I want to encourage anyone still hanging on to this thread. The election seems like a big deal as it looms on the horizon, and no doubt it is very important, but we have to keep close to our hearts the concept of subsidiarity. What really matters, and what our duties really are, pertain to the salvation of our own souls, and those of the ones we love. Our families. Our neighbors. Catholicism is founded firmly on the “least of these,” not on the powers of the greatest.
Our support for life must not become principally defined by the national or global controversies of race, or of abortion, or of poverty, or of climate issues, especially if this leads us to cast our votes and then to do nothing else to exercise the strength in the Holy Spirit that we have through Christ.
I am very encouraged to see that people are thinking deeply about this decision, but I think far more than the potential of sin in casting a vote, we ought to be concerned that there is sin in becoming passive, or in becoming quiet. No matter who wins, Catholicism should be heard loud and clear as against abortion, against bigotry, against the abuse of the climate, and against the exploitation of the poor. And you and I are the ones that the Bishops have given the task of taking Catholic social teaching into the public square. That’s a big responsibility, and unfortunately I haven’t been impressed thus far. I’ve only been Catholic for about half a year. I’m looking for role models, and for leaders, and for wise teaching.
Let us not permit political divides to prevent us from coming together in opposition to sin. No matter who wins in November, we will be called upon to stand up for God. I firmly believe that Christianity will come under persecution in my lifetime in the United States. We can only be prepared for this if we are situated firmly in the grace available to us in the Holy Spirit, and if we come together as true sons and daughters of God, to love and edify each other.