Catholics have a responsibility and moral obligation to Vote (CCC 2240).

QUESTION? / COMMENT!

I had asked about the obligation we as Catholics have to participate in elections.  You mentioned that Saint Thomas Aquinas specifically discusses that in his Summa.  You suggested I email you for the specific citations from the Summa.

I do know that Pope Pius XII addressed this topic in two allocutions, one to the Sacred College of Cardinals and the other to the Delegates of the International Conference on Emigration.  Relevant excepts from both are found here https://novusordowatch.org/2020/11/pope-pius12-speaks-on-obligation-to-vote/ .

ANSWER! / COMMENT!

Patriotism is an expression of the two greatest commandments (Matt 22:36-44). If we truly love God, we are going to care about eternity. And if we truly love our neighbor, we are going to care about the civil society our neighbors live in. Particularly we are going to care about the person who is being overly controlled by the government or singled out in some way for abuse. Patriotism is the affection of love turned unselfishly for the good of one's neighbor and ultimately for the glory of God. This is something we need to teach, but more importantly, we need to live it. Let us not be so heavenly minded that we can do no earthly good.

Catholics have a responsibility and moral obligation to Vote (CCC 2240).

Here’s a selection of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s addresses and homilies during his apostolic visit to Mexico and Cuba. The Pope is teaching us how to vote: “Naturally the Church must always ask if enough is being done for social justice on this great continent. This is a question of conscience that we must always ask ourselves: what the Church can and must do what she cannot and should not do. The Church is not a political power, nor a political party, but rather a moral reality, a moral force. Inasmuch as politics should be a moral reality, on this track the Church fundamentally has to do with politics. I repeat what I have already said: the Church’s first thought is to educate consciences and thereby awaken the necessary responsibility; to educate consciences both in individual and public ethics. And here, perhaps something is missing. In Latin America, and elsewhere, among many Catholics a certain schizophrenia exists between individual and public morals. Personally, in the private sphere, they are Catholics and believers but in public life they follow other trends that do not correspond with the great values of the Gospel which are necessary for the foundation of a just society. It is therefore necessary to teach people to overcome this schizophrenia, teaching not only individual morality, but also public morality. We try to do this with the Church’s social teaching because public morality must of course be a reasonable morality, shared and shareable by non-believers too, a morality of reason.” [i]