Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Catholics have a moral
obligation to promote the common good through the exercise of their voting
privileges[1].
It is not just civil authorities that have responsibility for a country.
"Service of the common good require[s] citizens to fulfill their roles in
the life of the political community"[2].
This means citizens should participate in the political process at the ballot
box. In the coming weeks, and before we get fully into the celebration of the Year
of Faith, I want to leave in The
Pastor’s Bench a text written by Fr Stephen F. Torraco, a text that can be
very useful in this election season. In my prayers I ask the Holy Spirit his
light and guide for everyone in this blessed country ■ Fr Agustín, Pastor.
A Brief Catechism
for Catholic Voters
(1)
1. Isn’t conscience
the same as my own opinions and feelings? And doesn’t everyone have the right
to his or her own conscience?
Conscience is NOT the same as your opinions or
feelings. Conscience cannot be identical with your feelings because conscience
is the activity of your intellect in judging the rightness or wrongness of your
actions or omissions, past, present, or future, while your feelings come from
another part of your soul and should be governed by your intellect and will.
Conscience is not identical with your opinions because your intellect bases its
judgment upon the natural moral law, which is inherent in your human nature and
is identical with the Ten Commandments. Unlike the civil laws made by
legislators, or the opinions that you hold, the natural moral law is not
anything that you invent, but rather discover within yourself and is the
governing norm of your conscience. In short, Conscience is the voice of truth
within you, and your opinions need to be in harmony with that truth.
As a Catholic, you have the benefit of the
Church’s teaching authority or Magisterium endowed upon her by Christ. The
Magisterium assists you and all people of good will in understanding the
natural moral law as it relates to specific issues. As a Catholic, you have the
obligation to be correctly informed and normed by the teaching of the Church’s
Magisterium. As for your feelings, they need to be educated by virtue so as to
be in harmony with conscience’s voice of truth. In this way, you will have a
sound conscience, according to which we you will feel guilty when you are
guilty, and feel morally upright when you are morally upright. We should strive
to avoid the two opposite extremes of a lax conscience and a scrupulous
conscience. Meeting the obligation of continually attending to this formation
of conscience will increase the likelihood that, in the actual operation or
activity of conscience, you will act with a certain conscience, which clearly
perceives that a given concrete action is a good action that was rightly done
or should be done.
Being correctly informed and certain in the
actual operation of conscience is the goal of the continuing formation of
conscience. Otherwise put, you should strive to avoid being incorrectly
informed and doubtful in the actual judgment of conscience about a particular
action or omission. You should never act on a doubtful conscience.
2. Is it morally permissible
to vote for all candidates of a single party?
This would depend on the positions held by the
candidates of a single party. If any one or more of them held positions that
were opposed to the natural moral law, then it would not be morally permissible
to vote for all candidates of this one party. Your correctly informed
conscience transcends the bounds of any one political party.
3. If I have strong
feelings or opinions in favor of a particular candidate, even if he is
pro-abortion, why may I not vote for him?
As explained in question above, neither your
feelings nor your opinions are identical with your conscience. Neither your
feelings nor your opinions can take the place of your conscience. Your feelings
and opinions should be governed by your conscience. If the candidate about whom
you have strong feelings or opinions is pro-abortion, then your feelings and
opinions need to be corrected by your correctly informed conscience, which
would tell you that it is wrong for you to allow your feelings and opinions to
give lesser weight to the fact that the candidate supports a moral evil.
(This text will continue next week)
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