U.S. Catholic bishops this week released a statement on faith and politics, as they have for more than 30 years, that urged Roman Catholics to follow church teachings as they participate in the political process. The statement, titled "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility," was posted online Wednesday at usccb.org and prompted swift reactions, both positive and negative, from a variety of Catholic groups. Less visible was the process of debate and group editing used to produce the document. The bishops considered dozens of proposed revisions, rejecting some and approving others.
The statement, approved at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting in Baltimore, addresses many issues, from healthcare to the war in Iraq, and repeated church opposition to abortion, the death penalty and embryonic stem cell research. It said voters who back candidates because of their support for such "assaults on human life" would be "guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil." Some edits were minor. In one sentence, for example, the bishops deleted a "yet." Elsewhere, "Earth" sometimes became "earth." And like writers everywhere, the bishops rearranged words to emphasize particular points. One sentence originally read, "Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as racism, torture, genocide, and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified." The revision gave more emphasis to genocide: "Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war, can never be justified."
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