Brothers and sisters welcome back to session seven of our eight-part series on Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. This is our Bishop's document helping us prepare for the upcoming elections and for elections in the future. Today, we are going to reflect on the Church and politics when it comes to applying our fully formed consciences to these issues of our society, the bishops remind us that we cannot just dismiss the church's guidance or policy directions. We are called to listen, to be formed, to discern, and to act. The bishops tell us in paragraph number seven that participation in political life is in the light of fundamental moral principles and is an essential duty for every Catholic and every person of goodwill.
We are called to act according to our best moral guidance. We are reminded that our political participation is based on principles—moral principles, not polls. The Church reminds us that the Church itself should not be used to further one’s political credentials.
The church should be looked upon as a moral guide as we live our life guided by Scripture, tradition, natural law, and the virtues. The church itself is an ideological or partisan. Justice and charity are the core of our tradition.
In his book Exploring Catholic Theology, Bishop Robert Barron uses the work of the great Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan to explain how we might approach these complex issues of life and politics. Forming consciences for faithful citizenship is a lifelong work for each of us. The issues of society change, the issues of our government changes, the issues local, state, and national change. And so as we go through elections, we are constantly called to continue this work of conscience formation.
Bernard Lonergan and Bishop Barron suggest this to us. First, we should be attentive. To be attentive is to pay attention, to see, to attend to, and to pray about the issues that are present in our society. Second, to be intelligent, that is, to look for and see biblical patterns. Biblical patterns that are easy are sin and salvation.
In our society we find sin, oftentimes, sometimes we find salvation, and then we repeat sin and salvation. So look for those patterns when we are dealing with particular issues.
Third, to be reasonable. So attentive, intelligent, and reasonable to discern the spirits and judge what is good. To spend time in prayer, listening to how God is calling us to choose, and for us to be responsible to do it, to act, to do the right thing in truth and love. And that is in political participation, not only the vote but how we discourse with one another about matters of our society, economics, and politics.
The call of forming conscience for faithful citizenship is clear. It is for us to prepare to vote, not along party lines, but upon the lines of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
St. Francis of Assisi, said it so well, he said, "The call of the Christian life is to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is it alone". And also then for us to reflect on those values as represented in Sacred Scripture, in Tradition, and in our Catholic Social Doctrine.
In the last section, will gather again in order to look at how we might talk with our candidates and how we might ask them the questions that are important for us to be able to discern and indeed, what is true, what is good, what is loving, and what is merciful. As we approach this next election, if we do that, sisters and brothers, we may indeed be renewed.
REFLECT AND RENEW
How can we integrate moral principles into our political participation?
In what ways does the Church guide us to form our consciences before engaging in politics?
How do Scripture and Catholic tradition inform our understanding of justice and charity in political life?