CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2023 / 14:06 pm
The U.S. bishops will vote this week at the the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall plenary meeting on whether to approve an addition to a guide that aims to help Catholics vote according to their faith.
In the past, bishops have debated whether the document should continue to call abortion a “preeminent” issue, and that question may be brought up again this year.
That document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” states that Catholics “are called to participate in public life in a manner consistent with the mission of Our Lord,” with the bishops using the publication to educate U.S. Catholics on “political responsibility” in the context of Church teaching.
The document was first issued in 2007 and has been updated every four years, just before U.S. presidential elections in 2011, 2015, and 2019. Last year at their annual fall assembly the bishops voted to postpone writing a full revision before the upcoming presidential election, with the conference set to approve a full update after 2024. (The bishops at that meeting voted instead to include a new introduction and “supplemental inserts” before the 2024 election.)