The season of voter primaries is upon us in Chicago and elsewhere. Voting is a moral act, so considering how to vote requires moral deliberation. What are the principles and the issues that help a person of faith decide how to vote? Can the Pope be of help? Since the Pope is sovereign, the question of how to vote doesn’t apply to him personally. But the Holy Father’s Lenten Message for 2012 gives us the framework for shaping our thoughts and honing the considerations we should have in coming to a morally responsible decision on how to vote.
Pope Benedict begins his letter by stating, “the Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity.” Our Holy Father wrote his first encyclical letter on charity, because God is love. Because God is love, his love for us is infinite; and God tells us to love others because he loves them. In this year’s Lenten Message, Pope Benedict reminds us of words from the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.”
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