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WASHINGTON \u2014 Participation in elections is a key component of faithful citizenship for U.S. Catholics, as is advocating for free and fair elections, Catholic leaders said Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
At a press briefing that also included theologians and representatives of Catholic advocacy organizations and religious orders, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami<\/a> pointed to the U.S. bishops\u2019 document \u201cForming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship\u201d as a reference point for Catholic voters this November.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to just keep on telling people in the pews to vote,\u201d Archbishop Wenski said. \u201cA significant percentage of American citizens who can vote don\u2019t vote, and we have to tell everybody that they have to be faithful citizens by exercising their right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Panelists spoke about pastoral challenges presented by some hardline immigration enforcement policies as among the concerns Catholics should consider.<\/p>\n Father Juan de la Cruz Turcios, a parochial vicar at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador, said that in his multicultural parish \u201cthere is a lot of fear.\u201d He described his own experience carrying his U.S. passport card at all times.<\/p>\n \u201cNever before in my life \u2014 I\u2019ve been living in the United States for almost 30 years \u2014 never before in my life have I had to carry my passport card just to go to the 7-Eleven around the corner,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, because I am a target too, even though I\u2019m a priest.\u201d<\/p>\n Archbishop Wenski said that advocating for humane immigration policies \u201cis not a struggle that the Church has gotten into just the day before yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been involved in immigration from the beginning of the Church in this country, because immigration is the story of the Catholic Church: the Italians, the Irish, the Poles that immigrated in the 18th and 19th centuries and early 20th centuries,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is our story, and the bishops have been pretty unified on the issue of immigration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe might have our disputes on liturgical or other issues,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, we vote almost 100% in favor of protection for immigrants and for a broader reform of our nation\u2019s failed and inadequate immigration policies. So we\u2019re doing what we\u2019ve always done, but we are facing strong headwinds recently because of these inadequate and antiquated laws that have been given new teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n Among some of the immigration policy reforms the U.S. bishops have supported are earned pathways to citizenship or lawful permanent residence for eligible migrants; ensuring families of mixed immigration status are not separated; upholding due process in immigration enforcement actions; and ensuring sensitive locations such as houses of worship, schools, and hospitals are protected from enforcement actions.<\/p>\n Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections in the U.S. under federal law. But hardline immigration enforcement actions have left some immigrants, who are naturalized U.S. citizens and eligible to vote, concerned about accessing their polling places if immigration enforcement efforts take place there and that they might be mistakenly included in those actions.<\/p>\n Joseph Tom\u00e1s McKellar, executive director of Catholics in Communion, said the group\u2019s work would include having \u201cpoll chaplains\u201d available for eligible voters concerned about their ballot access.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery eligible voter should feel safe to vote, and every vote should get counted, regardless of who or what people vote for,\u201d McKellar said. \u201cThe question this morning isn\u2019t about the Church turning more liberal or conservative. That\u2019s the wrong frame. It\u2019s about how the Church is returning to its roots, who these Catholics are, and why being Catholic in America increasingly means building brick by brick a civilization of love.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard Wood, a sociologist and president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California, added, \u201cI think it\u2019s the Church\u2019s response to some of the real risks to free and fair elections happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s motivated not by partisan concern, but by this deep Catholic teaching of the rights of full participation, that people have a right to full participation in society, to shape the decision-making, and our mechanism for doing that is elections,\u201d Wood said. \u201cSo how those elections happen really matters to the Church. It\u2019s about human dignity, right? The dignity of voters who go to the polls. That dignity means their votes should really be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how to apply the principles of \u201cForming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship\u201d to the circumstances of the 2026 midterm elections, Katie Holler, lead organizer for The Dorothea Project, said in that document, \u201cthe bishops put forth three beautiful priorities to guide us in forming our consciences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose three priorities that they put forth for us as Catholics are: Who is my neighbor, what is the role of the Church in public life, and faith before politics,\u201d Holler said. \u201cAnd I think those are great starting places for us as Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n She said that discernment should include asking \u201cwhat does the Church say about the human dignity of the person, about the importance of families and community and solidarity, the preferential option for the poor, the vulnerable, and care for creation\u201d and applying those principles as \u201cthe first way that we assess candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n