Dear Friends of St. John the Baptist,

The Holy Father Pope Frances is fond of saying, “The Church is here to help form our conscience, not to replace it.”  It stands to reason, then, that if the Church tells people how they should vote, then we haven’t done our job to form consciences, we have just replaced them with our own personal point of view, in essence, we have imposed our will on others, while at the same time taking away their own personal responsibility.  In a document entitled, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” the Catholic Bishops of the United States remind us that, “…the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual in light of a properly formed conscience.”  To put it in another way, how you vote and for whom you vote is a matter between you, God and your own conscience.  Again, this is made clear in the same document, which states, “Conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us to do what is good while shunning what is evil.”  This tremendous respect for the conscience of each individual voter is further reflected in a statement by the Bishops, which offers the following guidelines to priests and parishes:

• Do not endorse or oppose candidates, political parties, or groups of candidates, or take any action that reasonably could be construed as endorsement or opposition.
• Do not make available the use of church facilities, assets or members for partisan political purposes.
• Do not authorize distribution of partisan political materials or biased voter education materials on church property, in church publications, or in church activities.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States underscore that every Catholic should take into consideration the following:

• The ongoing destruction of over 1 million innocent, human lives each year by abortion.
• Physician-assisted suicide.
• The redefinition of marriage, the vital cell of society.
• The excessive consumption of material goods and the destruction of natural resources, which harm, both the environment and the poor.
• The deadly attack on fellow Christians and religious minorities throughout the world.
• The narrowing redefinition of religious freedom.
• Economic policies that fail to prioritize the poor at home, or abroad.
• A broken immigration system and a worldwide refugee crisis.
• Wars, terror and violence that threaten every aspect of human life.

This is further emphasized when Catholics are reminded about the importance of defending the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death, by promoting religious freedom, by defending marriage, by feeding the hungry and housing the homeless, by welcoming the immigrant and protecting the environment.  As election time begins to drawn near, I think you can tell that I will resist telling you, our parishioners, how you should vote.  In all honesty, being a priest does not disqualify you from having strong, political opinions.  Nor, does it exempt you from having political leanings.  Nevertheless, my deep respect for your own, personal liberty compels me to refrain from telling you how to exercise your own conscience.  But what I can encourage you, and all the members of our parish family to do, is exercise your God-given right, indeed the rights given us by the Constitution of the United States, to study the issues, to apply Catholic values in light of the issues, and to vote.
 
Sincerely in Christ,

Fr.David
 

Originally published fall, 2016 and edited on October 25th, 2018.