Catholics need to
take the moral absolutes of their religion seriously when they enter the voting
booth, says a document prepared for release today by U.S. Catholic bishops.
Called "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to
Political Responsibility," the 17-page document restates Catholic
doctrines with a look ahead to next year's elections. It will be posted today
at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Web site, www.usccb.org.
The U.S. Conference issues a document on voting
guidelines every four years, just before presidential primaries begin.
"We never tell people how to vote. That is not our
job," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington. "We present
the facts and Catholic teachings and we hope we take that into consideration
when they get into the ballot box."
Catholics generally do not vote as a bloc, he added,
but "people have personally told me they are glad we pointed these things
out."
Since the 2000 presidential contest between George W.
Bush and Al Gore, there have been two wars, a major terrorist attack on U.S.
soil and a devastating clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church itself, the
document says.
"Our community of faith and especially we, as
bishops, are working to face our responsibility and take all necessary steps to
overcome the hurt, damage and loss of trust resulting from the evil of clerical
sexual abuse," it says.
Still, the church has an important role in public life,
it adds, and the church must "encourage Catholics to act on our faith in
political life." This includes running for office, working within
political parties and contributing time and money to campaigns.
The document says Catholics should not place their
faith in U.S. military prowess.
"September 11 has given us a new sense of
vulnerability," it says. "However, we must be careful not to define
our security primarily in military terms."
Americans should not ask if they are better off than
they were four years ago but instead ask how can "all of us — especially
the weak and vulnerable — be better off in the years ahead?"
The United States must lead, it says, in promoting
religious liberty and human rights, supporting the United Nations, banning
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, providing shelter for persecuted
refugees and bringing peace to regional conflicts.
"The United States should adopt a more generous
immigration and refugee policy," it says, including a "generous
legalization program for undocumented immigrants," programs for reuniting
families and protecting immigrant workers from being exploited.
"There's a temptation in political life to only
vote your pocketbook or your party," said John Carr, director of the
USCCB's department of social development and moral peace. "This is a
challenge from the church to go beyond that and to think how these choices
affect the weak and those who are left behind.
"And we think a society where 1 million unborn
never see the day of their birth is in serious trouble."