EDITORIAL A rich contribution to political
conversation
It would be easy to relegate the
latest publication on voter responsibility to the growing stack of documents
issued every four years by the U.S. bishops. An unmistakable air of obligation
and predictability surrounds the project.
The latest effort, however, Faithful Citizenship: Civic
Responsibility for a New Millennium, takes on an unusual significance in
an era when the political conversation has been ambushed by endless rounds of
loud but largely irrelevant TV gab, when international treaties become the
hostages of partisan wrangling and when the really important questions remain
somewhere behind the set, waiting for a brief moment in the spotlight.
Enter the nations bishops. Predictably, the right to life
issue tops the list. This will not -- and should not -- disappear as a top
concern for the culture and, particularly, Catholics. The hope is that the
bishops have learned from the past that their political strategy on the issue
has been seriously flawed, costing them enormously and delivering very
little.
Beyond the abortion issue, however, the bishops are faithful to
the continuum of life issues, to the principle of the consistent ethic, and
here is where they make the richest contribution to the nations
politics.
If people are numb to the shrill sameness of the abortion debate,
they certainly need to be awakened to other issues on the bishops social
agenda.
Among 10 questions for prospective officeholders, the bishops note
the scandal of a quarter of our preschoolers living in poverty in the
richest nation on earth; the tragedy of 35,000 children dying every
day of the consequences of hunger, debt and lack of development around the
world; the continuing prejudice, bias and discrimination as
well as hostility toward immigrants and refugees; the growing
numbers of families and individuals without affordable and accessible health
care; and the need to offer families real choices and financial resources
to obtain quality education and decent housing.
As bishops, we do not seek the formation of a religious
voting block, nor do we wish to instruct persons on how they should vote by
endorsing or opposing candidates, they wrote. We hope voters will
examine the positions of candidates on the full range of issues, as well as on
their personal integrity, philosophy and performance.
In another section, they advocate debt relief and other steps to
alleviate global poverty. They emphasize basic human rights as an integral part
of U.S. foreign policy, urge more support of the United Nations, greater
protection for refugees and more generous policies toward immigrants. And they
seek a kind of international peacekeeping that would not rely on war
making.
This is not one of those religious voter guides -- with a tick
list of positions and how candidates voted on them -- that is really a thinly
disguised partisan endorsement.
If used properly, the bishops admonition on political
involvement could be a valuable tool in fostering sound political discussion at
the parish level or among high school and college students. The document is
available on the web at www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp
These are the issues that should engage our energies.
For too long, Catholic involvement in politics -- at least in the
popular perception -- has been defined by the abortion debate and a flawed
strategy that has done little to persuade anyone, including Catholics. Not only
has the strategy been unpersuasive, it has helped to elect candidates who have
worked diligently to undermine most of the other elements of the bishops
social agenda. Many of those candidates have taken advantage of valuable
opportunities to have their photos taken with smiling cardinals and
bishops.
In the run up to the 2000 elections, the Catholic community can
demonstrate that it is interested in more than one issue. There are no perfect
candidates or parties, as the bishops note. But Catholics can contribute richly
to the process by following the bishops lead, which cuts deeply across
the current contentment by drawing attention to the plight of the poor, the
homeless and the vulnerable. Raising those issues in an informed way would
provide a welcome jolt of reality to the currently inane American political
conversation.
National Catholic Reporter, October 29,
1999
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