Leaders of the Catholic Church across America are mobilizing the faithful to exercise their civic duty at the polls tomorrow because so many life and death issues are at stake.

Bishops across the country are determined to speak up for the beliefs and rights of people of faith by using the most powerful platform available to American Catholics who want to have their voices heard in the public square – the voting booth.

“Whenever possible, Catholics have an obligation to vote—particularly when critical issues are at stake,” says Nebraska Bishop James D. Conley to his flock in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Today, in our country, critical issues are certainly at stake. Abortion remains our national shame . . . Religious people are being systematically marginalized in public life, in business, and in schools.  The sanctity of marriage as we have always known it, is being undermined. The family, and the right of children to have mothers and fathers, is under attack.”

We have two powerful means to turn the tide back to a God-fearing way of life – prayer and the political process. By electing candidates who stand for Catholic values, we insure a moral and upright future for ourselves and our loved ones.

As the National Catholic Register reports, Bishop Conley isn’t alone in his attempts to encourage the faithful not to sit out this crucial election that could determine federal and state policy for years to come.

“The individual state Catholic conferences, the public-policy arms of the states’ bishops, have surveyed candidates, compiled ‘informed citizenship’ guides for Catholic voters and staked out positions on a host of ballot questions pertaining to matters of life, religious freedom, marriage and human dignity,” the Register reports.

For instance, the Catholic conference in Colorado published a brochure encouraging Catholics to look into candidates’ positions on issues such as immigration, marriage, economic justice, parental choice in education, the sanctity of human life and religious freedom.

They have also clarified that a dissident group known as Catholics for choice does not speak for the Church.

“When it comes to statistics, Catholics for Choice only chooses those findings that agree with their dissent from Church teaching. They claim that only 14% of Catholics believe that abortion is morally wrong, but well-established research consistently shows that over half of all American Catholics believe that abortion is morally wrong [as the Church teaches],” the Colorado bishops said.

Bishop James D. Conley

In Florida, the Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging voters to get out to the polls and vote and is giving special attention to Amendment 2, a ballot initiative that would legalize medical marijuana.

This amendment is “problematic”, the bishops say, because of the potential for fraud and abuse and because it gives youth more access to the drug.

“Our God-given capacity for compassion impels us to seek treatment for the sick and to alleviate the pain experienced by those who suffer. However, in doing so, we must ensure that we are not endangering those we are hoping to help by exposing them to even greater harm,” the Florida bishops said.

The Illinois Catholic bishops are also offering guidance for voters before tomorrow’s elections.

They issued a statement explaining that  “not all issues carry equal moral weight” and that policies that encourage intrinsically evil acts — such as abortion, human embryo experimentation and destruction and assisted suicide — can never be supported.

“Catholics with a well-formed conscience would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil if they were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stance on these policies,” the Illinois bishops said.

When voters are faced with a choice between two candidates who both accept intrinsic evils, they should consider the candidate who would be more likely to promote other human goods.

In Kansas, bishops are using social media to engage voters.

“In four video reflections posted on YouTube, the state’s four bishops offer brief catecheses on marriage, religious freedom, defense of life and usury, which in Kansas and elsewhere is seen in payday loan centers engaging in predatory lending,” the Register reports.

“The teaching on usury has been forgotten or ignored, and laws regulating it have been watered down or quietly repealed,” said Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Salina, Kan. Bishop Weisenburger.

In North Dakota, a personhood amendment known as Measure 1 is supported by the state’s bishops as well as half of the state’s voters. “The people of North Dakota have a right to decide this question before the abortion lobby comes back into the state to try again to strike down laws that even the U.S. Supreme Court has said that we can pass,” said Christopher Dodson, executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference.

Catholic bishops in Tennessee are also supporting a pro-life measure known as Amendment 1, which is proposing an amendment to the state’s Constitution stating that there is no right to abortion, nor should public funds be used to procure the procedures.

As Bishop Conley reminds, ” . . . (W)e ought to do all that we can to build a culture of justice, of liberty, and a culture of life.”

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