{"id":23303,"date":"2013-11-02T10:04:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T14:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/everyone_has_the_right_to_vote\/"},"modified":"2013-11-03T09:12:01","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T13:12:01","slug":"everyone-has-the-right-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/everyone-has-the-right-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone has the right to vote, NOT to vote is a grave sin of omission"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"voting<\/a><\/span>I once said to someone –I can’t recall who it was now– that for a US citizen NOT to vote is a grave error in being a good citizen, and a good Catholic. Sinful, in fact. AND at this this time I had no idea what a previous Pope held to be true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Perhaps the statement is a bit heavy-handed but I had a point. We have a distinct responsibility to assist in the governing process; to abandon this responsibility is reckless. Are you socially responsible? So many seem not to be, and don’t even care to be.<\/div>\n
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In the West our freedoms are based on a values wrought by civility, the intellect, the common good and common sense. Why isn’t voting more compelling to citizens and Catholics even in the face of pretty bad candidates? Opting out of the voting process seems to be foolish and a not too brilliant when you think of the good of the republic and the wars that got the freedoms we enjoy today to be a reality. We are, by nature I believe, concerned for the destiny and good of others now and at the end of time. Voting is one of those ways in which we are co-operators with grace for the good of humanity, even the very localized humanity in my town, state and nation.<\/p>\n
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By accident I came across what Pope Pius XII said in 1947 about voting. I realized that a higher authority than me and before me had something intelligent to say. Notice the Pope’s emphasis here. Pius said,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There is a heavy responsibility on everyone, man or\u00a0woman, who has the right to vote, especially when the interests of religion are\u00a0at stake; abstention in this case is in itself, it should be thoroughly\u00a0understood, a grave and fatal sin of omission. On the contrary, to exercise,\u00a0and exercise well, one’s right to vote is to work effectively\u00a0for the true good\u00a0of the people<\/b>,\u00a0as loyal defenders of the cause of God and of the Church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once said to someone –I can’t recall who it was now– that for a US citizen NOT to vote is a grave error in being a good citizen, and a good Catholic. Sinful, in fact. AND at this this time I had no idea what a previous Pope held to be true. \u00a0Perhaps the … Continue reading Everyone has the right to vote, NOT to vote is a grave sin of omission<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[2958,2949,32096,2547],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29151,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23303\/revisions\/29151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}