|
|
BarackObama.com MyBO Fact Check on Religion | Action Center Phone Bank from Home Contribute | |
|
Welcome!
We are members of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States who are supporting the campaign of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (a Catholic) to be the next President and Vice President of the United States -- and urging others of our faith to do the same. We are real, honest-to-goodness, practicing Catholics who embrace and call attention to Catholic Social Teaching, which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops describes as "wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society."
On this website, we have collected and linked to documents from the Church and from Church authorities that reflect on the importance of civic participation motivated by all of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching: Life and Dignity of the Human Person; Call to Family, Community, and Participation; Rights and Responsibilities; Option for the Poor and Vulnerable; The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers; Solidarity; and Care for God's Creation.
Even though we do not agree with all of Senator Obama's positions, we believe that he is the best candidate for President. He is able to inspire and appeal not only to committed Democrats, but to independents and Republicans too. He has a way of bringing people together that can only help our country as well as our country's relationship with the rest of the world. We desperately need a President who will give voice to our better angels. Senator Obama resists succumbing to partisan or divisive rhetoric and will look for common ground in addressing some of the most pressing needs of our time -- among them alleviating poverty, protecting the environment, making peace and, we believe, creating a culture of life.
We know that for many Roman Catholics, the call to embrace a culture of life often leaves us with a voting dilemma, as it is the rare candidate who adopts all of the positions that would best lead to such a culture. We acknowledge that Senator Obama's position on abortion is in conflict with the vision of the Church. Among other documents, we hope you will read and contemplate a letter from the Archbishop of Denver, excerpted below*:
"So can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice candidate? The answer is: I can't, and I won't. But I do know some serious Catholics -- people whom I admire -- who may. I think their reasoning is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They don't keep quiet about it; they don't give up; they keep lobbying their party and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite -- not because of -- their 'pro-choice' views. But they also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a 'proportionate' reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life -- which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed."
After faithful thought and prayer, we have arrived at the conclusion that Senator Obama is the candidate whose views are most compatible with the Catholic outlook, and we will vote for him because of that -- and because of his other outstanding qualities -- despite our disagreements with him in specific areas.
We invite you to join us in supporting Barack Obama for President -- Yes, We Can! A listserv with many active members is hosted by barackobama.com (the list's home page can be found here). Between now and Election Day, we hope you will spend some reflective time on our website. Here you can learn about Catholic Social Teaching, about the U.S. Bishops' advice for incorporating it into voting, about where Senator Obama stands on the issues and about how he himself has described the faith that guides him.
*Archbishop Chaput's full letter has always been linked from this page, but the quotation above was expanded by four sentences in response to concerns he expressed in his May 19 Denver Catholic Register column. We've urged since we launched the site that voting Catholics read all of the material posted or linked here, and we continue to do so.
This website is not affiliated with the campaign of Barack Obama or with the Roman Catholic Church.
Updated August 23, 2008.
|
We hope you'll spend time reviewing all of the material housed or linked from here. But if you read just two documents, please make them the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' 