I keep discovering, nearly everywhere I look, an impulse, whether intentional or not, to faithlessness. Specifically, faithlessness in the extremely well-established fact that the Holy Spirit will guide the teaching, development, operation, preaching, and writing of the Catholic Church until the end of time. We are to have faith that, because of the assurance that Christ Himself gave to us at the establishment of Mother Church and the election of the first Pope, Saint Peter, the gates of Hell will indeed not prevail against Her. We are called, by faith, “to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself” (CCC 144). It’s difficult as Americans with individualism and modernism baked, I think, deeper into our bones than we often realize, to live with an instinct of obedience in faith, but that’s what we are entreated to do over and over again by the Church and Her Saints. If obedience, then, is essential in the life of sanctity, as we are unanimously taught that it is, then we Christians should operate within a spirit of following as much of what the Catechism, the Magisterium, and yes, even the Pope, says as our conscience will allow, rather than neurotically combing through each source and citation of every statement made to determine what bare minimum is binding doctrine that must be followed on pain of mortal sin and schism. The Church is our Guiding Mother, the Pope our Holy Father, and we ought to follow their advice and example as our first instinct because we love them, not, as a begrudging surrender, only their commandments because we are under their authority.

With this in mind, I want to present some facts. First, Mr. Rahner has suggested to you, Maybe Don’t Vote. Second, the CCC says that “[s]ubmission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country.” (CCC §2240), which, to his credit, Mr. Rahner cites in his article. Third, Alasdair MacIntyre, while one of, if not the best philosopher of our modern day, is not the Pope, a cardinal, a bishop, a priest, or even a theologian. Fourth, the Holy Father the Pope, an American for the first time in the Church’s history, cast his own ballot this November.

We are called to be obedient Christians. We should follow the example and advice of our Holy Father wherever and whenever possible, as loving sons and daughters of the Church. The Magisterium and Catechism tell us very clearly that, in defense of the common good, we are morally obligated to vote. Perhaps you are fed up with Republicans. I certainly am. But despite that fact, I am much more concerned with the ascendancy of a political party that holds dear and has enshrined in its ideology the secular sacraments of abortion, “coming out,” euthanasia, child and adult mutilation, and feminist liberation, among others. In my humble opinion, we can, and in fact are morally obligated to, do more for the common good by preventing that party from gaining power, than from abstaining altogether. Next time, maybe follow Pope Leo’s example. Maybe vote.