Dear Friends,
Every four years someone starts it by saying, “This is the most important election in our nation’s history.” I hear that and I wonder if that’s true or not. I suppose a certain command of American History is helpful to make such a statement. Or perhaps that person has a crystal ball into which they gaze to see the future. The candidates and segments of the electorate get fired up and before you know it, we are bombarded and saturated with information (and toxic disinformation!) and before long it becomes very hard to tell which direction is up.
Into this miasma the Church steps in with what I hope, for all our sake, is a clarifying Light shed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its application to the modern world and the human enterprise. Some years ago, the bishops of this country, known as the USCCB, wrote a guiding document called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”. The document is lengthy: 64 pages. But it provides a comprehensive treatment about what Jesus teaches about participating in political life and how we can form our consciences to match up with the teachings of Jesus and the Church’s explication of those teachings onto the modern era and in the political matrix. Of the 64 pages, pages 27-40 are specific statements about how the Gospel messages is applied to issues like abortion (pg. 27), immigration (pg. 34), the economy (pg. 32), national security (pg. 29), and many other issues. If nothing else, I encourage you to download the PDF version of this document on your home computer and read pages 27-40.
On the local level, specifically state measures on the ballot this year include Amendment 3 which would allow a woman to choose to abort an unborn child without any restrictions. A fundamental tenant of the teachings of Jesus and of His Church is the inviolable value of every human person, most especially the most vulnerable among us: and who is more in need of constant care and protection than an unborn child? We have an obligation, according to Jesus, to protect the most vulnerable among us. This, most especially, includes the unborn.
Sometimes, “choice” is superseded by obligation.
So, I will state this clearly and without equivocation: we will NEVER solve the other problems that confront the human family and human enterprise so long as we give people the right to choose to kill another person, especially the most defenseless among us. We must cooperate with Grace to govern our choices, integrate the consequences, and to remember our obligations to the Lord and to one another. I’m not ashamed to tell you that as a Catholic Christian, I am voting NO on Amendment 3. I choose to do everything I can to safeguard the unborn and to be an active minister to assist mothers and fathers who find themselves pregnant under difficult circumstances. I am unconvinced that Jesus would allow any variance on the strict protection of the life of an unborn child. Jesus taught that our choices, good or bad, come with consequences, good or bad: let us choose life and we will be given Life.
But we are all free to make our choices and live with the consequences. So, read those pages from the Bishop’s document, pray, examine your conscience and then go vote.
This may or may not be the most important election in our nation’s history. I don’t think it really matters. At the end of the day, each day, including November 5, we have a choice to make. Choose Life.
Please visit the following websites for more information.
On Faithful Citizenship: www.usccb.org (then search for “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”)
On Amendment 3: https://mocatholic.org/abortion/ (the FACT sheet is particularly helpful)
Pregnancy Resources:
-thrivestlouis.org (ThriveSTL helps mothers and fathers in difficult pregnancies and DOES not provide abortions or referrals for abortion or birth control.)
-birthstonestl.org (Birthstone provides a host of resources and assistance to families in difficult pregnancies.)
-ccstl.org (Catholic Charities of St. Louis; then search for “Crisis Pregnancy Support”)
-Project Rachel (Hope and Healing After Abortion)
If you’d like to sit down and talk about any of these resources or anything related to the what Faithful Citizenship looks like for you, please feel free to contact me at the parish office and I will help you discern and think and pray: [email protected] or (314) 962-2311.