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| April 2004 |
| Faithful citizen effort aimed at helping
pastors, congregations |
Gene Young
Managing Editor
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Priests across the diocese are working
to incorporate the idea of faithful citizenship more into their
parishes.
Dan Misleh, director of diocesan relations for the office of
world peace and social justice of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), recently led a workshop in Sioux
Falls discussing the value and importance of faithful citizenship
with the priests, staff and volunteers.
Misleh told the group parishes have important opportunities
this year to share the social teachings of the Church and to
encourage parishioners to exercise their responsibilities as
voting citizens and as believers.
“Faithful citizenship is, by no means, a new idea,”
he said. “Every four years, the bishops update and reissue
their faithful citizenship document.”
Misleh told those gathered the idea is also much more than simply
paying more attention to what is happening because it is an
election year. “It’s about becoming involved in
our neighborhoods, our churches, our nation and our world,”
he said. “We do need to become engaged in the issues,
we need to understand how our Catholic tradition looks at a
variety of issues and how we can apply our values to the political
arena.”
As part of the USCCB’s faithful citizenship update effort,
the group provides packets to dioceses, to parishes and to pastors.
The packet includes planning ideas for parish staffs and councils,
supplementary materials for parish bulletins, a family guide
to the issue as well as ideas for liturgists and prayer leaders,
suggestions for homilists and support materials for many other
church ministers staff and volunteers.
Misleh told the group how the bishops got the idea of faithful
citizenship exactly right.
“We are first faithful and then we are citizens,”
Misleh pointed out. “Part of our calling as Catholics
is to be engaged in transforming society. One way to do that
is to be involved in the political process.”
Misleh said that because the Church is so important to our society,
there are plenty of responsibilities that fall to Catholics.
“We have charitable works,” he said. “The
Catholic Church is the largest private provider of health care,
of social services. We have a vast amount of experience in dealing
with people who are poor, who are hurting, who are hungry and
we need to bring that to bear on the political process in this
country and we have an obligation to do that.”
The tradition of faithful citizenship dates back to the beginnings
of the Church,
He stressed that people should not be confused by the idea of
separation of church and state. That idea does not preclude
Catholics from being involved in the political process.
But he stressed faithful citizenship is not about being partisan,
is not about endorsing candidates, is not about telling people
how to vote and not about trying to form a religious voting
bloc. “We begin with our faith and the values that we
have,” he said. “The key to those is to protect
all human life, to promote human dignity, to promote community
and family life and to allow everybody to participate in society.”
“We encourage people to become involved and stay involved
in the political process,” Misleh concluded.
To learn more about faithful citizenship, contact your parish
pastor or the Respect Life Office at 605-988-3755 or at 523
North Duluth Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 or www.sfcatholic.org. |
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