The upcoming elections provide important opportunities for Catholics to share our values, raise our voices and use our votes to shape a society that protects human life, promotes family life, pursues social justice and practices solidarity. As citizens, we need to face our own political responsibilities to vote, to understand the issues and assess candidates’ positions and qualifications; and to join with others in promoting the common good. Catholics have a right and a responsibility to bring their beliefs to the public forum. Thus U.S. Bishops emphasize the role of conscience in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a guide for Catholics as they prepare for the 2008 elections.
An excerpt from Father Brain Bransfield’s article "Voting by Conscience"
"You and I can vote once in the election this fall. But before we do, hopefully we have repeatedly visited our own conscience.
Conscience is not ‘what I think’ (on an issue), but it is me ‘thinking about what is just’ and true. It is not a partial appraisal based on the words of a preacher, politician or passions . . . but is a manifestation linked with truth itself regardless of my preferences.
Conscience insists that human dilemmas are moral concerns long before they are political points of view. Conscience tells me that to be free I must admit the truth that some acts are inescapably evil and no manner of circumstances or intentions can make them somehow good.
To make a decision in conscience is to consult the truth of the nature on things in themselves – it must begin with the truth.
Conscience winces when it hears a candidate claim that he can fix health care, but still agree that a child in the womb can be killed. Conscience knows that if a candidate favors human embryonic stem cell research, which includes the killing of a human person, then our neighborhoods can never be free of violence – because we just voted for violence. The moral sense knows that if you treat the environment any way you like, sooner or later you will need treatment because of the environment. Conscience realizes that if you support torture you have just paid the deposit for a war twenty years from now. Conscience breaks the bubble, brushes back the curtain, pries down the lever, and by the leverage of honest truth, and can not only change, but can transform, the world."
US Conference of Catholic Bishops - Faithful Citizenship