The Responsibility of Faithful Citizenship

The November 2024 election is quickly approaching. Catholics—like all good citizens—are encouraged to take special note of the issues, ask questions of the candidates and VOTE. It is a time-tested tenet of Catholic teaching that the laity bear the primary responsibility of political action. This is your time. This is your responsibility.

Don’t let the campaigns, the secular news media or special interest groups determine how you prioritize the issues. In Kansas, most candidates still go door to door and make community appearances. Don’t pass up an opportunity to ask the candidates where they stand on the important moral and social justice issues of the day.

The questions listed here can help Catholics make informed moral and prudential decisions about candidates and public policies. Please use this when contacting candidates. Some issues are more important than others. Some concern policies, like attacks on human life, that a Catholic can never support. The Kansas Catholic Bishops teach us that the sanctity of preborn life and the protection of mothers is the preeminent priority in public policy advocacy. Other top tier issues are religious liberty and defense of the family.

The public policy position of candidates for elected office should be determined on these issues. Other issues involve an obligation to seek the common good and Catholics can legitimately disagree on about how to address some other issues. All the issues, however, deserve our attention and discernment in light of our Catholic faith. 

A helpful tool for the formation of one’s conscious can be found at: www.faithfulcitizenship.org. Finally, take all these important decisions to prayer. Then take action and vote. 

God is with us. We persevere!

Chuck Weber,
Executive Director,
Kansas Catholic Conference