Pittsburgh Catholic Newspaper

Editorial

Equipping faithful citizens with a strong voice for truth
current editorial

We have heard the criticism.

“Why is the Pittsburgh Catholic running articles about politics? Stick with stories about faith and leave politics alone.”

Those who have expressed such opinions seem to be lacking some basic knowledge of the Catholic Church, particularly the mandate of diocesan newspapers to further the church’s mission.

Discussion of politics in this newspaper will always focus on ideas and issues, never about hype and propaganda. We will discuss these issues from the perspective of 2,000 years of church teaching, while leaving it to the good judgment of the readers to determine how that might apply when they enter the voting booth.

Three years ago, the Pittsburgh Catholic changed its policy and stopped accepting most political advertising. Because of concerns about being required to accept ads for candidates who espouse positions that are contrary to Catholic teaching, all such advertising has been kept out of the newspaper. That way we avoid problems with the Internal Revenue Service, which enforces regulations related to non-profit entities, with the paper gaining a stronger voice on political issues.

The U.S. bishops’ Faithful Citizenship program encourages Catholics to take a look at where our world is going, and where we want it to be.

Rooted in the dignity of every human life at whatever stage, faithful citizenship calls us to vote with our hearts and minds focused on real issues, not made up personalities. Faithful citizenship tells us that we must vote — there is no opting out of the process — and that we do it based on the application of Catholic thinking, not political posturing.

Most important, faithful citizenship means that we don’t leave our faith outside the voting booth. Too often, we spend a lot of time judging our faith through the eyes of the world. When we vote, we have the chance to judge our world through the eyes of faith.

That’s why the Pittsburgh Catholic will not be silent when candidates or their supporters (or anyone else for that matter) misrepresent church teaching, or support positions in opposition to the tenets of our faith. It’s who we are and why we exist.