Bishops’ voting guidance faces challenges

By Catholic News Service and The New Vision

WASHINGTON – A year before voters in the U.S. will decide the next occupant of the White House, the U.S. Catholic bishops have reissued their guidance about the two things people are cautioned never to discuss at a dinner party–religion and politics.

Contrary to the adage about avoiding discussion of religion and politics, the bishops’ “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” encourages Catholics to have civil and respectful dialogue about religion and politics.

Most importantly, from the bishops’ perspective, the document prods Catholics to let their properly formed consciences guide their choices when they consider who and what they will be voting for.

As in past election cycles, though, if the bishops’ best intentions for guiding Catholic voters to “faithful citizenship” are to have an impact, some daunting challenges are in the way.

The biggest challenge, confirmed in recent research, is that “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” is not even on the radar screen for the great majority of Catholic voters.

A survey conducted this year by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and Knowledge Networks concluded that only 16 per cent of adult Catholics recalled even hearing about “Faithful Citizenship” during the 2008 election cycle.

Thirty per cent were unsure if they had heard of it or not, and a majority, 54 per cent, said they were not aware of “Faithful Citizenship” in 2008.

The bishops are taking on the challenge of “Faithful Citizenship” as unintended well-kept secret by pumping up its promotion on the World Wide Web.

Coinciding with the early October reissue, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops introduced a new Web page for “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” at www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship.

The page offers a wide range of resources and tools to assist pastors and parishes in the use of the “Faithful Citizenship” document. The new page augments the information on the Conference’s Web resource at www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

The bishops also will be working in their dioceses and archdioceses to talk up “Faithful Citizenship.”

At their late October meeting, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas and the Diocese of Tucson Presbyteral Council (the priests representing the 11 vicariates in the Diocese) were to discuss how to make the document better known to parishioners.

Another challenge to the bishops’ hopes for “Faithful Citizenship” brought to light in the research was the finding that 74 per cent of the adult Catholics who were aware of the document said it had “no influence at all” on the way in which they made their political choices in 2008.

Contradicting the bishops’ bishops’ statement in the new introduction to the reissued “Faithful Citizenship” that it “does not offer a voters guide, scorecard of issues, or direction on how to vote,” among the Catholics who were aware of the document in 2008 a plurality of 43 per cent indicated that they felt the bishops gave their guidance in a way that left little doubt about which party or candidates they thought Catholics should support.

Compounding these challenges will be the “spin” that commentators and organizations from within and without the Church put on the reissued document.

The bishops have issued some form of a “Faithful Citizenship” document every presidential election cycle since 1976 when it was 3,400-word document called “Political Responsibility: Reflections on an Election Year” that addressed eight issues. The 2007 version had more than 10,000 words about dozens of issues.

The bishops’ voting guidance used the “Political Responsibility” title for more than two decades, with various subtitles, but in 1999 it became “Faithful Citizenship: Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium.”

The bishops have been forthright in their judgments of the document’s impact.

Commenting about the 1996 election version of “Faithful Citizenship,” Bishop James T. McHugh, then head the Diocese of Camden, N.J., said, “More than 500,000 copies were circulated. It was often quoted or referred to in articles in Catholic journals about the election and in September a special update was sent to all the bishops urging that they continue their efforts to inform people on the moral dimensions of campaign issues.

“When we look at the election results,” he added, “we must admit that our great effort was a failure. Many of those elected took positions directly opposed to Church positions on abortion, aid to parents for educational choice, welfare, immigration, the economy and international affairs. And Catholics voted for such candidates without any apparent scruple or concern.”