The Pennsylvania Primary Election

To-day, Pennsylvania will be holding its nominating primary election. Before you cast your ballot (I already voted by absentee) here are some things to think about:

• Last year the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a long awaited document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States. The document is rather long at 43 pages, but here are some highlights (emphases mine):
  
  "In this statement, we bishops do not intend to tell Catholics for whom or against whom to vote. Our purpose is to help Catholics form their consciences 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."
  
  "The Church’s obligation to participate in shaping the moral character of society is a requirement of our faith. It is a basic part of the mission we have received from Jesus Christ, who offers a vision of life revealed to us in Sacred Scripture and Tradition."
  
  "Unfortunately, politics in our country often 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 the moral convictions of well-formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable."
  
  "As Catholics, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. When necessary, our participation should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths."
  
  "Conscience is not something that allows us to justify doing whatever we want, nor is it a mere 'feeling' about what we should or should not do. Rather, conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil. Conscience always requires serious attempts to make sound moral judgments based on the truths of our faith."
  
  "The Church’s teaching is clear that a good end does not justify an immoral means."
  
  "The right to life implies and is linked to other human rights—to the basic goods that every human person needs to live and thrive. All the life issues are connected, for erosion of respect for the life of any individual or group in society necessarily diminishes respect for all life. The moral imperative to respond to the needs of our neighbors—basic needs such as food, shelter, health care, education, and meaningful work—is universally binding on our consciences and may be legitimately fulfilled by a variety of means."
  
  "Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified."
  
  "When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods."
  
  "Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers—to productive work, to decent and just wages, to adequate benefits and security in their old age, to the choice of whether to organize and join unions, to the opportunity for legal status for immigrant workers, to private property, and to economic initiative. Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good."
  
  The full document can be read here: Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.



• Abortion is one of the greatest evils of our time. However, the church urges us not to vote solely on one issue. Political parties often take a pro-Life stance simply to attract Catholic voters, while at the same time perpetuating other atrocities behind closed doors. Being pro-Life is not just about standing up for the rights of the unborn, it's also about standing up for the rights of all living persons. Thus, our vote should take into account all moral issues. Here's a news clip (albeit a not-so-good-one) from CNN: Catholic Church's New Stance on Voting & Abortion.
  
  
• It should be remembered that the good Catholic should be opposed to any civil contract purporting itself to be marriage--gay or straight--since marriage is a sacrament. If people want to sign a civil contract giving someone else power of attorney et al. in certain circumstances that's one thing, but to call it marriage is wrong. The state needs to get out of the marriage business. Any candidate touting his or her opposition to "gay marriage" is probably just trying to get your vote.
  
  From Pope Pius XI's 1922 Encyclical UBI ARCANO DEI CONSILIO: "Again, legislation was passed which did not recognize that either God or Jesus Christ had any rights over marriage -- an erroneous view which debased matrimony to the level of a mere civil contract, despite the fact that Jesus Himself had called it a "great sacrament" (Ephesians v, 32) and had made it the holy and sanctifying symbol of that indissoluble union which binds Him to His Church. The high ideals and pure sentiments with which the Church has always surrounded the idea of the family, the germ of all social life, these were lowered, were unappreciated, or became confused in the minds of many. As a consequence, the correct ideals of family government, and with them those of family peace, were destroyed; the stability and unity of the family itself were menaced and undermined, and, worst of all, the very sanctuary of the home was more and more frequently profaned by acts of sinful lust and soul-destroying egotism -- all of which could not but result in poisoning and drying up the very sources of domestic and social life."



• Here is an article from the Jesuit magazine America on the imbalance of power in the American political system: Abuse of Office.



• Finally, if you want to know what a presidential candidate will do in office, simply look at their congressional voting record. Actions speak louder than words. Click here to look up congressional voting records: Project Vote Smart.