Weather reports of blistering temperatures clouding last Monday’s Iowa caucuses seemed to point beyond themselves this year, offering an ironic commentary on the state of politics in this country. For some, the fear of frostbite offered a halcyon retreat from the burden of voting for the right candidate. But as tempting as locking the door and avoiding the polls might be, Catholics can’t dodge political life altogether. Our citizenship is in Heaven, to be sure. But we bear the responsibility of good citizenship in the temporal order, too.
In their revised document on faithful citizenship, the American bishops chose a calculated tagline in their title — “a call to political responsibility” — rendering political alienation inadmissible. The bishops propose nothing novel here. Catholic social doctrine favors man’s conscious, free, and indeed necessary participation in political society—not a “necessary evil,” but part and parcel of God’s providential order. In continuity with this, the bishops declare that participation in political life is a moral obligation, rooted in the baptismal vocation of every Christian to bear witness to Christ. Nevertheless, the bishops carefully avoid assigning politics a dignity beyond its reach, and with good reason. All human endeavors are tainted by the contagion of sin, politics included. Notwithstanding its messier faults, however, “politics” should promote the common good among individuals whose dignity is inalienable, and whose ultimate purpose transcends the strictures of this world alone. Because Catholics have something pivotal to say about those timeless values, participation in political life bears the mark of moral maturity. But how should one vote?
The Church’s pastors do not provide lists of candidates for whom to vote, nor do they baptize political parties. Within man’s dignity lies his capacity to judge concretely, assisted by the virtue of prudence. In a word, the choice rests with each person. A well-formed conscience, the bishops teach us, guides Catholics in the pews to vote not for predetermined persons or parties, but for the moral imperatives of our age. Without providing an exhaustive list, the bishops highlight significant issues that demand our attention. They first list the threat of abortion, which, in their words, “remains our pre-eminent priority.” Other issues include grave threats to human dignity such as euthanasia, gun violence, terrorism, the death penalty, and human trafficking. The bishops also cite among top priorities the redefinition of marriage and gender, threats to religious freedom at home and abroad, lack of justice for the poor, the suffering of migrants and refugees, wars and famines around the world, racism, access to healthcare and education, and care for the environment. Finding a candidate who represents a holistic vision on all these issues amounts to a Herculean feat. Absent that, the Catholic voter must evaluate how each candidate best protects these values, along with that candidate’s personal character and integrity. That’s a tall order — and a daunting one. No wonder it’s more appealing to stay home, or to ask our pastors for a ready-made list. Thanks to prudence, neither is tenable. So, vote well.
