It seems like we have been living through a non-stop presidential election for years. In the past, win or lose according to one’s preferred candidate, after the election there seemed to be a pause, a breath, a period to gather ourselves before a new contest began for our highest civil office. 

 

Now, however, our politics have degenerated into a non-stop contest for power that is based in selective outrage, the unending search for scandal and the personal vilification of the opposition that amounts to politics of personal destruction.

 

Lest this be taken as some sort of partisan statement, it should be made clear — this is not simply a recent pattern of political strategy. It has been going on for decades. It is a contamination from which none of the political parties are innocent. And in truth, it has spread to many layers of government and elections, not simply the presidential contests.

 

As citizens and as people of faith, we cannot, however, simply wring our hands and lament the failure on many levels of government to work for the common good. Neither do we have a right to complain about the constant instances of corruption or elitist privilege taken on by our leaders. The reality is that we get the government that we as a people have chosen and voted for. 

 

With the completion of the political conventions, however, we are now moving into the quadrennial pinnacle of our electoral responsibilities. In November we will vote again to choose the occupant of the White House and with him, the division of power between the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as the similar divisions in state governments.

 

Again this year, the Catholic bishops of the United States have issued a statement entitled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” (FCFC). 

 

That document is well worth the effort to read. 

 

It is the word “conscience” that is key to that reflection. And it is fundamental to how we as people of faith must approach our civic duty of voting and more widely our approach to living in American society.

 

In the words of the bishops, “This statement highlights the role of the Church in the formation of conscience and the corresponding moral responsibility of each Catholic to hear, receive, and act upon the Church’s teaching in the lifelong task of forming his or her own conscience” (FCFC 5).

 

Often we hear it said that one’s moral judgments must be guided by their conscience. If they are, we are told, then such a person is morally acting according to the highest guiding authority.

 

But a right conception of conscience must be inserted into that discussion. Our glory and confidence as people of Catholic faith is that our conscience has a particular guide to “get things right.” 

 

We do not simply consult ourselves and our personal feelings and experiences in order to arrive at a judgment we call conscience. As the bishops note, the Church has a role, and a fundamental role at that, in guiding our judgments of conscience.

 

To understand this, we need to focus on what the goal of conscience is. As the Second Vatican Council told us, “Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. ... For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God.” (Gaudium et Spes, 16).

 

It is a part of our common humanity, our very participation in God’s creation itself, that we are all bound by God’s intent and will for us. That will has been made known to us in creation, in the Scriptures, most especially in Jesus Christ, and in the Church that He established to guide us until He returns.

 

Next week, more on a rightly formed conscience as a guide for us this election season.

 

Find “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship at https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/upload/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship.pdf