“Powerful institutions and political leaders are working to rig the system and erect racially discriminatory obstacles to voting and full participation in American life,” they said in a Sept. 27 statement published by the Washington-based Faith in Public Life.
As midterm elections approach, they are trying to shine the light on what they see as increasing hurdles that several states have enacted, or may put in place, to make it more difficult for people to cast their ballots.
Trying to take away a person’s right to vote amounts to a “sin,” the statement said, citing examples such as asking for more identification, cutting back on voting by mail or groups challenging the veracity of results because they disagree with the outcome.
“So many people struggled and died to secure the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and those victories are now threatened today,” said Sister Carol Zinn, a Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, who is executive director of LCWR.
“We must rise to meet this challenge with the same moral courage and persistent advocacy characterized by those who refused to accept white supremacy and Jim Crow laws,” she said in a news release on the groups’ statement.
“The connected threats of Christian nationalism, political violence and racist voter suppression are not new, but they must be confronted again with moral clarity,” the priest said. “I urge our bishops, my fellow priests and all Catholics to speak out more boldly.”
The rise of what some call “white Christian nationalism” involved in the efforts is “heretical to authentic faith” and “a clear and present danger to building a multi-faith, multiracial democracy,” the groups’ statement said.
https://cruxnow.com/cns/2022/10/catholic-sisters-organizations-call-efforts-to-suppress-voting-a-sin