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Bishop's Statements
Faithful Citizenship Letter to Parishes
A statement of the New Jersey Catholic Bishops
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dear Pastors and Parish Leaders:
We are pleased to send you information about a new statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility.
This election year, and during the years to come, parishes have important opportunities to share the teachings of the Church and encourage parishioners to exercise their responsibilities as citizens and as believers. The Catholic community in the United States can play an important role in shaping a world more consistent with the lessons of Scripture and the values of Catholic teaching. We can help protect the life and dignity of every human being and promote justice and peace in our world.
For parishes and other communities of faith, sharing Catholic teaching and conducting non-partisan voter education campaigns and voter registration drives are excellent ways to promote faithful citizenship. To help you, the bishops have issued a new statement on Faithful Citizenship as well as a bulletin insert summarizing the statement. These documents are now available at www.faithfulcitizenship.org.
Also on the Web site you will find related documents from the Bishops and the Vatican, as well as planning ideas for parishes and dioceses. In the next few weeks, a wide range of educational resources will be added to the Web site, including resources for religious education programs, schools, youth ministry, young adult ministry, small faith communities, and others.
We thank you in advance for all you will do to promote faithful citizenship. With Catholic teaching as our guide, our community of faith can play an important role in shaping a world more respectful of human life and dignity and more committed to justice and peace.
With prayerful best wishes and asking God to bless you, we are
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Thomas Wenski
Bishop of Orlando
Chair, Committee on International Justice
& Peace
Most Reverend William Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Center
Chair, Committee on Domestic Justice &
Human Development
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