In the Home Stretch

The quadrennial experience of electing a new President for our country takes longer and longer to complete. Seven months ago, after the process had been going on for some time and when the panoply of primary candidates for president were regularly debating each other on media-umpired free-for-alls, I shared with you a digest of the document written by the Catholic Bishops of our country that deals with Faithful Citizenship.

The primary elections and state and national conventions have mercifully come to an end and we now await the first Tuesday in November, in less than two months, when the citizens of our United States will go to the polls to select leadership not only on the national level, but on the state and local levels as well.

The document of the American Catholic Bishops on Faithful Citizenship points out that our nation faces political challenges these days that demand urgent moral choices. Our major parties now have full slates of candidates in place for a wide variety of national, state and local offices. Some of the minor parties, who are usually characterized as quixotic spoilers of one the two major parties, will also place some candidates on the ballots. If we are not careful, we can let ourselves become distracted by the sensational and hyperbolic efforts of campaigns to pander only to our baser feelings about situations. But we must never forget that there is so much at stake in these moments of General Election. In these remaining weeks of the campaigns, we must do all that we can to listen analytically and critically to all that will be said and promised, to measure how much this rhetoric promotes public policy that can stand up to the light of the Gospel of Christ, and then to cast our vote in a truly responsible manner.

As the elections draw closer, let me once again share with you this summary of your Bishops’ teaching on Faithful Citizenship for us Catholics. I offer this with the hope that it may be helpful to review what the Church says about Catholic social teaching in the public square. We are encouraged to use that teaching as a yardstick to examine candidates’ positions on issues as well as their integrity, philosophy and performance.

The Church teaches that human life is sacred and that direct attacks on innocent human life are never morally acceptable. Today’s society attacks innocent human life in abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and destruction of human embryos for research. This teaching also compels us to oppose genocide, torture, unjust war, the use of the death penalty. This principle guides us in pursuing peace and helping overcome poverty, racism and other conditions that demean human life.

The family based on marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental unity of society. This sanctuary for nurturing future generations must not be undermined. How society is organized affects the well being of individuals and society. Every person and association has a right and duty to participate in shaping society and promoting the common good of all people.

Every human being has the right to life, the right to religious freedom, and the right to decent food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing. For each of these rights there is a corresponding duty and responsibility to one another, to our families and to the society as a whole.

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.

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.

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.

Finally, we are all 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.