AMERICA/CANADA - Canadian Bishops’ Conference encourages Catholics to reflect and be informed as best they can before voting in the October 14 elections

Ottawa (Agenzia Fides) – The Social Affairs Commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a guide inviting Catholics to vote but to do so with discernment, in the upcoming October 14 elections.
In its “Federal Election 2008 Guide”, the Commission “encourages Catholics to become better informed about the issues, to voice their concerns with the political candidates … and, most of all, to vote.”
The four-page text from the Bishops reminds Catholics of the most important issues, i.e. “respect for life and the dignity of the human person,” as well as the preferential option for the poor. The text also addresses the question of the war in Afghanistan, calling on the political parties to “engage in a peace process for Afghanistan.” They also ask the politicians to care for the environment, so as to ensure that “future generations … can have a healthy environment.”
The four bishops who signed the document not that “choices can be tough” for Catholics when a political candidate or a political party holds “values that are not fully in line with Church teaching.” Citing the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Social Affairs Commission points out that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 17/9/2008)