Carrying out civic duties as a Catholic can be difficult sometimes. It’s hard to think about all the actions we might be morally complicit in just by paying taxes alone. Voting for public officials is even more complicated; it seems there is never a candidate that fulfills the values we have as Catholics. Whether it be the presidential candidate or DAs, we are presented with the choice of potentially promoting harmful agendas along with beneficial ones, or not voting at all (an unappealing decision, as its one of our duties as citizens). Maybe there’s a more-appealing candidate that checks more Catholic boxes but has no chance of winning. Voting for that candidate might allow us to wash our hands clean of any potential wrongdoing of the candidates that have a chance of winning, but it also creates the same impact of someone who doesn’t vote at all.
I bring this up in light of Pope Francis’s recent answering of this question regarding the upcoming presidential election. In reference to both candidates shortcomings about abortion for one and migrant deportation for the other, he said, “[y]ou must vote, and one has to choose the lesser evil.”
I bring this up because it relates to the problems I have approaching criminal justice issues in America (and because sometimes I want to comment on current things that happen :) ). On the spectrum of idealist to realist Catholics, I tend to lean idealist. Much of the justice system is easy to scrutinize when comparing its values to the Gospel, which preaches love and forgiveness. But our state is imperfect, we are imperfect, our systems are imperfect, our candidates are imperfect. I often struggle with having to compromise with imperfection, but the biggest impact comes from people who understand our imperfect world and try to make changes little by little.
I appreciated this reminder from Pope Francis. See you next week.
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