US bishops release guidelines for clergy in forming faithful citizenship

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced Sept. 8 new guidance for clergy on preaching faithful citizenship, emphasizing that Catholic moral teaching should shape the faithful’s participation in public life.

Developed by the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the resource includes outlines for formation sessions and accompanying preaching aids for diocesan use.

“Crucially, faithful citizenship is a way of life, not merely something exercised when marking a ballot. Although it addresses specific moral issues—abortion, racial equality, economic inequities, criminal justice, euthanasia, family life, immigration, participation in the political process, war and peace, and many more—faithful citizenship fundamentally is a way of seeing the world in the light of the Gospel and allowing Gospel truth to point the way to prudential judgements and concrete decisions,” they wrote.

The resource centers on three themes the bishops proposed for preaching faithful citizenship: the Church’s role in transforming society, Christ’s call to recognize every person as a neighbor, and the need to place faith before politics. The bishops presented the themes not as “single-issue” agendas, but as parts of an integral Catholic way of life rooted in Scripture and Tradition.

“Teaching the moral truths that should shape our lives, including our public lives, is central to the mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ,” the bishops wrote.

Drawing from Christ’s parable of the yeast, the bishops said lay Catholics serve as leaven in society through work and civic participation, bringing a public witness formed by faith rather than partisan allegiance.

“Like many Americans, some Catholics choose to expose themselves to a steady stream of information from partisan sources, and this often results in the embrace of partisan viewpoints, such that the faithful embrace political ideologies aligned with a political party rather than allowing their perspectives to be formed by the whole of Church teaching, which does not align itself with any political party or ideology,” they wrote.

The bishops acknowledged that some Catholics question whether matters of public concern have a place in the liturgy and would prefer the Mass to remain apart from political conflict and round-the-clock media coverage.

The bishops said, however, that this concern cannot remove public life from the Church’s mission to form the faithful in moral truth. Pointing to canon law, they explained the Church’s authority to speak about moral questions affecting society.

“It belongs to the Church always and everywhere to announce moral principles, even about the social order, and to render judgment concerning any human affairs insofar as the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls requires it,” the guidance states.

Connecting that responsibility to Christ’s commands to serve the poor and vulnerable and to practice justice and mercy, the bishops said they must teach on such matters “whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”

“All the faithful, in turn, have the duty to live in accord with their consciences including in public life,” the bishops wrote.

The bishops pointed to secularism and relativism among the cultural challenges facing the Church, warning that faith is increasingly confined to private life as belief in objective moral truth erodes.

Citing Pope St. John Paul II, they added, “This is the risk of an alliance between democracy and ethical relativism, which would remove any sure moral reference point from political and social life, and on a deeper level make the acknowledgement of truth impossible.”

The bishops connected those pressures to what they called “boutique ecclesiology,” in which Catholics seek religious voices that affirm their existing opinions rather than leave room for conversion.

Amid those challenges, the bishops also identified opportunities for growth through modern communications, the richness of Catholic liturgy and tradition, and increased interest in Catholicism. Each, they said, can help deepen the formation of Catholics seeking to understand and live the faith.

The guidance also urged Catholics to listen patiently to views they may initially find uncomfortable, trusting in a shared “desire to hear the voice of God speaking the truth.”