Priests for Life Praises Bishops' Statement on Political Responsibility and Pledges Implementation

Priests for Life today thanked the United States bishops for their new statement "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility," which calls on all Catholics to register, to vote, and to take part in political life according to the platform of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"We are implementing this call in numerous ways," explained Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life. "In particular, we continue to carry out the national voter registration project we announced in June. We ask every parish to provide their parishioners an opportunity to register. If Catholics don’t register to vote, we condemn ourselves to the status of second-class citizens."

The new document outlines many issues about which Catholics need to be concerned. "Catholics must not misunderstand these issues to be all of equal importance," Fr. Frank explained. "This new document quotes previous statements of the bishops that identify abortion and euthanasia as preeminent threats that attack life itself, the condition for all other goods. The consistent ethic we embrace does not equate all the issues, but recognizes that some are more fundamental than others. At the same time, we should not ignore any of them."

Priests for Life will prepare study guides for the key documents of the bishops on political responsibility, and will make them available at www.priestsforlife.org/elections