Symposium explores 'faithful citizenship'
PISCATAWAY — To help Catholics prepare for the upcoming election as well as help them understand their role in the public square, the Diocese of Metuchen presented “The Catholic Voter: Forming Conscience & Forming Society” Sept. 16 at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center.
Beginning and ending with prayer, the symposium examined the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document, “Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States,” and was the collaborative effort of The Catholic Spirit, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and the Offices of Family Life, Respect for Life, Catechesis and Communications.
The symposium featured two speakers: Joan Rosenhauer, associate director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace & Human Development, and Father John Fell, moral theologian and pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bernardsville, and was followed by a question and answer session in which the speakers responded to questions from the audience.
In opening remarks, Msgr. William Benwell, vicar general and moderator of the curia, reminded attendees of their responsibility to participate in the democratic process.
Quoting Pope John Paul II, he said: “Voting is something that Catholics should see as a moral obligation. All citizens ought to be mindful of their right and their duty to promote the common good by using their vote.”
Msgr. Benwell set the tone by stating that the purpose of the symposium was not to tell people how to vote “as easy as that might sound to some people.”
He recalled his recent visit with Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski to Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
“We heard what it was like from people who lived it what it was like to live under a system where people were told how to vote, or given little or no choice in the voting booth,” he said. “We saw firsthand the many ways those countries struggle even today nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall to overcome the effects of two generations of communism and national socialism.”
In voting, he continued, Catholics seek to promote the common good, which is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the sum total of social conditions which allow people as groups or as individuals to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.
“The common good then,” Msgr. Benwell said, “will be affected by all those issues that are being debated in our country today: abortion, the economy, health care, immigration, national security and many more.
“Our mission tonight is to arm you with the necessary information that will assist you in making your own decision, a free decision but one based on an informed Christian conscience, a conscience formed in accord with human reason and the teaching of the church.
“You are encouraged to use this information that you receive tonight not only in this November election which is so much on the minds of many, but in future elections and in all areas of political arena.”