Bishop Pfeifer on political responsibility and citizenship
By Bishop Michael Pfeifer
As a nation, we share many blessings and strengths, including a tradition of religious freedom and political participation. However, as a people, we face serious challenges which are clearly political and also profoundly moral. As we prepare for the upcoming Presidential and other major elections in 2008, serious consideration must be given to political responsibility and faithful citizenship.
We are a nation where the right to life is not fully respected nor protected, including for unborn children, the most vulnerable members of the American family. We are a nation at war, facing questions about the human cost of war and how to wage and end the war in Iraq. We are a country too often divided across the lines of race, ethnicity, and economic inequality, seeking to assure “liberty and justice for all.” We are a nation of immigrants struggling to address the challenges of the many new immigrants in our midst. We are a society built on the strength of our families, called to defend marriage and offer moral and economic support for family life. We are a powerful nation in a divided world, confronting terror and trying to build a safer, more just, more peaceful world. We are an affluent society where too many live in poverty and lack health care and other necessities of life. We are part of a global community facing continuing threats to the environment that must sustain us. These challenges are at the center of our political life, and they require urgent moral choices to achieve the common good. They call us to political responsibility.
As we enter into this important election year, we need to carefully study and evaluate policy positions, party platforms and candidates’ promises and actions in the light of the Gospel and the moral and social background flowing from our Judeo-Christian principles.
To be politically responsible and faithful citizens, we need to use the light of both faith and reason, so that we may participate in politics in a morally responsible manner that promotes the common good of our society.
Building a world of respect for human life and dignity where justice and peace prevail requires more than just political commitment. Individuals, families, businesses, non-profit and community organizations, churches, schools, and government all have a role to play. Participation in political life in light of fundamental moral principles is an essential duty for everyone who is a citizen of this country and calls oneself a believer in God.
We need a renewed kind of politics focused:
-- more on moral principles than the latest polls;
-- more on the needs of the weak than benefits for the strong;
-- more on the pursuit of the common good than the demands of narrow interests.
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