Bishop James Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph wrote recently: "As Pope Francis personally expressed to me and other bishops of Region IX in our recent ad lima visit this past January [2020] the right to life for unborn children is the preeminent issue because it is fundamental; without this first right, the right to life, there can be no other rights.  This echoes the U.S. Bishops' teaching that 'abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all the others' (Living the Gospel of Life, 5) and that . . . it takes place in the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed" [Forming Consciences of Faithful Citizenship, Introductory Letter]

Voting is a Privilege and a Responsibility

​As Catholic Christians we have a responsibility to vote. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes in paragraph 2240:

"Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country [Rom 13:7]:"

Scripture teaches us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for those with the responsibilities of public office (1 Tim. 2: 2).

The upcoming midterm elections will determine the leadership of our country (and Supreme Court in the 2024 election) for many years to come and therefore it is important to vote for candidates that represent Catholic values regardless of party. 

​The major parties approach issues very differently.  This can be confirmed by looking at the priests for life website by clicking here.

Issues concerning life are paramount. Theologian Colin Donovan of EWTN television notes, "The common good can never involve killing the unborn or the approval of homosexuality. These issues touch directly on the most basic goods of all (life and family) - and thus are of unique and paramount importance. It is not possible, therefore, to claim an equal weight between a candidate's position on these principles and policy positions on how to achieve certain good ends. Sadly, many have inverted the priority of principle over means." 

St. John Paul II, writing when he was our pope, stated:
​All this is causing a profound change in the way in which life and relationships between people are considered. The fact that legislation in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices against life, and even to make them altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave moral decline. Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable.  ... 

He continues:
​the end result of this is tragic: not only is the fact of the destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life. [Gospel of Life 3]

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). [Gospel of Life 20]

​St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) spoke at the United Nations in 1985 on their fortieth anniversary. She said, “By destroying the unborn child, we are destroying the presence of God. We have destroyed love. We have destroyed the most sacred thing that a human being can have: the joy of loving and joy of being loved.”

She continued to defend the unborn at the 1994 Prayer Breakfast with President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. She said:
“​But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us.”
 She added:

“By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.”