The Rev. David Buersmeyer of the St. Regis Catholic Parish in Bloomfield Hills utilized the church's July 12 weekly bulletin to discuss a document that the Catholic Bishops of the United States publish every four years prior to the presidential elections, entitled "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." 

While this year’s version is basically the same as the one from 2016, with the exception of a new introduction, Buersmeyer shared his thoughts and opinions with parishioners. 

“Over the next few weeks, before we get into the heat of the presidential election, I want to explore what the bishops say, raise a few questions of my own, and invite everyone to take seriously their civic duty to vote with an informed conscience,” he wrote. “For some, the only issue is to legally ban abortion, and if any political candidate supports abortion in any way, that disqualifies them from consideration for a vote. For others, abortion is a very important and central issue but not a simple thumbs up or down, for or against a candidate.”

The Rev. Buersmeyer | https://stregis.org/

Buersmeyer said that many who struggle with this issue can find guidance from the words of Pope Francis.

“They resolve this tension in several ways,” he wrote. “First, they quote Pope Francis on how passionate defense of the innocent unborn is essential but that 'equally sacred' are any areas of life that are destroying human dignity: the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable, infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery and every form of rejection.”