Catholic Action: US Bishops Reissue Faithful Citizenship with New Introduction

Not only do our consciences need to be formed and informed, they can also become deformed and regularly need to be re-formed

The US  Bishops have shown great courage lately. They are serving well in their capacity as our teachers and shepherds. They are not the ones called to put legs on the social teaching of the Church in the political arena, the lay faithful are. On October 4, 2011, the Bishops reissued "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"  with a new introduction.We welcome the reissuance of this document.  It is a well written summary which should be read in light of the fuller body of Catholic Teaching called the Social Teaching of the Church

P>WASHINGTON,D.C. (Catholic Online) - Under the dynamic leadership of Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been busy. Just this week, they announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty in order to address growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America. It is led by Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Bishop Lori's courageous leadership of the Church in Connecticut in 2009 was an impressive example of Episcopal spine.

On Friday, May 29, 2009, the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was forced to 'take on Caesar'. What happened in Connecticut was a lesson for all Catholics to follow when faced with conflict. The Diocese asked a Federal Judge to intervene and prevent the State Attorney General and the Office of State Ethics from compelling it to register as a lobbyist or face sanctions. This was being done by the State because the Church spoke out in defense of the great moral issues of our age.

The effort was vital for the Church in America, given the hostility toward the Catholic Church as our culture continues its descent into relativism. That descent involves rejecting some building blocks of the American experiment which were derived from the influence of the Church. For example; recognition of the existence of inalienable rights endowed by the Creator like the Right to Life, a respect for the primacy of marriage and the family founded upon it as the first society and the right to the exercise of religious freedom, free speech, and free association.

In September of this year Archbishop Dolan sent a strongly worded letter to the US President affirming that marriage is a union of a man and a woman and asking the President to do the same. He strenuously objected to the Justice Department's references to those who support marriage as between a man and a woman as somehow prejudiced. He called out the Administration for their failure to defend marriage under the Defense of Marriage Act. He called upon the President to "push the reset button." He warned of the threats to religious freedom which have been unleashed by the Administration's actions.

The US  Bishops have shown great courage lately. They are serving well in their capacity as our teachers and shepherds. They are not the ones called to put legs on the social teaching of the Church in the political arena, the lay faithful are. That means that the lay faithful need to know the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church. On October 4, 2011, the Bishops reissued "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"  with a new introduction. Faithful Citizenship needs to be read for what it is - and then applied in light of the entirety of the Social teaching of the Church according to a hierarchy of values:

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"The Catholic Bishops of the United States are pleased to re-propose to our people Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, our teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics. This statement, overwhelmingly adopted by the body of bishops in 2007, represents the continuing teaching of our Bishops' Conference and our guidance for Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our democracy. We urge our Catholic pastors and people to continue to use this important statement to help them form their consciences, to contribute to civil and respectful public dialogue, and to shape their choices in the coming election in the light of Catholic teaching.

The statement lifts up our dual heritage as both faithful Catholics and American citizens. We are members of a community of faith with a long tradition of teaching and action on human life, and dignity, marriage and family, justice and peace, care for creation, and the common good. As Americans, we are also blessed with religious liberty which safeguards our right to bring our principles and moral convictions into the public arena.

These Constitutional freedoms need to be both exercised and protected, as some seek to mute the voices or limit the freedoms of religious believers and religious institutions. Catholics have the same rights and duties as others to participate fully in public life. The Church through its institutions must be free to carry out its mission and contribute to the common good without being pressured to sacrifice fundamental teachings and moral principles.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship is widely used to share Catholic teaching on the role of faith and conscience in political life. Although it has at times been misused to present an incomplete or distorted view of the demands of faith in politics, this statement remains a faithful and challenging call to discipleship in the world of politics. It does not offer a voters guide, scorecard of issues, or direction on how to vote.

It applies Catholic moral principles to a range of important issues and warns against misguided appeals to "conscience" to ignore fundamental moral claims, to reduce Catholic moral concerns to one or two matters, or to justify choices simply to advance partisan, ideological, or personal interests. It does not offer a quantitative listing of issues for equal consideration, but outlines and makes important distinctions among moral issues acknowledging outlined in the second half of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship remain pressing national issues. In particular, our Conference is focused on several current and fundamental problems, some involving opposition to intrinsic evils and others raising serious moral questions:

- Continuing destruction of unborn children through abortion and other threats to the lives and dignity of others who are vulnerable, sick, or unwanted;

- Renewed efforts to force Catholic ministries-in health care, education, and social services-to violate their consciences or stop serving those in need;

- Intensifying efforts to redefine marriage and enact measures which undermine marriage as the permanent, faithful, and fruitful union of one man and one woman and a fundamental moral and social institution essential to the common good;

- An economic crisis which has devastated lives and livelihoods, increasing national and global unemployment, poverty, and hunger; increasing deficits and debt and the duty to respond in ways which protect those who are poor and vulnerable as well as future generations;

- The failure to repair a broken immigration system with comprehensive
measures that promote true respect for law, protect the human rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees, recognize their contributions to our nation, keep families together, and advance the common good;

- Wars, terror, and violence which raise serious moral questions on the use of force and its human and moral costs in a dangerous world, particularly the absence of justice, security, and peace in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East.

In this coming election and beyond, we urge leaders and all Catholics to share the message of faithful citizenship and to use this document in forming their own consciences, so we can act together to promote and protect human life and dignity, marriage and family, justice and peace in service to the common good. This kind of political responsibility is a requirement of our faith and our duty as citizens."

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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We welcome the reissuance of this document.  It is a well written summary which should be read in light of the fuller body of Catholic Teaching called the Social Teaching of the Church. In the past, when one spoke of the "Social Teaching" of the Church, it was derived from the Sacred Scriptures, expounded and diffused throughout the Christian tradition, developed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, explained within a contemporary series of encyclical letters, apostolic letters and exhortations, and summarized in the Catholic Catechism. Unfortunately, too many people had not read these sources. Thus, opinions on what comprised the "Social Teaching" too often remained within the province of self styled "experts", some of whom have had their own political agendas, on both the political left and right.

Fortunately, those days are over. The "Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace" released the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of Church" in 2004. It can be found online in its entirety here.  The paperback edition is a MUST HAVE for any Catholic who wants to inform their political, cultural and social participation. It is beautifully written, arranged in a very readable format, well indexed and thoroughly ffotnoted to the Scriptures, council documents, early Christian sources and magisterial teaching. It can be ordered here. It should be in every Catholic home. It should also become a source book for any Catholic concerned about participation in the culture, the economic order and the political arena.

The Compendium is the Manual for informing a New, Lay Led, Catholic Action for the Third Millennium. Due to poor teaching in the arena of moral theology - of which the Social teaching is a branch - too many of the lay faithful have been confused on subjects of profound importance to living as Christians and acting as faithful citizens in the political, cultural and social spheres. It also led to people speaking as though "conscience" somehow equated with our "feelings" or was an aspect of our own personal opinion.

Not only do our consciences need to be formed and informed, they can also become deformed and regularly need to be re-formed. That is all too evident when we simply look at the way in which some Catholics approach political participation. Catholic Social teaching offers us principles for action. It is meant to be received with a mature faith, one which embraces the call to form our consciences. It is then meant to reform our way of life, including our political participation. This letter from the Bishops is helpful. Now, what is really needed is a new Catholic Action led by well formed and faithful Catholic lay men and women who take this call to faithful citizenship to heart. 

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