Faithful Citizenship

The Church encourages Catholics to exercise their rights and responsibilities as active participants in the American democracy, offering guidance through teaching documents, state voter guides and statements from their local bishops.

The Church does not endorse any candidate. However, the Church does ask Catholics, as faithful citizens, to make their election decisions based on a properly formed conscience, based on Catholic social teaching.

The U.S. bishops caution that their teachings should not be used selectively to serve partisan interests.

In 2020, the Church launched a campaign called “Civilize It,” which asks Catholics to pledge to be civil and compassionate when they engaged in political conversations with members of their families, parishes and other communities.