Cardinal Tobin: The Challenge of Politics and Public Affairs
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Vol. 7. No. 4
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
The world of politics and public affairs often presents a challenge to clear thinking and right judgment. It isn’t easy to tell what the right answers are to serious questions that confront us as we seek to make responsible decisions on questions of public policy.
None of us has infallible judgment on social issues. What we do have is a clear and consistent guide to faithful decision-making. This guide is, of course, Catholic social teaching based on Sacred Scripture and 2,000 years of informed reflection on issues that are fundamental to living according to God’s plan for individuals and communities. The task of faithful citizenship is to apply these basic principles of Catholic social teaching to the concrete circumstances of today.
To help us in this often-complex process, the bishops of the United States have provided us with a useful framework called “Forming Conscience for Faithful Citizenship” (available online at www.usccb.org). This publication identifies many of the serious issues that are at stake today.
Catholic social teaching does not tell anyone who or what they should vote for, but it does advise us on the moral principles that must be applied to each major issue. Then it’s up to us to study the positions of candidates and the platforms of political parties and determine where they stand in relationship to fundamental moral values.
The USCCB’s list of critical issues is lengthy:
- Human life, including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, and other life issues
- Promoting Peace
- Marriage and Family Life
- Religious Freedom
- Preferential Option for the Poor
- Health Care
- Migration
- Catholic Education
- Promoting Justice and Countering Violence,
- Combating Unjust Discrimination
- Care for our Common Home
- Communications, Media, and Culture
- Global Solidarity
And I would add, for emphasis:
- Wars, terror, and violence that threaten every aspect of human life and dignity.
Obviously, these are complex issues, and it’s clear that no individual candidate or political party today aligns perfectly with Catholic social teaching on every issue. However, we who wish to be faithful Catholics and responsible citizens need to understand what’s at stake in each of these issues, and we need to vote according to our informed consciences.
An informed conscience is one that looks beyond political correctness and the ideologies of the left and the right to find the truth. An informed conscience is open to the ideas of others, welcomes serious and respectful debate, and refuses to allow prejudices and emotions to distract us from voting for people and programs that promote the common good. This is the heart of synodality, and it is essential to effective, co-responsible leadership in both civic and ecclesial affairs.
In his message below, Pope Leo XIV echoes his predecessors, Francis, Benedict XVI, and John Paul II in loudly proclaiming the Church’s “No!” to war and “Yes!” to peace and fraternity. Quoting Evangelii Gaudium #227, the Holy Father says: “The willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it and to make it a link in the chain of a new process” is the wisest path, the path of the strong.
Think of all the violence we have witnessed recently. Hateful speech seems to inflame violent action which, in turn, sparks more hatred and anger. It’s a vicious cycle spiraling out of control.
Jesus taught us by his own powerful example that nonviolence is the path of the strong. He also reminded us that everyone is a child of God deserving of dignity and respect. Unless we can treat each other with respect, courtesy, and dignity, we will never know peace.
The Church cannot remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice, peace, and economic stability. As Pope Leo reminds us, “Recognizing that the other person is a brother or sister means freeing ourselves from the pretense of believing that we are isolated individuals or from the logic of forming relationships only out of self-interest.”
May our Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, help us to recognize our common humanity as sisters and brothers in Christ and as members of the one family of God.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM
OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD
The Solemnity of Christ the King
November 24, 2013
182. The Church’s teachings concerning contingent situations are subject to new and further developments and can be open to discussion, yet we cannot help but be concrete – without presuming to enter into details – lest the great social principles remain mere generalities which challenge no one. There is a need to draw practical conclusions, so that they “will have greater impact on the complexities of current situations”.[148] The Church’s pastors, taking into account the contributions of the different sciences, have the right to offer opinions on all that affects people’s lives, since the task of evangelization implies and demands the integral promotion of each human being. It is no longer possible to claim that religion should be restricted to the private sphere and that it exists only to prepare souls for heaven. We know that God wants his children to be happy in this world too, even though they are called to fulfillment in eternity, for he has created all things “for our enjoyment” (1 Tim 6:17), the enjoyment of everyone. It follows that Christian conversion demands reviewing especially those areas and aspects of life “related to the social order and the pursuit of the common good”.[149]
183. Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society. Who would claim to lock up in a church and silence the message of Saint Francis of Assisi or Blessed Teresa of Calcutta? They themselves would have found this unacceptable. An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better that we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters. If indeed “the just ordering of society and of the state is a central responsibility of politics”, the Church “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice”.[150] All Christians, their pastors included, are called to show concern for the building of a better world. This is essential, for the Church’s social thought is primarily positive: it offers proposals, it works for change and in this sense, it constantly points to the hope born of the loving heart of Jesus Christ. At the same time, it unites “its own commitment to that made in the social field by other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, whether at the level of doctrinal reflection or at the practical level”.[151]
184. This is not the time or the place to examine in detail the many grave social questions affecting today’s world, some of which I have dealt with in the second chapter. This Exhortation is not a social document, and for reflection on those different themes we have a most suitable tool in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, whose use and study I heartily recommend. Furthermore, neither the Pope nor the Church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social realities or the proposal of solutions to contemporary problems. Here I can repeat the insightful observation of Pope Paul VI: “In the face of such widely varying situations, it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. This is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country”.[152]
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the one Christ we are one
The world is currently marked by conflicts and divisions, which makes it all the more important that you are united by a strong and courageous “no” to war and a “yes” to peace and fraternity. As Pope Francis taught us, war is not the right way to resolve a conflict. “The willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it and to make it a link in the chain of a new process” (Evangelii Gaudium, 227) is the wisest path, the path of the strong. Your presence bears witness to this wisdom, which unites cultures and religions, and is that silent force that enables us to recognize each other as brothers and sisters, despite all our differences.
According to Scripture, the first fraternal relationship between Cain and Abel immediately and tragically became conflictual. However, that first murder should not lead us to conclude that “it has always been this way.” No matter how ancient or widespread, Cain’s violence cannot be tolerated as “normal.” On the contrary, the norm is revealed in God’s question to the guilty party: “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). It is in this question that we find our vocation, the rule and measure of justice. God does not take revenge on Cain for Abel, but asks him a question that echoes throughout the course of history.
Today more than ever, we must make this question our own as a principle of reconciliation. Once internalized, it will resonate in this way: “Brother, sister, where are you?” Where are you in the “business” of wars that shatter the lives of young people forced to take up arms; target defenseless civilians, children, women and elderly people; devastate cities, the countryside and entire ecosystems, leaving only rubble and pain in their wake? Brother, sister, where are you among the migrants who are despised, imprisoned and rejected, among those who seek salvation and hope but find walls and indifference? Where are you, brother, sister, when the poor are blamed for their poverty, forgotten and discarded, in a world that values profit more than people? Brother, sister, where are you in a hyper-connected life where loneliness corrodes social bonds and makes us strangers even to ourselves?
The answer cannot be silence. You are the answer, with your presence, your commitment, and your courage. The answer is choosing a different direction of life, growth and development.
Recognizing that the other person is a brother or sister means freeing ourselves from the pretense of believing that we are isolated individuals or from the logic of forming relationships only out of self-interest. It is not only self-interest that makes us enter into relationships. Great spiritual traditions and the maturation of critical thinking enable us to go beyond blood or ethnic ties, beyond those kinships that recognize only those who are similar and reject those who are different. It is interesting that in the Bible, as revealed by scientific exegesis, it is the most recent and mature texts that narrate a fraternity that transcends the ethnic boundaries of God’s people and is founded on a common humanity. The stories of creation and the genealogies bear witness that all people, even enemies, have the same origin, and the Earth, with its goods, is for everyone, not just for some.
At the heart of the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, we read: “Social friendship and universal fraternity necessarily call for an acknowledgement of the worth of every human person, always and everywhere” (n. 106).
Fraternity is the most authentic name for closeness. It means rediscovering the face of the other. For those who believe, they recognize the Mystery: the very image of God in the face of the poor, the refugee and even the adversary.
(A selection from the Address of Pope Leo XIV to participants in the third World Meeting on Human Fraternity, September 25, 2025)
My Prayer for You
Please join me in this “Prayer to the Creator” from the encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship.
Lord, Father of our human family,
you created all human beings equal in dignity:
pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit
and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter,
dialogue, justice and peace.
Move us to create healthier societies
and a more dignified world,
a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.
May our hearts be open
to all the peoples and nations of the earth.
May we recognize the goodness and beauty
that you have sown in each of us,
and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects,
and shared dreams. Amen.