Election Year/Faithful Citizenship

During election years, parishes have important opportunities to share the teachings of the Church and encourage parishioners to exercise their responsibilities as citizens and as believers.  The Catholic community in the United States can play an important role in shaping a world more consistent with the lessons of Scripture and the values of Catholic teaching. We can help protect the life and dignity of every human being and promote justice and peace in our world.

For parishes and other communities of faith, sharing Catholic teaching and conducting non-partisan voter education campaigns and voter registration drives are excellent ways to promote faithful citizenship. To help you, the bishops have issued a new statement on Faithful Citizenship as well as a bulletin insert summarizing the statement. These documents are now available at www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

For more information, contact the Office of Social Action: Brian Corbin or George Garchar or the Office of Pro-Life, Marriage and Family Ministry: Melinda Knight or Dan Thimons.

The Catholic Conference of Ohio also has electronic material and a website devoted to social policy issues focused on Ohio. 

Diocese of Youngstown Legislative Advocacy Network
To obtain more information or a speaker on current public policy issues, and how to become more involved in citizenship through advocacy based in Catholic Social Doctrine, contact George Garchar the Associate Director of Social Action for Community Development and Advocacy, at 330-744-8451.

For current social policy analysis and legislative priorities of the US Catholic Bishops, visit the Department of Social Development and World Peace website. See Catholic Charities USA website for human services social policy analysis and advocacy. For international development and relief efforts see Catholic Relief Services website and Caritas Internationalis website. For specific information on the Church's position on immigration, refugees and migrants, see The US Catholic Bishops' Justice for Immigrants Campaign. For State of Ohio social policy issues, visit the Catholic Conference of Ohio site.