June 12, 2008

By Father Bruce Nieli, C.S.P.

I have worked with immigrants to America almost since day one in the seminary and continue to seek a more open and just approach to this indispensable and precious element of our population.

I have been an opponent of capital punishment since first learning of the existence of this barbaric practice (when I was seven) and actively labor for its abolition on Tennessee's death row.

I am an advocate for universal health care and have had the privilege in Memphis of being a ministerial presence in an institution that embodies it— St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

I believed from the start that the war in Iraq was both pre-emptive and not clearly connected to the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and wrote a personal letter to President Bush and drafted one on behalf of the Paulist General Council asking him not to send in troops.

I passionately defend the humanity of the children in the womb and have prayed and counseled before abortion clinics that their parents consider other options. I have been blessed by my Paulist community to always have been given the opportunity to live a preferential option for the poor. In other words, I believe in Catholic social teaching.

So which candidates should I vote for?

It is important to state clearly that this article is not, I repeat not, aimed directly at the persons who have run for or are presently running for office in this current election year.

Each of the major candidates I judge to be a patriotic American dedicated to our country's cherished tradition of non-violent and mutually respectful political engagement.

Because I live in the neighborhood where Martin Luther King died and where Sister Thea Bowman is buried, I am encouraged to see that both an African-American and a woman can now enthusiastically run for President of the United States.

But, my focus here is on us Catholic Americans. The ball is in our court. It is time to accept the urgent challenge to share more publicly and forthrightly our Church's social doctrine, since none of the major candidates fully communicates it.

Catholic social teaching, so clearly affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI in his recent visit to the United States, obviously is not meant exclusively for Catholics. It touches human beings precisely as human beings and flows every bit as much from natural law as do the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Lincoln's Gettysburg and Second Inaugural Addresses, and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. It is not wedded to just Catholic immigrants, Catholic death row inmates, Catholic pre-born babies, Catholic poor people. It is catholic, universal, embracing the whole of humanity, the universe... everybody.

The foundation, of course, is reverence for life, the sacredness of life, from conception until natural death. Without this, we build our house, not on sand, but on quicksand.

How fitting that Pope John Paul II promulgated his magnificent apostolic exhortation The Church in America in front of Saint Juan Diego's tilma in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Holy Father exemplified what the Mother of America proclaimed-that she and her Son were there for everyone, especially the most vulnerable. No wonder that her image has been carried by the United Farm Workers, pro-life advocates, and fighters for the rights of Native Americans.

Our U.S. Bishops have published a powerful document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. Like The Church in America it communicates in synopsis form the social teachings of our Church.

Our task now is to ingrain its message in the hearts and souls of our people, through our schools, religious education programs, RCIA processes, base communities, ongoing Catholic formation, and especially family gatherings.

Then we Catholics can be the bridge-builders we have the potential of being, integrating and uniting pro-life, pro-poor, pro-peace, pro-immigrant, pro-labor, pro-education, pro-family Americans into one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. The voting choices in future elections would then simply be who could implement these elements best, since every major political party would champion them all.

Catholic social teaching can indeed be the leaven in the dough of American public life. Years ago, Peter Maurin, co-founder (with Dorothy Day) of the Catholic Worker movement, wrote an essay entitled "Blowing the Dynamite." In this he stated the following: "To blow the dynamite of a message is the only way to make the message dynamic. If the Catholic Church is not today the dominant social dynamic force, it is because Catholic scholars have taken the dynamite of the Church, have wrapped it up in nice phraseology, placed it in an hermetic container and sat on the lid. It is about time to blow the lid off so the Catholic Church may again become the dominant social dynamic force."

Earlier this year, I conducted a parish mission in Texas attended by hundreds of recent immigrants and descendents of immigrants.

At this mission, State Representative Dora Olivo shared deeply encouraging words reflecting her own Mexican-American roots and the profound need for communities to get involved more actively than ever in promoting issues of respect for life, human dignity, quality education, proper health care, justice and peace. Her political life has witnessed to the entirety of Catholic social teaching. She is one of the very few. With Dora, one does not have to choose between who is pro-life and who is pro-poor. She is both.

As Catholic voters, we need to follow her example and, in keeping with Peter Maurin, "blow the lid off" and embrace Catholic Social teaching in all of its dimensions.

Father Bruce Nieli, C.S.P., is a Paulist priest, evangelist and missionary living in Memphis. He is also the former Director for Evangelization of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.