Catholic Leadership Conference Releases Statement on Catholics and Voting

"No prudential judgment can justify certain acts, such as direct abortion, euthanasia, and the killing of unborn life for medical research. These acts are intrinsically evil and violate the Natural Law."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Catholic Online) - On September 11th and 12th, a group of leaders of national Catholic organizations, missions, ministries, apostolates and institutions gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina for prayer, networking, strategic planning, informational and formative talks and panel discussions. The group, called "The Catholic leadership Conference", was begun in 1998. Its stated mission "is to encourage cooperation and collaboration among national Catholic lay apostolates while providing venues for those leaders to exchange ideas, strengthen personal relationships and take unified action as desired."

The CLC is composed of the heads of national Catholic organizations and "other known Catholics who are in a position of influence in business, education, science, politics and the arts and who are loyal to the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church." The conference is held annually and is attended only by invitation. This year, in addition to the numerous lay leaders in attendance,two religious sisters,two Bishops, several priests and this deacon were also present. It was an extraordinary event packed with excellent presentations of great importance to Catholics who are dedicated to infusing the culture with the values informed by the Catholic Christian faith. The action taken by the Conference was equally important. The CLC unanimously passed the following statement concerning the obligations of Catholic voters as we approach the 2008 elections in the United States of America:

As Catholic voters, we acknowledge the following ten obligations and guidelines:

1. Catholics must participate in the political process and do so responsibly by being faithful citizens, informing the exercise of their citizenship by the teaching of their Church, and casting their votes in every election.

2. Catholics who vote should always be guided in their political participation by the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church, especially those more strongly insisted upon by the Magisterium.

3. Catholics should recognize that not all moral and social issues have equal weight in determining how to cast their vote because there is a hierarchy of values and their application. Additionally, on some matters affecting public policy there is room for the exercise of individual prudential judgment.

4. On such prudential matters Catholics of goodwill can disagree, although all Catholics should be able to trace their reasoning back to the shared principles of Catholic moral and social teaching.

5. In regard to the "life issues," no prudential judgment can justify certain acts, such as direct abortion, euthanasia, and the killing of unborn life for medical research. These acts are intrinsically evil and violate the Natural Law, since they always involve the direct and intentional taking of innocent human life. Such acts are always to be avoided and abhorred in positive law and public policy.

6. Catholic voters are morally obliged to make decisions about their vote based primarily on issues which admit of no prudential judgment, such as direct abortion, the obligation to protect marriage between a man and a woman, and the family as the first social institution.

7. Catholic voters should also take into account other important social issues which concern the common good, always seeking to properly inform their exercise of faithful citizenship with reference to the truths taught by the Catholic Church. In so doing, they should acknowledge that there is no single "Catholic" position on issues like immigration, taxes, education, and delivery of medical care, in the sense of a specific policy approach, which all Catholics must espouse. However, there are Catholic principles, such as the dignity of the human person and fundamental rights, which should always be considered. Those principles are set forth in the body of Church teaching referred to as the "Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church."

8. The role of the Church and her official teachers is to instruct and to remind Catholic voters of the moral obligations and moral-social principles that should guide their exercise of faithful citizenship and voting. The Church does not intend to tell Catholic citizens for whom they should vote but seeks to help them understand the moral and social issues involved.

9. Catholics rightly insist that their voice be heard in the political process. They affirm that their positions on many seemingly purely political issues are properly informed by their faith and by the moral teachings of that faith. They further affirm that many of those positions are also found within the Natural Law, which is knowable through the exercise of reason and binding on all men and women. Finally, they assert that religious faith and its exercise, though personal, is never private, and its free exercise is guaranteed and protected by the founding documents of the American government.

10. Catholics recognize that while some matters enjoined upon them by their faith are not relevant to positive law or public policy, the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church are, and the principles of these teachings can be directly applied by reasoned argument to public policy. These teachings should be publicly espoused in such a way that they can inform the making of positive law and public policy and must never be artificially limited to the private domain of individual belief.

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