by ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE
My brothers and sisters, On Tues., Nov. 5, those of us who are eligible to vote in local, state, and federal elections have an opportunity to exercise that right and cast a ballot for next president of the United States along with other elected officials and ballot questions. I strongly encourage each of us to do so.
In this context, it is important that I recall for you the Catholic Church’s great history of moral and social teaching. Careful and prudent attention to this moral tradition and social teaching should be indispensable to our lives as Catholics in all aspects including, most especially, the protection of human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.
This leads to the further responsibility to live a life of faith and hope which is lived out in charity and our love for others as our brothers and sisters. Jesus told His disciples that the greatest commandments were ex- pressly those of loving God and loving our neighbor. Charity calls us to be engaged in our duties as citizens, measur- ing and evaluating all potential laws and government policies in the light of our faith for the “common good” of every individual, family and community. The “common good” in Catholic social teaching assures us that the political order is not an inescapable conflict of mutually exclusive human rights or choices but is instead a framework that supports the life and dignity of all people through the right harmony of family, society, state and global communities.
As we prepare to cast our votes in the next general election, I encourage each of us to take our possible vote to prayer and allow the foundation our Catholic faith to inform and form our vote so as to serve the common good of all, especially the most vulnerable in our midst.
God bless