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Letters from
Father Phillips |
During the last few weeks, we have been speaking from the pulpit about our civic and moral responsibility in relation to the upcoming election. There has been much confusion in the public forum about certain moral issues brought up in this campaign, and a number of you have asked me to publish in the bulletin the points I made in my homily. -They are drawn mainly from the 2004 Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Burke of St. Louis, "On Our Civic Responsibility". This letter reflects the "Catechism of the Catholic Church"; the teachings of Pope John Paul 11, esp. "The Gospel of Life"; the 2004 Document of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Faithful Citizenship"; as well as certain statements of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The summary points are as follows:
1. Jesus Christ has given to His Church the right, the obligation, and the responsibility of faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, and to teach clearly the moral law of God. This duty is particularity the responsibility of the Holy Father, all the Bishops in union with him, and the priests who assist them. In teaching the moral law of God, the Church does not endorse any political party or any candidate for public office. It seeks only to inform the faithful of their grave responsibility to foster the common good in accord with God's law, especially in a society which fails to afford legal protection to the weakest and most defenseless of its members.
2. Scripture teaches definitively that we are our "brother's keeper", charged to exercise our civic responsibility to promote the common good. The first priority of that responsibility is to protect the inviolable dignity of all human life.
3. As citizens of Heaven and earth, we are bound by the moral law to act with respect to the rights of others, and to promote the common good.
4. We are morally bound in conscience to choose government leaders who will serve the common good. This common good includes a wide spectrum of concerns including safeguarding the right to life and the sanctity of marriage and the family; ending war and securing domestic and international peace; promoting education and public safety; assisting those suffering from poverty; providing sufficient and safe food, healthcare and adequate housing; eliminating racism and other forms of injustice; and fostering justice in the work place, and protecting the environment.
5. But not all issues affecting the common good are equal in value or in priority. The first priority of the common good is the protection of human life from its very beginning to its natural end, and this is the basis of all other social conditions.
6. Accordingly, there can never be justification for directly and deliberately taking innocent human life. This means there can never be justification for abortion, destruction of human embryos, euthanasia, suicide or assisted-suicide, or human cloning.
7. Nor does the common good morally justify the legal recognition of same-sex relationships because such relationships undermine God's truth about the nature of marriage, and they give legal approval of gravely immoral acts. All of the above are intrinsically evil and are contrary to the law of God.
8. The death penalty and war are different from procured abortion and same-sex "marriage". Although war and capital punishment can rarely be justified, they are not intrinsically evil.
9. To ensure the common good, Catholics have a responsibility to vote for a worthy candidate, because the welfare of the community depends upon the persons elected and appointed to office. When we vote for a candidate, we are also voting for the programs and policies they propose.
10. It is never right to vote for a candidate in order to promote immoral practices; this is called "formal cooperation" in evil, and it is always a sin. In some circumstances, it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports some immoral practices, while opposing other immoral practices. This is called "material cooperation", and it is permissible in certain circumstances when it is impossible to avoid all cooperation with evil.
But there is no element of the common good that could justify voting for a candidate who also endorses, without restriction or limitation, the deliberate killing of the innocent, abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, suicide, human cloning, or same-sex "marriage"
11. If a candidate supports abortion in a limited number of cases, but is opposed to abortion as a matter of public policy, Catholics may vote for this person, provided there is no better alternative. This is not a question of choosing a lesser evil, but of limiting all the evil that one is able to limit at the time.
These are not "Catholic" or "religious" issues, but issues based on Natural Law which applies to every human being and every civil society. All human laws and all law makers have an obligation to respect that Natural Law given to us by God.
I realize that some may interpret the above points as a partisan endorsement or rejection of a particular -candidate. This is not true. What I have presented is simply what the Church teaches about the priority of choosing life. As you vote this Tuesday, say a prayer for guidance and courage, & choose Life.
God Bless You,
Fr. Mike Phillips, Pastor
