During the annual singing of “America the Beautiful” in churches around the nation last weekend, Christians prayed in the second verse that God might mend America’s every flaw.
We’d be hard pressed as Americans to agree on exactly what those flaws are or how to mend them. But as Christians, it shouldn’t be so difficult. And for American Catholics, the church has provided an aid to help one tease out issues facing the nation.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers a guide for Catholic voters in its teaching document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”
Reissued every four years, just ahead of presidential elections, the document doesn’t tell you for whom to vote, but offers church teaching as a guide for Catholic voters in their decision-making process. It’s a process, the document notes, that ought to depend upon a well-formed conscience.
This month is a good time to take an afternoon with the short document and read it as the bishops intended — in its totality and prayerfully. It can be downloaded from the bishops’ website usccb.org. On traditional 8.5- by 11-inch paper, it is just 42 pages.
The bishops begin by recommending the document to pastors, lay people and religious of “dual heritage” — those who are both American and Catholic.
“This statement represents our guidance for Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our democracy,” it says.
“We urge our pastors, lay and religious faithful, and all people of good will to use this statement to help form their consciences; to teach those entrusted to their care; to contribute to civil and respectful public dialogue; and to shape political choices in the coming election in light of Catholic teaching.”
It goes on to explore some fundamental questions and address individual issues. Following are a few of its headings and excerpts:
- Part I, the longest section of the document, offers a reflection on church teaching and political life and discusses the formation of the conscience. It also explores Catholic social teaching on the dignity of the human person, the concept of subsidiarity, the common good and the notion of solidarity. It concludes with a call for “a renewed kind of politics”:
1. Focused more on moral principles than on the latest polls;
2. Focused more on the needs of the weak than on the benefits of the strong;
3. Focused more on the pursuit of the common good than on demands of narrow interests. - Part II applies church teaching to issues of the day, including human life, promoting peace, marriage and family life, religious freedom, preferential option for the poor and economic justice, health care, migration, Catholic education, promoting justice and countering violence, combatting unjust discrimination, care for our common home, media and culture and global solidarity.
- The final part addresses “Goals for Political Life: Challenges for Citizens, Candidates and Public Officials.” The section outlines the bishops’ public policy goals in the U.S. and notes, “As Catholics, we are led to raise questions for political life other than those that concentrate on individual, material well-being. Our focus is not on party affiliation, ideology, economics, or even competence and capacity to perform duties, as important as such issues are. Rather, we focus on what protects or threatens the dignity of every human life.”
It would be a disservice to the document and The Record’s readers to offer more detail here. As the bishops request, the document should be read in its entirety. Take some time, then, as an American and as a Catholic to prayerfully read the full document.
MARNIE McALLISTER
Record Editor
