Progressive groups urge Catholics to vote their conscience

Read the full article by Madeleine Davison on NCRonline.org

In a July open letter released ahead of the national party conventions, the Women-Church Convergence, a coalition of progressive, feminist Catholic organizations, urged Catholics to vote in November by listening to their consciences rather than their clergy.

“We’re encouraging Catholics to search their own conscience and values and to reject the idea that the bishops or any male hierarchy speaks for you or the larger Catholic community,” said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which signed the letter, along with Catholics for Choice, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and 12 other groups.

Women-Church Convergence provided a copy of the letter to NCR in advance of its release.

The initiative came out of a sense of “grief” over the economic crisis, the destructive path of COVID-19, and racial injustice across the country, the letter says. It calls on Catholic voters to “reject … bogus claims” that bishops speak for all Catholics, to vote for a “justice agenda” based on economic and social equality, and to work to protect the voting rights of others.