In this post, three simple resources are offered in regard to Catholic Social Teaching. You are invited and encouraged to use any or all to prompt reflection on the importance of Catholic Social Teaching in our political and voting decisions.

(There are also excellent resources on the US Catholic Bishops website; start HERE.)

First, a print-out that simply presents the tenants of Catholic Social Teaching: What Is It and Where Does it Make A Difference?

Second, an excerpt from a prayer, Source: The Leadership Conference of Women Religious – “Toward a More Perfect Union: Stitching the Seamless Garment”):

“In response to a question from a group of young Catholics about how our

faith should inform our politics and our voting decisions Cardinal Blase

Cupich points to Pope Francis: “Our defense of the innocent unborn, for

example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity

of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person,

regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are

the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and

the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert

euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every

form of rejection.”

“What the Holy Father is urging is that we attend to the interconnection of

moral issues. I reminded the audience that Cardinal Joseph Bernardin made

the same point decades ago when he pressed for a consistent ethic of life. “The

purpose of proposing a consistent ethic of life is to argue that success on any

one of the issues threatening life requires a concern for the broader attitude in

society about respect for human life … the viability of [this] principle depends

upon the consistency of its application.”

The point is that Catholic social teaching cannot be neatly fitted into the partisan political framework that governs American public life, then or now.

(Cardinal, Blase Cupich “The Call to Holiness in an Election Year,” ChicagoCatholic, 11/20/19)

Third, a YouTube music video that accompanied the prayer:

Obtained from https://www.ccvichapel.org/post/catholic-social-teaching-how-our-faith-informs-our-political-and-voting-decisions

On the header, photo by Paola Aguilar on Unsplash.