The Tablet October 23, 2004

Conscience Guides Your Vote

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

With the Presidential election ten days away, I feel that it is imperative to share some reflections on the current political climate and our responsibilities as Catholic citizens in the United States. First, it is so important that we vote. In our last national election, only 51 percent of the eligible electorate cast votes. We might compare this to the European nations where over 70 percent of the electorate vote, and the recent election in Afghanistan where over 70 percent of the people voted; some were women who were voting for the first time and who could cast their vote for the beginnings of democracy.

The Catholic bishops in their statement, "Faithful Citizenship," have urged Catholics to be involved in the public forum, especially in making critical decisions regarding those who govern us and support the common good, which is the ultimate determinant of Catholic participation in a society.

I remember the first time I, myself, was eligible to vote at the age of eighteen. My grandfather, an Italian immigrant who was very proud of his United States citizenship, gave me my first lesson on voting. He told me to go into the booth and pull down the lever when I saw an Italian name. I loved my grandfather very much; his sophistication, however, was determined by the situation of the 1960s where few Italian politicians were able to be elected to office. Party affiliation did not mean much, ethnicity was all-important.

Just last week, a major daily newspaper in our city had an interesting headline on the Op-Ed page which caught my attention. The article was entitled "Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion." How true that headline is that we must vote our conscience, the ultimate determinant of our moral behavior, even above religion. Just as my grandfather used ethnicity as the ultimate determining factor in voting, not understanding issues of conscience, so also today many make party or other factors what determines their vote. Unfortunately, the Op-Ed piece, written by the dean of a major Catholic university, confused the issue of conscience and, in fact, told people how to vote.

This is something that none of us particularly likes, especially when we are signaled out as a religion and told to vote for a particular party, as the Op-Ed piece did. As a bishop, however, I am charged with the responsibility of forming the consciences of the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens. Conscience, as I have described in my past letters to you, is not some type of freewheeling optional determinant of our action. Rather, conscience is well formed when we understand the issues and bring our understanding of human nature and divine law to bear on our decisions.

In the last of the three presidential debates, the issue of legislating articles of faith was raised, specifically in regard to abortion. As a teacher of the Catholic faith, I must state that, because it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human life, the prohibition against abortion is doctrine that has been consistently taught by the Church. In fact, from its earliest days, Christianity prohibited abortion. However, as has often been expressed in recent times, abortion is an evil, not because the Catholic Church teaches it to be so; instead, the Church teaches it to be so because it is an evil. The Church has arrived at that conclusion by using human reason and by understanding human nature. Clearly, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, "The Gospel of Life" ("Evangelium Vitae") par. 62, clarified the position of the Church when he said, "No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself and proclaimed by the Church."

Our Holy Father has said time and time again that the Church proposes and does not impose. We propose what we believe and what we know from human reason and natural law to be the truth and hope and pray that others will accept the truth that we stand for as a Church.

In his encyclical, "Veritatis Splendor" (No. 50), the Holy Father says, "The true meaning of the natural law can be understood; It refers to man's proper and primordial nature, the 'nature of the human person' ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 51), which is the person himself in the unity of soul and body, in the unity of his spiritual and biological inclinations…."

Further on in this document, John Paul II says, "Inasmuch as the natural law expresses the dignity of the human person and lays the foundation for his fundamental rights and duties, it is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all mankind" (No. 51).

The Holy Father then explains that "Faced with the progressive weakening in individual consciences and in society of the sense of the absolute and grave moral illicitness of the direct taking of all innocent human life, especially at its beginning and at its end, the Church's magisterium has spoken out with increasing frequency in defense of the sacredness and inviolability of human life" ("Evangelium Vitae") par. 57.

Hence, if any politician opposed abortion he or she would not be imposing an article of faith, but rather would be reaffirming the naturally available truth of the dignity of the human person. It is a self-evident truth found in the principles that guide our country.

It is unfortunate that the current political climate has confused many voters with rhetoric regarding the real issues at stake. Let there be no doubt that there is a hierarchy of values regarding life just as there is a seamless garment of life issues. Some stand out above others because they are the direct taking of innocent human life such as abortion and euthanasia. Others involve the manipulation of life, such as embryonic stem-cell research---which has abortive implications---and cloning. Life issues regarding the quality of life, the care of the poor and the waging of war also are important issues.

As I have said before, no one likes to be told how to vote. It is our own individual conscience, well formed, that will give us the direction that we need to cast an intelligent vote for democracy in our nation. It is never easy to instruct and give direction. My humble attempts as bishop and teacher of the faith, however, are demanded by the present situation. It is my hope that together as a nation we will put out into the deep of reclaiming the basic human values so integral to our democracy. Use your vote and make it count.