In 1960, Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray said we pose the wrong question if we ask: Is Catholicism compatible with American democracy? The more appropriate question, he argued, was: Does American democracy provide the conditions under which the Catholic conscience can act freely, publicly, and responsibly? His response to that question was, Yes, but the accompanying responsibility was neither straightforward nor transferable.
Sixty-six years later, the leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States provided their own answer with “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States,” first issued in 2015 and reissued with a new introductory note in 2023. The document emphasizes human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity, asserting that its principles should never be selectively employed to serve partisan interests.
The bishops explicitly decline to instruct Catholics on who to vote for, entrusting laypeople with the exercise of prudential judgment. This approach aligns primarily with Murray’s principles, as it refrains from endorsing a party platform and acknowledges that the Catholic voter enters the voting booth as a citizen contemplating the common good, not as an agent executing ecclesiastical directives. However, the document’s handling of this trust presents a challenge.
Murray’s model of public discourse necessitates argumentation grounded in shared reason. That means reasons must be provided for people, including non-Catholics, to evaluate. The 2023 introductory note acknowledges this, cautioning against rhetoric that primarily motivates through division and hatred.
Nevertheless, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” subsequently declares that the “threat of abortion remains our pre-eminent priority,” followed by a list that includes gun violence, poverty, migration, and racism as additional “grave threats.” The hierarchy is explicitly stated; the underlying reasoning is not. The document asserts the coherence of Catholic social teaching while structuring an order of priorities that, in practice, consistently favors one political coalition without explicitly acknowledging or publicly rationalizing this effect.
Thus, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” fails to address the concerns of the Catholic voter of 2026 because the moral landscape voters inhabit is not abstract. Working families are being stripped of SNAP benefits and could potentially lose unemployment assistance by policies that subordinate their dignity to partisan ideology. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have targeted individuals based on physical appearance and skin color, resulting in at least 57 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. And as of July 2026, at least 10 people have been fatally shot by ICE officers or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents since the current administration took office.
These issues are not peripheral concerns. In Murray’s framework, they are central to what a pluralist democracy owes every individual within its borders. They are questions of human dignity, subsidiarity, and solidarity. However, the priority architecture of “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” fails to provide Catholic voters with the tools to weigh these concerns or the language to address the urgency of the situation.
Murray referred to this as an inversion of the order of values, not because any single issue is insignificant, but because a pluralistic democracy cannot be governed by one community’s ranking of nonnegotiables presented as self-evident to all. “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” offers a conscience-formation checklist. Murray advocated for a political theology capable of engaging in public discourse, providing reasons, and being held accountable to reality.
Murray’s challenge remains unmet in this regard. All voters, especially Catholic voters, ought to enter the public square not as bearers of episcopal priority rankings but as citizens, formed by a tradition, who must argue openly, humbly, and rationally for the vision of the common good that the tradition holds. Americans preparing to cast their ballots in the midterm elections must reckon with these truths.
This article also appears in the October 2026 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 91, No. 10, page 40). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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