Voting with Faith

It is early and I am already getting tired of this election.  It seems in many ways that the election year never ended, we simply move from one contest to another.  As Catholics and as Christian we are called to make our elections choices based on our faith.  It would be easy if there were only one or two issues that we needed to consider, and if the candidates were forthright in their views and beliefs.  Anymore elections have been marred by all sorts of base and nasty conversation.  But beyond that it is our job as Catholics to respond to elections through a perspective of holiness.

Vatican II reminded us that we are to be holy.  The realm of holiness is not something exclusive to monks and nuns, but all baptized men and women.  The Gospels relate that we are to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy.  So we grapple with issues of human life, dignity, justice and peace.  We have to study the issues and sift through the rhetoric so as to find the kernel of truth.  Too often in our culture we are swayed by a single issue, or because someone "sounds" impressive, as opposed to their integrity and the habits which they convey. 

In the heaviness of political choices we have to have a well formed conscience.  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we are told that a conscience "Is a judgement of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act.  In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right."  Feelings and hunches are not conscience.  One's conscience relies on the Church's tradition, teachings, and the Sacred Scripture.

In the 2007 Faithful Citizen guide, the U.S. Bishops wrote that a voter cannot in good conscience vote for a candidate who takes a stand for a moral evil.  But it went on to say that we must weigh the various issue, and candidates, against each other.  To be sure this is very diffficult and means that we have to study and pray about the various issues and the candidates.

We have to apply holiness to all of our actions.  As members of this nation we have a responsibility to advance what is right and good.  We rely on God's grace and wisdom to do what is good.