Do Catholics have to vote?

Every presidential election year, Catholics have the same debates: Which candidate is more in line with Catholic teachings? Is it a sin to vote for a certain candidate or support a certain party? What if none of the candidates reflect Catholic teaching? Various voter guides circulate, few of them the same.

And inevitably, election season also becomes the season of misinformation, as media personalities and influencers broadcast their own personal opinions under the label of “church teaching.” Stories abound of priests or religious leaders telling their congregations that they are obliged to vote a certain way or be in mortal sin. Catholics who take seriously both their faith practice and their obligation to civic engagement may feel overwhelmed, confused, and dispirited in the face of this. Some may wonder whether there’s even any point in voting at all. Others may decide not to vote because they dislike the idea of democracy. And still others may stay home simply because of ennui. 

On this episode of the podcast, theologian and ethicist Meghan Clark discusses the question of whether Catholics have to vote, and how we ought to vote when we do. Clark is a professor of theology at St. John’s University in New York and author of The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights (Fortress Press). In 2022, she was the assistant coordinator of the North American Working Group of the “Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries” Project for the Migrant & Refugees Section of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. She is a frequent contributor to U.S. Catholic. 

Learn more about this topic, and read some of Clark’s writing, in these links:

“How should Catholics vote? A guide for faithful citizens”
By Bernard Evans
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202010/how-should-catholics-vote-read-this-guide-before-you-hit-the-polls/ 

“If you care about family values, vote for the common good”
By Kathleen Bonnette
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202410/if-you-care-about-family-values-vote-for-the-common-good/ 

“Government for the people needs to be for everyone”
By Meghan Clark
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202210/government-for-the-people-needs-to-be-for-everyone/ 

“Notre Dame peace scholar advises Catholic voters to use social teaching as guide”
By Catherine M. Odell
https://www.ncronline.org/news/notre-dame-peace-scholar-advises-catholic-voters-use-social-teaching-guide 

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, an order of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit https://claretians.org.