Voting with an informed conscience is an important first step in exercising Catholic political responsibility. However, the more demanding task before us is to continually insist that elected officials make it their priority to protect the lives, and promote the dignity, of the poor and vulnerable everywhere. Promoting these moral values is our duty as Catholic citizens.
Interestingly, “moral values” were a determining factor for millions in the U.S. Nov. 5 elections. Abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and same-sex marriages proved morally worrisome for millions of voters–a hopeful sign for those of us committed to the protection of unborn human life and traditional heterosexual marriage. But what about the moral values of every person’s right to adequate nutritious food, clean water and sanitation, decent housing, comprehensive health care, quality education, and jobs that pay a living wage?
What about the moral values of eliminating nuclear weapons and the arms trade, reducing conventional weaponry, rejecting preventive war, and promoting dialogue, reconciliation, and global solidarity? In other words, what about the moral value of peacemaking?
Faithful Catholicism is not about accepting those social teachings we like while ignoring the rest. Rather, it’s about embracing all of the Church’s social doctrine.
We cannot speak to the moral issues of our day–as Catholics–without a strong understanding of Catholic social teaching. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has an excellent comprehensive volume on Catholic social teaching titled the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.” We would do well to prayerfully read it (see: https://bit.ly/3BV11F4 and https://www.crs.org/resource-center/CST-101).
Such reading will hopefully inspire us to actively advocate in the political arena for all the Church’s moral values.
In their document, “Political Responsibility: Proclaiming the Gospel of Life, Protecting the Least Among Us, and Pursuing the Common Good,” the U.S. Catholic bishops teach, “We need more, not less public participation–not only in electoral politics, but also in issue advocacy …”
Church efforts to pass pro-life, peace-building, social justice, and environmental legislation often fail because most Catholics remain silent. Elected officials monitor their phone calls, letters, and e-mails to determine how their constituents want them to vote. Catholic silence sends them the wrong signal.
Make no mistake about it: when we fail to infuse Gospel-based, Catholic social teaching moral values into the political arena, others rush in to fill the void with immoral public policies. We must not let that happen!
Saint Pope John Paul II, during his visit to New York in 1995 asked, “Is present-day America becoming less sensitive, less caring toward the poor, the weak, the stranger, the needy? It must not!” Followers of Christ must be “committed to the defense of life in all its stages and in every condition.”
Regularly consulting Catholic social justice and peace organizations like Pax Christi International (https://paxchristi.net/), Catholic Relief Services (www.crs.org), Network (www.networklobby.org), and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (https://maryknollogc.org/issues) will help you acquire a deeper Catholic perspective of international and national issues.
To learn about regional social justice, pro-life, and environmental legislative issues, contact your regional Catholic Conference.
Study, pray and act!
The voiceless need our voices. All it takes are brief phone calls, letters, or e-mails to your national government representatives several times a year.
Would you kindly agree to do that?
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.
