Polish bishops: “No party has the right to speak in the name of the Church”

Warsaw, Poland, Oct 5, 2007 / 07:51 am

In a message released at the conclusion of their Plenary Assembly in Warsaw, the bishops of Poland reiterated that the Church “does not have any political representation and therefore is not represented by any party.  No party has the right to speak in the name of the Church or claim for itself her support.”

The bishops’ message will be read on Sunday, October 14, in all parishes. In it they reminded believers of their “natural obligation, reinforced subsequently by the bonds of the faith” to “participate more actively than others in social life and thus in the electoral process,” voting “according to their own moral convictions.”

The believer, they explained, should choose “those whose positions and beliefs are close to, or at least do not contradict, the moral values and principles of Catholicism,”  The bishops said they would continue to reiterate the need to establish society and political life on “the unchanging values that characterize the truth about the human being.”

Among these values, the bishops stressed, is “the dignity and defense of life from the moment of conception until natural death, the family based on lasting marriage between one man and one woman, the right-duty of parents to educate their children and the promotion of the common good in all of its forms.”

They said Catholics must vote for candidates who are “morally upright and whose competence in political and civil life has been tested,” and who have “a strong personality, respect for others, a vocation to dialogue and the capacity to see power as service.”

In conclusion, they called for respect for the “division of roles and competencies between religious and the laity” and for an electoral campaign “free of conflicts.”