Pledge of Faithful Catholics

We quickly wanted to bring something to your attention. It has to do with an initiative within our Archdiocese. Some well known and in many ways prominent Catholics of the Archdiocese have formed a committee to pledge that as Catholics their vote would be a vote that was informed and in accord with their faith. In that way they hope to serve as good examples for other Catholics throughout the Archdiocese.

To publicly support this effort is now possible to every Catholic in the Archdiocese at large. Please have a look at the form of the pledge to get a better idea of what it is about. Basically, this pledge reminds us that as Catholics we are responsible for promoting the common good of society. Exactly as our Archbishop Burke’s recent pastoral letter states, our faith teaches us that the common good, what we must always work toward, is dependant upon sound morality, a morality, to give an example, that recognizes the intrinsic value of all human life.

This morality, based on the natural law, finds certain realities that exist in our society to be not just wrong but intrinsically evil and therefore always sinful, regardless of the circumstances. We are obligated to vote responsibly, according to this moral hierarchy, even regardless of whatever other pros / cons we find in candidates for public office.

We would encourage you to read it over and to sign it, on the one hand, and on the other, to forward it to anyone else you know who could also benefit from it.

The forms should be printed out, signed and sent in as soon as possible so as to have all signers’ names printed on time in the St. Louis Review, just before election day. You could send it to any of your friends and family here in St. Louis and invite them in turn to send it around themselves.

As great an initiative as this is, it is not making much headway because of a lack of better organization. We know that we can do a lot to overcome that situation and we are sure you will help circulate it very quickly and that a kind of domino effect will ensue. It is also worth mentioning that Archbishop Burke is aware of what is going on and has already expressed much gratitude for the initiative. It is obviously important, however, that this initiative be seen as coming from the laity. It is for that reason that he has not personally promoted it.

If you have any questions, hopefully we can answer them.

Thanks and God Bless, Bob and Kitty Zeik