Both political parties have chosen candidates for state and national office. Now, we as faithful citizens have important and sometimes difficult decisions to make, taking into account a candidate’s character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue (USCCB, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, 2023). The candidate must have good moral values and the integrity to pursue them; the intelligence, human relations skills, mastery of policy needed; and the ability to work well with other people, both allies and opponents.
These are important when considering the need to protect our common home. In Laudato Si, Pope Francis reminds us that peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three interconnected themes which cannot be separated. Since 1990, the Catholic Church has identified human-caused climate change as an urgent moral issue that violates many Gospel values. Saint John Paul II described the greenhouse effect as reaching crisis proportions (Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All Creation, January 1990). Pope Benedict XVI asked if we can remain indifferent before the problems associated with climate change (If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation, January 2010). US bishops wrote that decarbonization is the preeminent environmental challenge faced by all nations (USCCB, November 2023) and Pope Francis (Laudate Deum, 2023) stated that “climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society”. The impact of climate change on the life of all God’s creation must be one of the issues we consider when casting our votes.