The Eucharist and voting our Christian conscience

To cast a vote for a candidate who calls evil good and good evil is, in effect, “to lay violent hands upon Christ” (CCC, 598) rather than to allow his blood to purify our conscience. It is to rupture the unity between the Eucharist and daily life.

The Eucharist rests on a paten at the altar in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington, Del., May 27, 2021. (CNS photo/Chaz Muth)

“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28). St. Paul’s admonition regarding the worthy reception of Holy Communion is applicable to the entire life of a Christian because the liturgy is intended to bear fruit in the lives of Christians by making them a “spiritual sacrifice made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 2:5). This includes the exercise of the right to vote.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church frequently insists on the unity of faith, worship, and life. The liturgy, and especially its summit, the Eucharist, is meant to “produce its fruits in the lives of the faithful” (1072). The liturgy “enables us to live” the “spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation” (1095). Full, active, and conscious participation in the liturgy is “the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward” (1098). All of the faithful are called to “live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration” (1101).

The very word by which we name the celebration of the paschal mystery at Mass conveys this strict correlation between liturgical life and daily living of the faith: It is called “Holy Mass (Missa), because the liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the faithful, so that they may fulfill God’s will in their daily lives” (1332). Certainly, by reason of its relative infrequency, but especially because of its monumental consequences in the moral realm, voting and how one votes is one of the acts of Catholics that must be linked to the Eucharist as a most important fruit in their daily lives.

It is above all the Christian conscience that assures the continuity of faith, worship, and life. It is no accident that at the beginning of Mass the celebrant invites the assembled faithful to examine their consciences as the most appropriate way to become disposed to hear the word of God and to celebrate the Eucharist: “Brethren, let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” This liturgical examination of conscience and act of contrition renews the graces by which Christians receive the gift of a conscience purified by the blood of Christ, that is, the love of Christ: “the blood of Christ will … purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (Heb 9:14) Baptism confers precisely this grace of a purified conscience that enables us to serve God in liturgical worship and in daily life directed by faith that makes all of life “spiritual sacrifice made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 2:5). Indeed, it is eucharistic communion with the lord that perfects this baptismal grace of a purified conscience: “Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ … preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism” (CCC, 1392).

This understanding of the links that unite Baptism, the Eucharist, and conscience sheds light on the seriousness of the exercise of the right to vote by reason of its moral implications. The warning of Isaiah is apropos: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). There are among us those who call good things that are evil that can never be good: abortion; same-sex unions and “marriages”; unwarranted medical interventions to alter children’s bodies to suit their wishes; and the usurpation of parental rights by school boards and governmental bodies. By the dictate of elementary logic, they thereby call evil things that are good: the right of preborn persons to life; marriage defined as a covenant of love between one man and one woman; respect for innate sexual determination; and the divine order according to which parents are entrusted with the mission and responsibility, and corresponding right, to educate their children.

Isaiah’s judgment against those who call evil good and good evil extends to those who vote: “Woe to those who vote for those who call evil good and good evil.” To vote for a candidate who calls evil good and good evil on a matter of divine and natural law because the candidate holds that position is to be complicit in building an anti-human culture of self-destruction and death, and to qualify as a recipient of Isaiah’s denunciation.

The right to vote is both a privilege and a duty. In fact, it is “morally obligatory … to exercise the right to vote” (CCC, 2240). Voting is one of the primary ways in which citizens exercise political participation. And because politics inevitably entails moral values, voting is a primary way to contribute to a culture of love that is worthy of human dignity. By reason of the baptismal gift of a conscience purified by Christ’s blood, Christians have internalized God’s law, which boils down to love:

In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor. In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality. (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 16)

All moral values are, in the end, about love. In other words, moral values are about the true good of the human person, made in God’s image. And we know these values ordered to the true good of the human person when our consciences are rightly formed. Thus, a rightly formed conscience makes known the law that is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor. By holding to the truth about love and the true good of the human person, well-informed Catholics are the best of citizens, especially in a country like our own, which is founded on the principle of being one nation under God. For, a well-trained conscience detects the law of God.

In every action, be it political, educational, financial, or cultural, we are called “to be guided by a Christian conscience, since even in secular business there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God’s dominion” (Gaudium et spes, 76). The Second Vatican Council also teaches: “It is the special mission of the lay faithful, whose vocation is to foster the Kingdom of God through engagement in secular activities, “to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city” (Gaudium et spes, 43). To live in that unity of faith, worship, and life, the Catholic faithful must “distinguish carefully between those rights and duties which are theirs as members of the Church, and those which they have as members of human society.” At the same time, and lest this distinction in principle become a rupture in life, they must “reconcile the two, remembering that in every temporal affair they must be guided by a Christian conscience, since even in secular business there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God’s dominion” (Lumen gentium, 36).

Voting for candidates who uphold “the universal natural law and its all-embracing principles” is one of the most important ways that Catholics can obey God, his law, and their own consciences, which judge human activities according to these principles. A well-formed Christian conscience assures that such judgments are the judgments of God himself. For, we hear God’s voice in our consciences, and his voice can only echo the order that he has placed in his creation and to which we must, by reason of the order he has placed in us, always conform our freedom.

As we exercise our right and fulfill the duty to vote, we should keep in mind that God became man and suffered and died on the cross in order to “purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb 9:14). Dead works are actions that bring death to both body and soul. To violate God’s law by supporting candidates who overturn his law is to “nullify the grace of God” in that action by violating God’s law. For a Catholic to withdraw that action from the influence of his grace is a scandal that, in effect, shows that “Christ died for no purpose” (Gal 2:21).

We should also keep in mind that to serve God is at the same time to serve our fellow human beings. For God’s values constitute the true good of every person. To put God and his law and his values first is the best way—in fact, it is the only way—to promote a civilization of love that is worthy of human dignity.

Our system of voting goes to great lengths to assure each voter’s privacy in casting a vote. This helps to root out undue influence from others who might exert pressure on us to vote in a certain way. No one will know how we vote unless we tell them. But this is not true for God. God sees everything, even our thoughts and intentions. God has granted us the dignity of being free, but he has also placed limits on our freedom. We are called to responsible freedom, which is freedom guided by the truth—God’s truth, the truth about the true good of every person made in his image and likeness.

This responsible freedom is precisely what we experience in every moment of truth in our consciences. The word, conscience, means “knowledge with God.” It means that we are aware that we are never alone when we engage our freedom. It means that we are aware that God is always watching, as we read in the book of Wisdom: “For sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the Most High, who will himself probe your acts and scrutinize your intentions” (Wis 6:3). As in every use of our freedom, in voting we either submit our freedom to the truth or refuse to do so. Christ is the truth, and has fully revealed the truth about God and the truth about man.

To cast a vote for a candidate who calls evil good and good evil is, in effect, “to lay violent hands upon Christ” (CCC, 598) rather than to allow his blood to purify our conscience. It is to rupture the unity between the Eucharist and daily life. It is to be ashamed of him in the act of voting, and thus to be subject to his warning: “Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Lk 9:26).

To be guided by a Christian conscience when we vote means, in effect, that we are not alone when we vote. It means that we vote as ambassadors of Christ’s love by supporting candidates who hold to the principles of the law of God. For, only in this way can our votes contribute to the building of a culture and civilization of love in keeping with human dignity and thereby bear witness to Christ’s paschal mystery and our celebration of it in the Eucharist.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Douglas Bushman 19 Articles
Douglas Bushman is Director of Parish Formation and Mission at the Church of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, MN. He is well-known as past director of the Institute for Pastoral Theology at Ave Maria University and the University of Dallas and for his courses on Ecclesiology, Catholic Spirituality, John Paul II, Vatican II, Pastoral Theology, and the New Evangelization. He is the author of The Theology of Renewal for His Church: The Logic of Vatican II’s Renewal In Paul VI’s Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, and Its Reception In John Paul II and Benedict XVI(Wipf and Stock, forthcoming).

10 Comments

  1. It is a mortal sin to knowingly vote for any candidate who supports the murder of innocent and defenseless human persons – no matter what stage they are in their God-endowed human development.

    Again, I state emphatically: to vote for a political candidate who supports abortion is a mortal sin regardless of the nonsense promulgated by some of our Catholic apostates about a “seamless garment” that only intends to muddy the moral landscape.

  2. We are faced with politicians who call evil good and good evil. They call killing the unborn good and trying to protect the unborn evil.
    But, we can’t say this from the pulpit (too political)), can’t put it in the bulletin (too political), can’t put it in the diocesan newspaper (too political).
    However, a Georgia democrat candidate for governor preached in a Baptist church about the good of abortion. No repercussions, nothing about it being too political.
    As a Catholic Church, we run too afraid. If we cannot preach publicly about not voting for those who promote the killing of the unborn where are we. And then officially, the Catholic voting guides always throw in the phrase that there are other issues that , in conscience, a voter can take into consideration. It is at least an implied approval for Catholics to vote for a candidate who promotes the killing of the unborn. Terrible.

  3. I wish the author just said it plainly: don’t vote for candidates who support abortion and legalized euthanasia. Put those issues aside and you could argue from a Catholic point of view for Democrats or Republicans.

  4. What if every option in an election involves pro- abortion candidates/ parties? Surely I have no moral duty to vote in such a case ?

    • If two candidates were running for political office and both advocated the lynching of people on the basis of the color of their skin, would we then be forced to chose which one was the least undesirable so that our voting duty was discharged? Some would have us think so.

  5. A little off-topic on my part Mr. Shaw, but your question brings up an idea. Why not have a law that requires that for every office on the ballot from President to local dog catcher that at the very bottom there must be a choice presented as “None of the Above”? If “None of the Above” wins, the current officeholder remains in office until a special election can be held 2 or 3 months later with a slate of new candidates. No big deal. We say thank you to those who ran but lost and we encourage them to run again for the next term but for the present term the public wants none of them. I understand this does exist in a few places in the U.S.

    Years ago Louisiana was presented with the choice of David Duke or Edwin Edwards for governor. That election should serve as a poster child for a “None of the Above” selection.

  6. Talk of conscience implies that each person can make up their own mind about certain issues like abortion, transgenderism, gay marriage, etc. It would behoove the church authorities to simply say flat out that such things have been declared sins by the catholic church and “conscience” has nothing to do with those particular decisions. They are wrong, period. It is time to stop patting people on the head for fear of offending some of them with the truth.

  7. Conscience is an abused word, similar to words like peace, love, and compassion. Liberal Catholics get away with murder in their abuse of the word, and the only rebuke they ever receive is, well yes, conscience is the final arbiter, but it must be properly formed. We need something stronger in the lexicon of Catholic talking points that might border on what many would consider rude, but this can be softened with self deprecation.
    For me this is easy. As a former atheist, I am quick to tell people of my own background of being a fool and of being phony and self-serving in my beliefs. We have to always find a way to remind conscience-is-everything Catholics of the human propensity for just believing what we want to believe including politicians who tell us lies we want to believe.

  8. Since in prayer you meet with God and speak to God, and then listen, the conscience is important. In his text, CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE, St. John Paul II wrote in the chapter titled “What is the Use of Believing?” these words: “The ‘conscience,’ as the Council teaches, ‘is man’s sanctuary and most secret core, where he finds himself alone with God, whose voice resounds within him.'”
    The “mystery of salvation” becomes less of a mystery when we reflect on the words of Christ that are recorded at Mt 5.19: “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
    When we speak of Communion with God, and the blood of Christ, it is important to understand that the blood of the Passover sacrifice of Christ represents the seal of the agreement that we make with God, when we partake of the Cup of wine: “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Lk 22.2O; Cf. Jer 31.31-34)
    Let us please refrain from emphasizing the Bread, while neglecting to take notice of the Cup of wine that is the New Covenant in Christ’s blood.

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. The Eucharist and voting our Christian conscience – Catholic World Report – The Old Roman
  2. MONDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
  3. L'Eucharistie et le vote de notre conscience chrétienne

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*