A Properly Formed Conscience for Voting

"Voting is one of the most moral actions you can make, and therefore you must consider Our Lord will judge this action." (The 2020 Catholic Voters Guide. St. Michael's Media/Church Militant.com)

"Each of us is responsible to properly form our consciences" (CCC 1798).

"The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards of moral conduct (CCC 1776)."

When we are in a state of grace, there is a lot more predictability in our lives. A proper vote is one that comes from a properly formed conscience, and a properly formed conscience comes from living in a state of grace. We live in a state of grace when we avail ourselves of the sacraments, specifically the Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Confession. It's impossible to live in a state of grace without the sacraments. Living in a state of grace is not something we can do on our own. If we are not living in a state of grace, we cannot make good decisions. We overreact, worry constantly, are caught off-guard by surprises and are over-emotional. We live day-to-day, and exist only in peaks and valleys. There is no steady state. This is no way to live.

We may feel that everything is fine. We may say to ourselves, "I'm a nice person. I don't murder or steal or (usually) lie." While this may be generally true, this is how worldly people think. The world is dominated by mediocrity. Mediocrity is believing that we are nice people and we have it together all on our own, while we continue to overreact, constantly worry, and exist in either in a peak or valley. Which is it today for you, a peak or a valley? What will it be tomorrow?

Despite our state of mediocrity, we have a most important duty to fulfill on November 3, 2020. A vote is not a valentine for the candidate you like the most. It is not a judgment of a canditate's moral conduct, but a judgment of the policies that the candidate and his/her party support. It is a vote for for objective moral standards.

Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, once said, "Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan…[T]he devil loves to take over those who hold political office."

In the upcoming election, let us seek to fully understand the candidates and their party's policies, learn to separate moral issues from political ones, and weigh these issues against a set of moral standards and natural law.

"All are bound to seek the truth, to embrace it, and to hold on to it as they come to know it...these obligations bind the human" (Dignitatis Humanae 1965).