Bishops Debate Catholic Voting Guidelines in the ‘Age of Francis’

Crux ^ | 6/14/18 | Christopher White

[marshmallow]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - After a robust 90-minute discussion during the second day of their bi-annual meeting, the U.S. bishops voted to advance a proposal to produce new materials to complement their official voting guidelines to better apply the teachings of Pope Francis to current issues in the United States.

The discussion and vote, however, revealed tensions within the body over both the current content and the medium in which the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is seeking to influence public life, while ultimately resulting in a compromise outcome that will surely be subject to close scrutiny in the months ahead.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility was first adopted by an overwhelming majority of U.S. Bishops in 2007. In 2015, the document was updated to incorporate “the wealth of papal teaching since the 2007 version of Faithful Citizenship, such as the later magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI and that of Pope Francis to date.”

However, on Thursday, multiple bishops raised concerns that the latest version of the document does not fully incorporate the teachings of Francis, particularly on issues related to climate change, immigration, and poverty.

A working group, chaired by Vice-President of the USCCB, Archbishop José Gomez, with representatives from the heads of the permanent USCCB committees, had recommended the production of a short letter “to inspire prayer and action regarding public life” and a video that would complement rather than revise the latest version of Faithful Citizenship.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago was the first to express concern with the proposal, noting he would be voting against it, as it would be a missed opportunity if a new document was not drafted that did not properly integrate the teachings of Francis.

[Parmy]

The problem is this: They consistently have supported pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, anti-American candidates.

[oldbill]

Catholic bishops are a wing of the Democrat party.

They will be hypocrically condemning abortion while wining and dining with democrat abortionists like Pelosi, Biden, Kennedy, Leahy, etc.

They support breaking the laws so that they will get tons of government money from illegal alien support programs and welfare.

[Bigg Red]

Mark

[Marchmain]

Gun control may be a topic in the Voter Guide. It was mentioned in the Bishop conference, tho not in this article. Gun control is now considered Francis “magisterium” like global warming, immigration, etc.