Helping You Prepare to Vote


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Once again, election season is upon us!

This is the opportunity to give our faith a voice in our country and world. Government is a reflection of who we are as a people and what values we hold. Your voice matters so much in this process. If you are eligible to do so: Go out and vote!

The first step is to be prepared.

All of us are being bombarded by political ads; the thoughts of cable news pundits; the opinions of friends, family and co-workers; and the subtle and not so subtle messages from the pulpit of your Church. 

To wade through all this, we have to do our homework. We must discern the signs of the times and how the Gospel is calling us at this moment. With a critical eye, we need to learn as much as we can about each candidate. Then we need to evaluate what we learned through the lens of our relationship with God, our personal experience, and the conversations we have with those we love and trust.   

At this moment in the United States, we are confronted with three major crises at once: a global pandemic that his impacted millions and has taken 190,000 lives in the United States; an economy in peril with millions of people out of work; and a reckoning on racial issues in America.

Who can lead us during these times?

To assist you in your discernment, the Paulist Fathers present to you A Paulist Reflection for the 2020 U.S. Elections.

This document was written to be a companion to the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. We hope it will help you examine the most important issues of our times so to make the best choice possible.

In our document, we assert that there is no Catholic political candidate-of-choice and no Catholic political party. We suggest that core Gospel values of life, love, justice and mercy are means to weigh each candidate and their positions.  

In addition to this document, we have compiled several other resources, available on this page, including an excerpt from the new Paulist Press book Voting and Faithfulness, in which 15 noted theologians and professors offer insights on conscience formation and elections.

We hope that through prayer, study and open-minded conversations, the American people will be guided by the Holy Spirit as they vote in 2020. As Jesus told his disciples, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”

Together, let us pray for our nation will truly be “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Eric Andews, C.S.P.
President
The Paulist Fathers