A new booklet aimed at helping Catholics bring their faith into the public square – and the voting booth – says being right on all other issues doesn’t justify a vote against the sanctity of life.

Crux is reporting on the latest edition of “Catholics in the Public Square” by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, which presents the duties of Catholic voters and politicians in an easy-to-read question and answer format.

The booklet, which is now in its fourth edition, clearly explains the priorities that must guide Catholics in the voting booth.

“For example, Catholics may never legitimately promote or vote for any law that attacks innocent human life,” Olmsted says in the book, later adding, “being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter.”

The guide encourages the faithful to examine their conscience on these issues, and for Catholic politicians to oppose laws that allow or promote abortions.

“If a politician is actively supporting and furthering the culture of death, he is not only causing scandal; he is sinning. Similarly, when a politician performs actions (like voting) that allow for abortions and even promote abortions, or that mandate the distribution of contraceptives by pharmacists and others, that politician is materially cooperating in grave sin,” the booklet states.

A politician guilty of this sin must make a sincere confession before receiving Holy Communion, the bishop says. This is necessary because the harm they did was public, which means their amends should also be public.

As part of their preparation to vote, the bishop recommends that Catholics be sure that their conscience is properly formed according to Church teaching and that they research a candidate’s stance on important issues.

The booklet features a new foreword by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles who described the book as a “kind of ‘question and answer catechism’ on some of the deepest issues of faith and public life.”

The archbishop called it a “a must-read for all of us who are trying to engage the culture and to proclaim the Church’s beautiful vision for human life and human society.”

Especially at this time in our nation’s history, “The Church needs clear and courageous teaching and witness to confront the idols of a secularized, post-Christian America,” Gomez said.

The Archbishop cites a growing list of modern injustices such as widespread abortion, the “quiet” euthanasia of the old and sick; birth control policies targeting the poor and “unfit”; racial discrimination; a widening gap between poor and rich; pollution of the environment, especially in poor and minority communities; pornography and drug addiction; the death penalty and scandalous conditions in our prisons; the erosion of religious liberty; and a broken immigration system that breaks up families and leaves a permanent underclass living in the shadows of our prosperity. The Church’s social teaching ‘speaks’ to all of these issues.

Because the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, an essential resource, is nearly five hundred pages long, many feel tempted to compartmentalize their compassion, deciding who and what they should care about. Too many times, these decisions are based on one’s political persuasion.

“God does not see the world through the limitations of our political categories of ‘left’ and ‘right,’ ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’,” the archbishop writes. “He is our Father and He sees only His children. When one of God’s children is suffering injustice, He calls the rest of us to love and compassion and to ‘make things right’.”

As he so clearly reminds, not all injustices in the world are equal. Among the evils and injustices in American life in 2016, abortion and euthanasia are different and stand apart, he said, because each is “a direct, personal attack on innocent and vulnerable human life.”

Gomez goes on to say that Catholic social teaching provides “a vision of the world as it could be and as it should be. The world as God created it to be.”

“The Catholic vision is spiritual not political. Catholics belong first of all to the ‘city of God.’ But we have a duty to build up the ‘city of man,’ to correct injustices and seek a world that reflects God’s desires for His children – what Jesus called the kingdom of God and the Apostles called the new heaven and new earth,” the archbishop said.

The booklet also stresses that when Catholics vote their conscience, they should not be “frightened into silence and even confused by charges that they are imposing their morality on other,” but should continue to contribute to the common good by living out their faith in the public square and bringing it with them into the voting booth.

“Of course, if one’s faith does not impact on one’s whole life, including one’s political and social responsibilities, then it is not authentic faith; it is a sham, a counterfeit,” Bishop Olmsted writes.

“A democratic society needs the active participation of all its citizens, people of faith included,” he added. “This is not an imposition on other’s morality. It is acting with integrity… The active engagement of Catholics in democratic processes is good for society and it is responsible citizenship.”

The fourth edition booklet, published by St. Benedict Press, is available here.

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