Can’t get more serious about it than this:
Bishop Robert J. Herman, the administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has written a column reminding Catholics that their vote will be a decision weighed on the Day of Judgment. He urged Catholics not to treat the unborn as the neglectful rich man treated Lazarus in the biblical parable.
“Judgment Day is on its way,” the bishop wrote in the St. Louis Review. “We cannot stop it. We don’t know when it will come, but just as surely as the sun rises daily, the Son of Man will come when we least expect.”
“For many, this coming election may very well be judgment day, for this election will measure us,” he continued, referencing Christ’s words of judgment in Matthew 10:32-33:
“Everyone who acknowledges Me before others, I will acknowledge before My heavenly Father. But whoever denies Me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Bishop Herman asked the faithful to consider what kind of witness they give to God when they enter the voting booth on Election Day.
“The decision I make in the voting booth will reflect my value system. If I value the good of the economy and my current lifestyle more than I do the right to life itself, then I am in trouble,” the bishop wrote.
He cited Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici, which said outcry on human rights is “false and illusory” if the right to life is not defended to the maximum.
“The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy,” Bishop Herman continued.
“My desire for a good economy cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion. My desire to end the war in Iraq cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion.”
For some time now, I’ve noted the repeated exhortations from the Church to the faithful to both vote and to take care to vote in accordance with Truth – the Church, of course, cannot endorse a candidate or party, but I think the message is being transmitted loud and clear that the most important thing for Catholics – and, indeed, all Christians – to take into consideration on November 4th is the most fundamental of all things, the right to life. If you’re not alive on November 5th, then all the other rights in the world are completely meaningless.
What is at stake in 2008 could not be more stark – vote one way, and we advance the Culture of Life; vote the other, and the culture of death takes a giant step forward with the inhuman “Freedom of Choice Act”. Choose wisely, fellow Christians and fellow Americans – think about what you are doing in that voting booth.
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