![\"CatholicVote_600x300\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/06\/CatholicVote_600x300.jpg\")
How should Catholics vote? The answer to this question is more complex than just choosing one political party or one political issue. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides guidelines for us in the document \u201cForming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the intention of the voter \u2014 not the platform or opinions of the candidate \u2014 that determines whether or not the voter is \u201cguilty of formal cooperation in grave evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
1: Form Your Conscience<\/strong><\/p>\n We must have the \u201cdesire to embrace goodness and truth,\u201d rather than allowing the conscience to be formed by our passionate attachments.<\/p>\n 2: Vote Your Conscience<\/strong><\/p>\n This does not mean that the conscience allows us to \u201cjustify doing whatever we want.\u201d Rather, the conscience requires \u201cserious attempts to make sound moral judgments based on the truths of our faith.\u201d<\/p>\n 3: PROMOTE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON<\/strong><\/p>\n A voter needs to consider issues, platforms and candidates that promote the dignity of the human person as prime importance (regardless of one\u2019s personal interests<\/em>).<\/p>\n 4: AS CATHOLICS WE ARE NOT SINGLE ISSUE VOTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n A voter should not favor a candidate based on one single issue. At the same time, \u201cif a candidate\u2019s position on a single issue promotes an intrinsically evil act, such as legal abortion, redefining marriage in a way that denies its essential meaning, or racist behavior, a voter may legitimately disqualify a candidate from receiving support.\u201d<\/p>\n 5: CONSIDER POLICY PLATFORMS AND CHARACTER<\/strong><\/p>\n Not only must voters consider the policy platforms of candidates, but \u201ca candidate\u2019s commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue\u201d must also be considered.<\/p>\n 6: EMBRACE THE \u201cART OF POSSIBLE\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n It is acceptable to vote for a candidate who is unable to overturn unjust laws immediately. In such cases, it is acceptable to support legislation or a candidate that is able to \u201crestore justice only partially or gradually\u201d through \u201cthe art of the possible.\u201d<\/p>\n 7: UNDERSTAND THERE IS NO PERFECT CHOICE<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes all candidates in a given race hold personal opinions or offer policy platforms that are not entirely in harmony with Catholic social and moral teachings \u2014 or, even worse, stand in opposition to them. In such cases in which \u201ca Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, or racist behavior, if the voter\u2019s intent<\/em> is to support that position.\u201d<\/p>\n It is acceptable, however, not to vote for anyone when all candidates fail to offer platforms that promote the sacredness of human life.<\/p>\n To gain a stronger understanding of the topic, view the entire document online for free:<\/p>\n Visit:<\/strong> usccb.org<\/p>\n Search:<\/strong> \u201cForming Consciences for <\/em>Faithful Citizenship.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How should Catholics vote? The answer to this question is more complex than just choosing one political party or one political issue. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides guidelines for us in the document \u201cForming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[272,230,273,11,229],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-272","tag-forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship","tag-summer-2020-issue","tag-summer-issue","tag-usccb"],"yoast_head":"\n