Following is the first in an occasional series of voter education articles prepared by Catholic Citizenship, a recently formed Catholic organization headed by former U.S. ambassador the Vatican Raymond Flynn. The bishops of Massachusetts have asked the group, working conjunction with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, to assist in developing a special Catholic, non-partisan public policy education campaign in the Commonwealth to help the laity respond to the call to faithful citizenship.

This summer, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, provided a memo to the U.S. Catholic Bishops with some helpful guidance for conscientious voters. He advised that voting for a candidate for public office is a form of “cooperation in evil” if that candidate during the campaign and upon assuming office takes a “permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia.”