Next
Tuesday, November 7, 2017, is election day across America. Because of
our places along the spectrum of American voters, Catholics again have a
pivotal role to play in these elections. How should we vote?
There
are many excellent guides for Catholic voting. Last year, for example,
the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reissued its Forming Conscience
for Faithful Citizenship document. For the most part, though, such
guides focus at the policy level, identifying specific policies to be
opposed or promoted. Tendentiously, some of these guides are written as
if commandments from on high, listing five or nine "non-negotiables,"
and so on.
As useful as such policy guides can be, they
can get lost in specifics and not enlighten us about how Catholics
should engage in political life more generally. Offered here, then, are
seven reflections about good Catholic political engagement that address
how we should vote.
Reflection 1: Practice politics
Traditional
Catholic teachings recognize not only the necessity of government for
human life but also its responsibility to promote the good for society.
Unlike the negative conception Americans often have, perceiving politics
as at best a necessary evil, the church sees political life as natural
and ideally a noble activity for achieving what cannot be done by
private individuals. Citizenship comes, therefore, with a moral
obligation to be involved in public life. In a democracy where voting is a primary form of political engagement, Catholic teachings insist on the importance of voting.
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