Priests for Life Newsletter - Nov-Dec 2003

Dear Friends,

Below is the November-December issue of our Priests for Life newsletter.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Please be sure to vote!

The moral positions of those in local office are important, too. Often, they impact
our day to day life even more than those in federal office. Moreover, many of
those elected today to local office will rise to higher office.

So please vote, and get your friends to vote, too!

God bless you!

Fr. Frank Pavone
www.priestsforlife.org/elections


Priests for Life Newsletter
Volume 13, Number 6
November- December 2003

Yes, it's legal to do voter registration!

Our national voter registration effort is well underway, and hundreds of Churches
of all denominations have begun to implement this very simple process to enable
their people to vote. The project is carried out by having voter registration forms
available at a table at the back of church, and inviting those who are not registered
(or who are not sure if they are registered) to fill out the form before they leave.
Full details on how to do this are at www.priestsforlife.org/vote.

If you have legal concerns, we can connect you with attorneys who can answer
your questions. For starters, non-partisan voter registration drives are perfectly
legal for Churches to carry out.

The Office of the General Counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops says the following: "Both IRS and the Federal Election Commission [11
C.F.R. §114.4(d)] permit Catholic organizations to sponsor voter registration and
get-out-the-vote drives, provided that no bias for or against any candidate,
political party, or voting position is evidenced. Such bias would be indicated by
distribution of partisan literature or materials indicating the organization's
positions in connection with the voter registration or get-out-the-vote drives, by
targeting registration or get-out-the-vote drives toward individuals who support
the organization's positions or a particular candidate or party, by coordinating
with candidates or their committees, etc. Thus, voter registration or get-out-the
vote efforts should not be conducted (1) in cooperation with any political
campaign, (2) according to the identity of the candidates, (3) based upon a
candidate's or party's agreement or disagreement with the sponsoring
organization's positions, or (4) in a manner targeting members of a particular
party. Targeting voter registration drives at historically disadvantaged groups,
whether based on economic status, race, gender or language, generally should not
be objectionable" ("Political Activity Guidelines for Catholic Organizations,"
February 29, 2000).

The guidelines of the Internal Revenue Service indicate the following:
"...[A]ctivities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral
process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not
constitute prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan
manner" (Internal Revenue Service, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious
Organizations, July 2002).

It is our observation that much good fails to get done because of vague hesitations
and fears in the legal arena. For this reason, Priests for Life and the Ave Maria
School of Law sponsored, on June 17, 2003, a symposium for attorneys and clergy
entitled, The Church and Politics: Are We As Restricted As We Think? National
experts on this topic addressed the gathering. The papers from the symposium can
be read on our website at www.priestsforlife.org/elections, and you can contact
our orders department (888-PFL-3448, ext. 237) for information on audio and
video from the conference.


Primaries
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

Too often, voters have little time to pay attention to politics.  Although they may
be somewhat informed, they often oversimplify an election by putting candidates
into two categories, "good guys" and "bad guys". 

Then, on Election Day, the "good guy" they would like to vote for may be
nowhere to be found. All the choices, they feel, are unsatisfactory. "Where did
these characters come from?" they may ask. "Can't we find anyone better?"

The answer is closer to home than we think.

One of the great things about our American system is that voters not only select
which candidates get elected to public office, but also which of those who want to
be candidates actually end up on the ballot. In other words, we get to create the
choices we will have on Election Day.

That's what primaries are all about.

Primaries are elections that take place before the general Election Day. The dates
of primaries differ in each state. (To find out the dates of primary races in your
state, visit the website www.nass.org/Issues/04primaries.html.) Unfortunately,
voter turnout for primaries is usually less than 20%. What that means, of course, is
that your vote in primary elections carries even more weight, proportionally, than
in the general election.

In the primary, you are choosing who is going to be the candidate for a particular
party on Election Day. In some states, you have to be registered in the party in
whose primary you want to participate. In other states, you can vote in the primary
of a party in which you are not registered.

When you vote in a primary, you have a wider range of choices, and are therefore
more likely to find a candidate with whom you agree on more issues. Remember,
just because a person runs for a particular party, that does not mean he or she
agrees with everything the party stands for. People associate themselves with
parties for different reasons. In a primary, you get to help a person become a
party's candidate for the reasons that you agree with.

In the Hawaii Gubernatorial campaign in 2002, the only pro-life candidate in
either party was defeated in a primary, leaving general election voters with a
choice between two pro-abortion candidates. That's one example of why voters
need to get to the polls on primary day.

When a candidate does well in a primary, furthermore, it builds momentum for his
or her campaign. Donors take notice, and so does the media. Voters will also be
more encouraged to vote for the candidates that seem to have more support.

Our bishops have outlined our political responsibilities in their 1998 document
Living the Gospel of Life. We're not supposed to sit back and lament what our
public officials do or don't do. We're supposed to get out there and elect those who
will do the job we want done. Let's not just settle for the choices we're given on
Election Day. Let's help create those choices in the primaries!


Fostering Faithful Citizenship: Statement for Priests to Sign

Dear Father,

Many priests have signed the statement below. If you have not yet done so,
however, we publish it here again to give you the opportunity. The statement will
be used in a non-partisan way on our website and sent to media outlets nationwide
to express our common commitment to life.
You may mail it back to us or fax it to us at 413-803-0092. (Note: If you did sign
this but were unable to get through on our other fax lines because they were busy,
try this number.) God bless you!
-- Fr. Frank Pavone and Staff

"As Catholic priests, ordained to preach the Gospel of Life, Justice, and Peace, we
a) affirm, in union with our bishops, that all citizens, particularly Catholics, should
exercise their duty to vote and should "embrace their citizenship not merely as a
duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building
the culture of life" (US Bishops, 1998, Living the Gospel of Life, n. 34);
b) embrace a consistent ethic of life, which asserts that all life issues are linked
and important, and which acknowledges that "among important issues involving
the dignity of human life with which the Church is concerned, abortion necessarily
plays a central role" (US Bishops, 2001, Pastoral Plan for Pro-life Activities, A
Campaign in Support of Life); and
c) echo our bishops' teaching that "No public official, especially one claiming to
be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support
direct attacks on innocent human life" (US Bishops, 1998, Living the Gospel of
Life, n. 32).
We are confident that the Lord of Life and Peace, who has conquered the power of
death, offers His people the grace necessary to build a Culture of Life.

______________________________________ __________________________
Signed Date
______________________________________ __________________________
Parish City, State

Comments about this column?  E-mail us at mail@priestsforlife.org, Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314;
Tel: 888-PFL-3448, 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; web: www.priestsforlife.org