To the Editor:
Where are Catholics to learn about the moral obligation for voting?
Perhaps many of us have not had the opportunity to know and morally digest how our culture has been changing over the last 50-60 years. This culture is not the same culture many of us were brought up in by our parents.
The media today is providing little information regarding proposed laws in the making. Once they became law, we may well disagree with the laws as to what we want our children and grandchildren to believe in. Then we see these new laws coming into our classrooms through school curriculum, required reading and school policy.
If we can pray for God’s will, then things will begin to change in our country toward what God desires for us.
God has made known to us in the Ten Commandments and the readings of the Old and New Testament what is expected of us. It is our obligation to know the Ten Commandments and be willing to seek out the truth in matters of our faith. We can’t just say we don’t know. There can be a difference between man’s laws and God’s laws. God’s laws always supersede.
Our part is to know as much as possible about the candidates and the stance they take on important issues presently being discussed. Our churches cannot recommend a particular party affiliation or a particular candidate, but they can remind us of what we should know about moral law. Appropriate printed information from our churches needs to be available to the laity early on, while people are still trying to justify their decisions.
Most of all, we should pray for God’s guidance as we make the final decision in November as to whom we should cast our vote to be the next president of the United States.
Mary Davin
Iowa City
(Editor’s note: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offers a document titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. View the document at: http:// www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/)
