Tag: voting

On
Kevin Wondrash

Voting underway to name new homeless day resource center

MADISON — Voting on a name for the new homeless day resource center is now underway. Four finalists are in the running: The Opportunity Place, The Net, The Beacon, and Turning Point Center.

From all around Dane County, people submitted ideas for what to name the center that is under construction in Madison at 615 E. Washington Ave.

Schools, faith centers, clubs, organizations, and individuals submitted ideas for a name. Those who would be using the center were included as well. Bethel Lutheran Church provided its homeless guests with an opportunity to submit ideas offline.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Vote for the future of our nation

Dear Friends,

If you weren’t certain before, after this current election season, I hope you’ve now come to understand and believe that we are not in heaven!

I love the United States of America. I truly believe that our Founding Fathers had it right in so many ways, and that we have enjoyed a country that has provided — albeit still imperfectly — levels of freedom and opportunity for more people than any other in history. Nevertheless, I never made the mistake of thinking that this was heaven, or that some perfect candidate or party was ever going to usher in God’s Kingdom here on earth.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Voting is our responsibility as faithful citizens

Four years ago, during the last presidential election, I wrote that living in a swing state isn’t much fun. We had been inundated with television advertising and campaign phone calls for many months.

Just as it was four years ago, this election season has also been a trying time for Wisconsinites, who find themselves bickering with relatives, friends, co-workers, and even church members over political candidates and issues. I’ve noticed people have even requested Facebook friends to stop posting information on politics.

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Jeff Davis and Greg Wagner

Consider party platforms when voting

Jeff Davis and Greg Wagner

As Catholic voters, what are we to do when neither presidential candidate seems to share our beliefs and values? Some may opt to sit out this election and not vote, others may vote for a third party candidate, and others may write in a candidate.

We feel there is a better option, and that is to look at the party platforms. The party platforms between the Republicans and the Democrats represent two diametrically opposed world views.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Voters urged not to sit on sidelines

faithful citizenship

MADISON — This election year, Catholics may find it difficult to choose candidates and be tempted not to vote.

However, failure to vote would not be in keeping with Catholic teaching, which emphasizes that faithful citizens should be involved in the political process.

That’s what Barbara Sella told those gathered recently at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Madison for her presentation, “Be Catholic First: Tools for Discerning as We Approach Election 2016.”

Sella is associate director for respect life and social concerns for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC), the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops.

Role to play

Faithful citizens “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines,” she said in quoting Pope Francis. “We have an actual role to play in the politics of our nation.”

Sella said, “The Church emphasizes that our choices have to be grounded in moral principles, and we have to use our prudential judgment based on the values of our faith.

“Forming our conscience is the first step. But we have to form it in line with the teachings of the Church.”

The role of the Church itself is as a “teaching institution.” The bishops and priests teach the laity. “We are the doers,” Sella emphasized.

“The bishops and priests rely on the expertise of lay people.”

Key principles

This year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is emphasizing four key principles in its materials on Faithful Citizenship (see www.faithfulcitizenship.org):

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John Huebscher

Message for November 4: Vote

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

In Wisconsin, voting is a basic right enshrined in our state constitution. Voting is also a solemn obligation of all faithful citizens charged with a responsibility for the affairs of the community.

There are several powerful reasons for all of us to take the trouble to vote in the coming election.

Many don’t bother to vote

For one thing, the vote is a powerful weapon for those who use it, and too many of us don’t bother to vote.

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Greg Wagner

Vote to uphold sanctity of all human life

To the editor:

For 40 years, the grim reality of abortion has hidden in the shadows of euphemisms and double-speak. As such, we can walk into the voting booth and forget the horrible damage caused by abortion: damage, first and foremost to the baby, but also damage to the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of the mom.

How important is the sanctity of each human life? St. John Paul II tells us, “truly great must be the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!” (from The Gospel of Life)

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Patrick Hardyman

Consider ‘intrinsic evil’ of abortion in voting

To the editor:

In June 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights leader, wrote a letter to eight white clergymen explaining why he was in Birmingham, Ala., fighting racial discrimination. Dr. King wrote this letter from his jail cell, thus it has been famously known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

In the letter Dr. King talked about just and unjust laws. “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law . . . an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Since 1973, almost 55 million surgical abortions have taken place in this country because seven unelected men serving for life decided they were above God’s eternal law. Of course, I am speaking of the seven men on the nine-member body of the United States Supreme Court who voted to strike down the abortion laws in all 50 states with its 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

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On
Patrick Hardyman

Consider ‘intrinsic evil’ of abortion in voting

To the editor:

In June 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights leader, wrote a letter to eight white clergymen explaining why he was in Birmingham, Ala., fighting racial discrimination. Dr. King wrote this letter from his jail cell, thus it has been famously known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

In the letter Dr. King talked about just and unjust laws. “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law . . . an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Since 1973, almost 55 million surgical abortions have taken place in this country because seven unelected men serving for life decided they were above God’s eternal law. Of course, I am speaking of the seven men on the nine-member body of the United States Supreme Court who voted to strike down the abortion laws in all 50 states with its 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

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