Your Catholic Conscience in an Election Year

Well, friends, we’re on the cusp of another presidential election. As a priest, I see a wide range of parishioner attitudes during an election year, from “Keep your politics out of the pulpit!” to “Why are you telling people they can’t possibly support X and call themselves Catholic!” In truth, my role as a pastor is apolitical, and the Church instructs priests not to be too strongly aligned or active with any political party, candidate, or organization.

Why? Because I serve a King and a kingdom not of this world. And so do you!

In practical terms, as citizens, both you and I have a duty to participate in the public life of the society in which we live. As a priest, I can and should exercise my right to vote and you should, as well. We do not need to “check our Catholicism at the door,” nor should we! But we must also never look to any political party or candidate as the answer to our prayers or our hope as a nation. Our world is broken by sin, and our Savior is Christ alone.

That all seems pretty straightforward. It gets more complicated when political debates touch on serious moral issues, which they often do. As Catholics, we believe in objective Truth and a moral law that comes from God and is not up for debate. Some actions are simply, objectively, always wrong—and no person of conscience can condone them.

In the US, our political system complicates matters even more. When only two major political parties exist, many people bristle at the idea that we don’t really have a choice, and some drop out of the political process altogether.

But we always have a choice, and our choice matters, for our own souls as much as for our country. So take courage, form your conscience, inform your decision, and vote. Even in a broken world, life is still beautiful, still a gift—and, as Venerable Fulton Sheen would say, still worth living!

For more on forming your Catholic conscience ahead of the election, check out the following:

• Guided by Human Dignity: Voting with a Catholic Conscience, a webpage with election Year resources from the Minnesota Catholic Conference
• Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a document in English and Spanish from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
• Priests and Politics, a special Election Season episode of the Friends of the Bridegroom podcast from St. John the Baptist Church and School in Savage

God bless you all!
Father Brian Park
Pastor