The following was distributed at our mass today; therefore, the importance can’t be stressed enough for every Catholic.  We have found through Wikileaks the disdain that the democrats hold for all Catholics.  We must win this fight to have freedom of our religion.

Last November the U.S. Catholic Bishops approved for publication, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship:  A Call to Political Responsibility.   I encourage every Catholic to read the full document.  In this series of columns I am highlighting some of the important points.

The second part of the document applies Catholic teaching to major social issues based on the policy positions of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  These include:

1.Respecting every human life from conception to natural death in all its stages and in all genocide, torture, the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war  or terrorist attacks and reliance on the death penalty.

2.Avoiding war and promoting peace.  These include fundamental moral concerns about the preventive use of military force, and the proliferation of nuclear, chemical,, and biological weapons.

3.Strengthening and supporting marriage and family life, which includes policies on taxes, work, divorce, immigration and welfare with special attention to the needs of children.

4.Religious freedom that allows us to practice our faith and respect our conscience not only in our places of worship, but also through our educational, social, and health care institutions.

5.Preferential option for the poor and economic justice, including job creation, just wages, overcoming discrimination, supporting the right of workers to choose whether to organize or join a union, welfare policy that reduces poverty and dependency, support for social security, food security for all.

6.Affordable and accessible health care for all.

7.Just, humane immigration and migration policies and practices.

8.Ensuring parents’ rights to choose the education best suited for their children.

9.Promoting justice and countering violence, including opposition to the death penalty and reforming a broken criminal justice system.

10.Combatting unjust discrimination whether based on race, religion, sex, ethnicity, disabling condition, or age.

11.Care for our environment, our common home, seriously addressing climate change.

12.Protecting children and families in print, broadcast, and electronic media (including social media) that shape our culture in accordance with our beliefs and values.

13.Global solidarity, alleviating global poverty, promoting religious liberty and human rights, addressing regional conflicts (e.g. in the Middle East).

Admittedly this is a long list, but each of these has a moral dimension.  We have Catholic social teaching to guide us in the discussion and debate about public policies and in the election of our representatives.

kommonsentsjane