Elections

Civic Responsibility

a session to prepare your group members to participate in the upcoming election…

because we are people who believe in god,
who trust in the goodness of the individuals who create our society,
who have hope for the world,
we must be responsible citizens.

tonight, invite your group to share stories, to ask questions, to voice insights,
about the upcoming election and how they will choose to participate in it.

as a way of beginning the conversation, spread the quote sheets around the room. let the group know that each page contains a quote or two from a particular document of catholic social teaching. invite everyone to take a turn at each page—reading the quote and writing down any thoughts or questions that the quote brings to mind. once everyone has had the chance to read and write on each page, bring the pages to the circle, and go through them one by one. allow these quotes and everyone’s reactions to them to guide a conversation about how we are called to participate in the political life of our society
and what that might mean for each of us.

these questions may also help to direct the conversation:
how do these quotes affect my desire to participate in the november election?
in what other ways can i be a citizen of faithful action?
what is overwhelming about all of this? what is inspiring?
how do i let my own light shine in a way that might contribute to the betterment of our society?


as a way of closing your evening together in prayer, invite everyone to voice their current prayers, read the reflection, and play the song. end with the sign of peace.

Every citizen also has the responsibility to work to secure justice and human rights through an organized social response.
-Economic Justice for All (#120)


It is in keeping with their dignity as persons that human being should take an active part in government.
-Peace on Earth (#73)



To take politics seriously at its different levels -- local, regional, national and worldwide -- is to affirm the duty of all people to recognize the concrete reality and the value of the freedom of choice that is offered to them to seek to bring about both the good of the city and of the nation and of humanity. Politics are a demanding manner -- but not the only one -- of living the Christian commitment to the service of others.
-A Call to Action (#46)



Christians must be conscious of their specific and proper role in the political community; they should be a shining example by their sense of responsibility and their dedication to the common good; they should show in practice how authority can be reconciled with freedom, personal initiative with solidarity and the needs of the social framework as a whole, and the advantages of unity with the benefits of diversity.
-The Church in the Modern World (#75)


Once again we exhort our children to take an active part in public life, and to contribute towards the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own country. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of the faith and with the strength of love, to ensure that the various institutions--whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose -- should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous humanity's perfectioning of itself both in the natural order as well as in the supernatural.
-Peace on Earth (#146)


Citizens should cultivate a generous and loyal spirit of patriotism, but without narrow-mindedness, so that they will always keep in mind the welfare of the entire human family which is formed into one by various kinds of links between races, peoples, and nations.
-The Church in the Modern World (#75)



Civic and political education is today supremely necessary for the people, especially young people. Such education should be painstakingly provided, so that all citizens can make their contribution to the political community.
Let those who are suited for it, or can become so, prepare themselves for the difficult but most honorable art of politics. Let them work to exercise this art without thought of personal convenience and without benefit of bribery. Prudently and honorably let them fight against injustice and oppression, the arbitrary rule of one person or one party, and lack of tolerance. Let them devote themselves to the welfare of all sincerely and fairly, indeed with charity and political courage.
-The Church in the Modern World (#75)



Citizens, on the other hand, should remember that it is their right and duty, which is also to be recognized by the civil authority, to contribute to the true progress of their own community according to their ability.
-The Church in the Modern World (#65)


Political parties, for their part, must support whatever in their opinion is conducive to the common good, but must never put their own interests before the common good.
-The Church in the Modern World (#75)


from HOLY THE FIRM
by Annie Dillard



…Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead—as if innocence had ever been—and our children busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been.

LET IT BE ME
by the indigo girls

sticks and stones, battle zones
a single light bulb on a single thread for the black
sirens wail, history fails
rose-colored glass begins to age and crack
while the politicians shadowbox the power ring
in an endless split decision never solve anything
from a neighbor's distant land
i heard the strain of the common man


let it be me
(this is not a fighting song)
let it be me
(not a wrong for a wrong)
let it be me
if the world is night
shine my life like a light


well the world seems spent
and the president has no good idea of who the masses are
well i'm one of them and i'm among friends
trying to see beyond the fences of our own backyard
i've seen kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
but the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
so the darker the ages get there's a stronger beacon yet


in the kind word you speak, in the turn of the cheek
when your vision stays clear in the face of your fear
then you see turning off a light switch is their only power
when we stand like spotlights in a mighty tower
all for one and one for all
then we sing the common call