Montevideo, Uruguay, Oct 26, 2004 / 22:00 pm
With national elections just days away, the Permanent Council of the Uruguayan Bishops Conference issued a statement calling on Catholics to vote in the coming elections “without divorcing private and public life” and with a “strong sense of solidarity.”
In a message entitled, “Creating a Governable Country Together,” the bishops recalled that achieving national goals requires “deep ethical roots: without a divorce between public and private life, with a strong sense of solidarity—capable of overcoming growing fractures in society—and which promotes participation.”
“Catholics, in light of the coming elections, have the responsibility to cast their vote in conformity with the living and inspiring pages of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; because no commitment in the life of a Christian can be exempt from the yeast of the Gospel, which is capable of giving flavor even to the troubles and disappointments of life,” they said.
Likewise, the bishops stated that the common good is a “necessary condition for the development of society and individuals. This ‘common good’ does not consist of a mathematical equilibrium or of some far off well being once the cup begins to overflow.”