate primarily through division and hatred. Fear can be an effective tool for raising money. The most heated arguments online often get the most clicks. Demonizing the other can win votes.
However, Pope Francis exhorts us to “genuine dialogue and openness to others,” by which we may “be frank and open about our beliefs, while continuing to discuss, to seek points of contact, and above all, to work and struggle together” (Fratelli Tutti, no. 203).
How can we meet this challenge? St. Paul gives us a way: Put on “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
I encourage you to take time away from social media and spend time with Holy Scripture and the Blessed Sacrament.
Turn off the TV and the podcast and listen in silence. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a crisis pregnancy center. Serve the poor, the needy, the outcast.
Pray often, letting faith inform your political participation.
May God bless you as you consider and pray over these challenging decisions. May God bless our nation with true wisdom, peace, and mutual forgiveness, that we may decide together, through our democratic processes, to uphold the dignity of life and the common good.
To learn more visit www.faithfulcitizenship.org.
This statement is based on the Introductory Note to Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
Click below to watch a video version.
