Auxiliary bishop addresses faithful citizenship, forming one’s conscience

By John Gleason

With Election Day drawing near, an audience of more than 100 people gathered the evening of Oct. 8 at St. Vincent de Paul Church to hear Auxiliary Bishop James Conley speak on the subject of faithful citizenship.

Bishop Conley’s lecture, sponsored by the Respect Life and the Faithful Citizenship committees at the parish, was titled: “A Catholic’s Formation of Conscience, the Political Environment and Abortion.”

Calling the topics important and timely, Bishop Conley said understanding the controversial subjects are vital both to one’s Catholic faith and to one’s responsibility as a citizen of the United States.

“With the elections less than a month away it’s time when citizens need to prepare to exercise their duty to vote in a conscientious and informed manner,” the prelate said.  “As Catholics, we take this privilege seriously…our faith demands that we make moral judgments guided by well-formed and well-informed consciences.”

When Catholics cast ballots, they ought to be guided by their moral convictions rooted in both faith and reason, Bishop Conley told the audience, rather than mere attachment to a political party.  Quoting from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s book, “Render Unto Caesar,” Bishop Conley said, “This is why it is necessary to always work to transform and improve the party to which we belong, rather than allow the party to transform us in such a way that we ignore fundamental and foundational moral truths, like the right to life.”

In using the story of Pinocchio as an example, Bishop Conley said that when Catholics make political decisions, they must “always let their conscience be their guide.”

“In the movie version, when Pinocchio asks Jiminy Cricket just how a conscience works, he’s told it’s that still, small voice that will tell us how to choose right and wrong,” he said.  “Some authors claim that the initials of Jiminy Cricket are a veiled reference to Jesus Christ.”

“Oh that they would make such movies again,” the bishop said, drawing laughter.

Conscience, Bishop Conley said, does not invent what is right or wrong.  It does not make law.  It does not establish or create good, rather conscience is a judgment of reason which recognizes the moral quality of an act.

On the subject of whether a Catholic can vote for a pro-choice candidate in good conscience when the other candidate is clearly pro-life, Bishop Conley said he could not see how they could justify casting such a vote. He pointed out that we live in an imperfect world where not all laws are just.

“When morally flawed laws exist, those who formulate them and all who participate in public life have an obligation to work toward correcting those defective laws,” he said. “If we and those whom we elect neglect to attempt to limit the harm and overturn these laws, we too cooperate in that evil.”

The bishop said that in a similar sense, a Catholic cannot rightly vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil such as abortion, precisely because they support that intrinsic evil.
“This would be in terms of traditional Catholic moral theology, ‘formal cooperation’ in grave evil and would be seriously sinful,” he said.  “To vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil such as abortion would require a proportionate moral reason for ignoring such a flaw. This may be easier to conceive in theory than to discover in actual practice.”

“What if all the candidates hold positions in favor of some intrinsic evil,” the bishop posed. The conscientious Catholic voter, after careful deliberation, “may decide to vote for the candidate less likely to advance the morally flawed position and will do the least amount of harm while promoting other goods.”

Bishop Conley concluded by saying that voting is not just a civic or political action, but a moral act which involves responsibilities.

“As bishops, we are not presuming to tell Catholics how they should vote,” he said.  “We simply want to teach how we should form our consciences and consider issues in the light of these fundamental moral principles.”