PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, October 31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The bishop of Providence published a column Wednesday to guide Catholic voters striving to be “faithful citizens of both the Kingdom of God and our nation.” The bishop’s column joined the flood of writing from other bishops who have underscored the singular gravity of abortion in this year’s U.S. presidential election, now less than a week away.
Borrowing the words of Gandhi, Bishop Tobin began the Rhode Island Catholic column with the quote: “Those who believe that religion and politics aren’t connected don’t understand either.”
True as the saying is, said the bishop, Catholics need more direction in order to decide with a fully informed conscience.
Bishop Tobin relates that the U.S. bishops urge a candidate’s stance on abortion must assume a primary role in the voter’s discernment process.
“While there are many questions we should evaluate in deciding how to vote, the primary moral issue we face today is the right to life and particularly the need to fight against the terrible sin of abortion,” writes Bishop Tobin.
“And as I’ve written previously in this space, while there are many issues the Catholic must consider in forming moral judgments, ‘Abortion is different.
It is always intrinsically evil. There are no circumstances that justify abortion. Its victims are innocent and defenseless, and number in the millions. Abortion is the fallacious foundation upon which the culture of death builds its ugly edifice.’”
After emphasizing that Church leadership has no place endorsing any candidate, the bishop writes, “You can never separate your faith from life (including political life) and so it follows closely that you must vote as a person of faith, taking your faith and your conscience with you into the voting booth,” writes Bishop Tobin.
“You need to support candidates who will promote the common good and uphold basic moral values – beginning with the right to life, especially for unborn children. In that way you can be a “faithful citizen” – of our great nation and of the Kingdom of God.
“I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I could never vote for a candidate – of any party for any office – who supports laws that promote or allow the death of thousands of children in the hideous crime of abortion. I just don’t want that on my conscience.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com article:
50 Bishops Say Abortion Most Important Issue in U.S. Election
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102412.html