Part
I
U.S.
Bishops call for...
A different kind of politics
Editor’s note: The following begins
a four-part series exploring how the Church helps Catholics
to live out their responsibility to be faithful citizens.
Part one examines the necessity of a person’s well-formed
conscience when considering moral issues. Succeeding parts
of the series will explore key moral issues in depth.
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
Thousands of Philadelphia Catholics joined other like-minded
citizens in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, as they have done
annually for more than three decades, peacefully protesting
the continued enforcement of what they believe was a deeply
flawed and immoral U.S. Supreme Court decision — Roe
v. Wade. In doing so, they were demonstrating faithful citizenship
in the best American tradition.
Faithful citizenship can, and should, also be practiced
before the fact; that is, before the election of lawmakers,
executives or judges.
To that end, every four years the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops issues a document designed to assist
Catholics as they form their own consciences before entering
the voting booth. This year’s document, issued Nov.
14, 2007, is titled, “The Challenge of Forming Consciences
for Faithful Citizenship.”
Conscience, the bishops state, “is the voice of God
resounding in the human heart revealing the truth to us
and calling us to do good while shunning evil.”
Seven key themes
The document stresses moral issues, not political parties
or candidates. “Faithful Citizenship” addresses
seven key themes:
1. The right to life and the dignity of the human person;
2. Call to family, community and participation;
3. Rights and responsibilities;
4. Options for the poor and vulnerable;
5. Dignity of work and the rights of workers;
6. Solidarity as one human family;
7. Caring for God’s creation.
Americans are proud of the nation’s tradition of separation
of church and state, and that is recognized in the document,
which states: “We bishops do not intend to tell Catholics
for whom or against whom they should vote. Our purpose is
to help Catholics form their conscience in accordance with
God’s truth. We recognize that the responsibility
to make choices in political life rests with each individual
in light of a properly formed conscience, and that participation
goes well beyond casting a vote in a particular election.”
Teaching morals, forming consciences
“Clergy and lay people have complementary roles in
public life,” the document further states. “We
bishops have the primary responsibility to hand on the Church’s
moral and social teaching. Together with priests and deacons,
assisted by religious and lay leaders of the Church, we
are to teach fundamental moral principles that help Catholics
form their consciences correctly, to provide guidance on
the moral dimensions of public decisions, and to encourage
the faithful to carry out their responsibilities in political
life.”
In the bishops’ view, responsible citizenship is not
an option, it is a responsibility: “Participation
in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation
is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ
and to bear Christian witness in all that we do.”
Human dignity as the focus of politics
Politics, the bishops say, “can be a contest of powerful
interests, partisan attacks, sound bites and media hype.
The Church calls for a different kind of political engagement,
one shaped by moral convictions of well-formed consciences
and focused on the dignity of every human being.”
The bishop’s document speaks directly to the lay electorate
and not to political candidates.
Speaking from a lay perspective, Fred Cabell brings expertise
in church-state matters.
A former director of education for the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference, he suggests the bishops want to make clear that
there are first principles that override all other considerations
and should be kept in mind. For example, it is never morally
permissible to take innocent human life. Therefore abortion
is always wrong and can never be supported.
First principles, prudent judgments
Sometimes the application of just such a first principle
is clear-cut. In other cases, one must make prudent judgments
based on a well-formed conscience. Cabell, who has taught
a church-state course for the Harrisburg Diocese, points
to another obvious first principle — our duty to care
for the less fortunate.
In the area of underemployment, one Catholic might interpret
this to mean the government should create jobs, while another
Catholic might see elimination of the capital gains tax
as a means of stimulating job growth. Others might espouse
a combination of both. That’s where conscience comes
into play.
“As Catholics we should never be strictly beholden
to one party or one particular program,” Cabell said.
“Our ultimate allegiance is to God and the Church.
Conforming yourself to the will of God is sometimes painful
and difficult.”
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo parish and a freelance
writer.
Pope
Benedict XVI explains lay role in faithful citizenship
We can now determine more precisely, in the life of the
Church, the relationship between commitment to the just
ordering of the State and society on the one hand, and organized
charitable activity on the other. We have seen that the
formation of just structures is not directly the duty of
the Church, but belongs to the world of politics, the sphere
of the autonomous use of reason. The Church has an indirect
duty here, in that she is called to contribute to the purification
of reason and to the reawakening of those moral forces without
which just structures are neither established nor prove
effective in the long run.
The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society,
on the other hand, is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens
of the State, they are called to take part in public life
in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their
participation in the many different economic, social, legislative,
administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to
promote organically and institutionally the common good.
The mission of the lay faithful is therefore to configure
social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy
and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective
competencies and fulfilling their own responsibility. Even
if the specific expressions of ecclesial charity can never
be confused with the activity of the State, it still remains
true that charity must animate the entire lives of the lay
faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived
as “social charity.”
— Deus Caritas Est (no. 29)
Bishops'
Document:
Forming
Consciences for Faithful Citizenship:
A Call to Political Responsibility
from theBishops of the United States
Catholic
Directory:
