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U.S. bishops urge Catholic voters to put faith before politics
Confirmed
In Short: The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral statement urging responsible action to promote peace and justice amid growing political polarization.
The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) issued a pastoral statement on Wednesday, September 30, following their extraordinary plenary meeting on Tuesday, September 29, calling for responsible action to promote peace and justice amid growing political polarization.
The Bishops expressed concern over the manipulation of ethnic identities and tribal sentiments for political purposes, warning that these developments risk weakening trust between citizens and institutions and deepening societal divisions.
In their statement, the Bishops emphasized the importance of peace not just as the absence of conflict, but as the rejection of hatred, violence, revenge, tribalism, and political intolerance.
They urged political leaders and actors to prioritize the common good over partisan interests and to engage in genuine dialogue to address political, social, and ethnic tensions.
The Bishops also highlighted the need to protect freedom of expression and association, particularly for the media and civil society, and to ensure that electoral processes are transparent and credible.
Archbishop Alick Banda of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lusaka, whose legal proceedings were ongoing, was mentioned in the statement.
The Bishops called for a renewed culture of national solidarity, warning that political differences, ethnicity, and other interests should not undermine the bonds holding Zambians together.
In a separate development, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released video messages ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, urging voters to approach civic life with prayer, charity, and a commitment to the common good.
Louisville, Kentucky, Archbishop Shelton Fabre reminded Catholics of their responsibility to vote and to form their consciences according to the Gospel and Church teaching.
The USCCB also emphasized the importance of witnessing to Christ’s love in how Catholics speak, act, and engage politically, not just in the positions they hold.
The Bishops called for a sustained process of national dialogue, reconciliation, and healing involving people and institutions across political, ethnic, religious, and social differences.
The statement reflects the teachings of the Catholic Church, particularly its emphasis on human dignity, justice, and the common good.
What this adds
The Bishops' call for national dialogue and reconciliation is a new emphasis in their statement, reflecting the evolving political landscape in Zambia.
The USCCB's video messages are a new initiative aimed at guiding Catholic voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
What's confirmed
- The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) has raised concerns over growing political polarisation and the manipulation of ethnic identities and tribal sentiments for political purposes, among others, calling for responsible action to promote peace and justice.
- In a pastoral statement issued on Wednesday, September 30, following their extraordinary plenary meeting on Tuesday, September 29, the Catholic Bishops also expressed concern over what they described as the shrinking space for freedom of expression, particularly for the media and civil society.
- “Taken together, these developments call for urgent attention. They risk weakening trust between citizens and institutions and deepening divisions in our society,” the Bishops say in the statement they issued amid legal proceedings involving Archbishop Alick Banda of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lusaka.
- The Bishops explained that their position as far as the developments in the country are concerned is rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church, particularly its emphasis on human dignity, justice and the common good.
- US Catholics, like other Americans, are preparing to vote in the midterm elections in November.
- Catholics are called to bring their faith into the voting booth, and to do so authentically requires some reminding about what the Church teaches.
- As Americans prepare to vote in the 2026 midterms, 'Outlines for Clergy Formation on Faithful Citizenship' aims to help them apply Catholic principles to conscience formation for elections.
- As it does during every election season, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) draws attention to its statement Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship : A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States.
- Outlines for Clergy Formation puts it this way: At times, the endless political news cycle can drown out the core convictions of our Catholic faith.
- PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has added one of America’s leading Catholic educators with expertise in the connection between history and the faith to a key pontifical commission focused on preserving truth, at a time when the Holy Father is warning of how a failure to accurately understand history could lead to a politically and technologically more dangerous future for the world.
- “Pope Leo explicitly states in this chapter that artificial intelligence is not just a passing crisis to be managed, but a historic shift that challenges the categories of Catholic social doctrine from within,” Cesareo said.
- “Catholic social doctrine is basically a theology of history in terms of how the Church navigates, not in isolation, but navigates by journeying through a particular time and a particular moment so that the Gospel becomes the means by which we can answer the fundamental questions so that humanity is not alienated,” Father Dailey said.
What's still developing
- On elections, the Bishops called for electoral processes to be reviewed and strengthened where necessary to ensure citizens have confidence that their votes are protected and that electoral outcomes are managed transparently and credibly.
- “To love is not to spare the feelings of someone; to love is to will the good of the other.... We don’t say, ‘God is empathy’; we say, ‘God is love.’” This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
- In a wide-ranging interview on EWTN’s “ The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, pushed back against the idea that the Catholic Church’s commitment to interreligious dialogue replaces its primary mission to preach the Gospel.
- Louis, Barron praised the pioneering Catholic broadcaster as a model for modern evangelists — highlighting both Sheen’s holiness as the “saint of the Holy Hour” and his courage in identifying ideological threats.
- A 2025 survey by French Catholic publications of 900 catechumens found that many had gone to Mass regularly and read the Bible before seeking baptism, and 95 percent reported that they intended to “practice with engagement” after baptism.
- In the 1960s, 85 percent of French people identified as Catholic; that number is now well below 50 percent, though it varies depending on how belonging is measured.
- The pope will arrive for a four-day trip through Paris, Lourdes and Metz studded with high-profile political speeches and massive outdoor liturgies, all set against the backdrop of a Catholic Church that has seen an unprecedented increase in conversions since the Covid-19 pandemic.
- “You cannot understand this Catholic dimension without also taking the measure of the hostility and the contradictions that have continually confronted this French tradition,” Michel told Catholic News Service Sept. 23.
- “Yet, we cannot deny that we are in a deeply Catholic cultural matrix in France, because we see church steeples everywhere,” she said in a video interview Sept. 18.
- At the same time, the Catholic Church in France is seeing striking growth in the number of people seeking baptism.
- PARIS (CNS) — On the first official papal state visit to France in 18 years, Pope Leo XIV stepped into one of the country’s perpetual underlying tensions: the place of religion in a republic whose modern political identity was partly forged through separation from the Catholic Church.
- Catholicism’s historic closeness to the monarchy and political authority in France helped fuel anti-Catholic movements and the push for church-state separation.