From the United Conference of Catholic Bishops:
https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/upload/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship.pdf
Our national election season is upon us, and Catholics are urged to embrace the opportunity to vote. As previously noted, Pope Francis has addressed the issue of voting. He stated, “We need to participate for the common good. Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic is not interested in politics. This is not true: good Catholics immerse themselves in politics by offering the best of themselves so that the leader can govern.”
In addition to these sentiments of Pope Francis, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has also issued a document concerning voting called, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” The bishops have encouraged us to take our voting responsibility seriously. They have indicated that responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. The bishops stated that they “…seek to help Catholics form their consciences in accordance with the truth, so they can make sound moral choices. We do not tell Catholics how to vote. The responsibility to make political choices rests with each person and his or her conscience.”
The bishops have recently updated the document and indicated in making decisions about voting, “…it is essential for Catholics to be guided by a well-formed conscience that recognizes that all issues do not carry the same moral weight and that the moral obligation to oppose policies promoting intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on our consciences and our actions.
These decisions should take into account a candidate’s commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue. In the end, this is a decision to be made by each Catholic guided by a conscience formed by Catholic moral teaching.”
As in the past, the bishops affirmed the fundamental dignity of the human person. They stated that human life is sacred, and that intrinsically evil actions such as abortion and euthanasia must always be opposed. The gift of life is the foundation upon which rests all the other marvelous gifts that God has given us. We are challenged to prayerfully consider the guidance of our bishops as we exercise our right to vote.
As we know, we live in an imperfect world and we are dealing with imperfect candidates. Our bishops encourage us to properly form our consciences when evaluating candidates at all levels of government. We invite you to respond to the call of our bishops to embrace our moral obligation to engage in our political process.
Fr. Neil Herlihy’s Pastors Column