Cardinal Burke: Moral Questions Regarding Voting

As Election Day approaches, many have raised serious moral questions regarding how to vote. Sadly, in our great nation, we confront a situation in which both major political parties espouse certain agenda which are flagrantly contrary to the most fundamental tenets of the moral law, agenda against the inviolable dignity of innocent and defenseless human life, agenda against the integrity of marriage and its fruit, the family, and agenda against the free exercise of the virtue of religion. As Catholics, we should be clear that the moral law is certainly binding for us, but it is, likewise, binding for all men and women because it is written upon the human heart by God. For Catholics, as for all men and women of good will, the question is: In fulfilling our civic duty to vote, how can we be obedient to the law of God written upon our hearts in the present situation of deplorable moral and therefore cultural decline and decay.

In attempting to answer the question of how to vote in good conscience, I refer to the Pastoral Letter, “On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good,” which, as Archbishop of Saint Louis, I published on October 1, 2004. A PDF version of the Pastoral Letter is accessible at the following link: On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good

While I recommend the study of the Pastoral Letter, I offer the following indications for the question of how to vote with moral integrity.

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