Tonight I attended a parish educational event on "Faithful Citizenship." We had three speakers, one who spoke about the USCCB's document "Faithful Citizenship," one who spoke about the activities of the state Catholic Conference, and one who spoke about a ballot initiative on gay marriage.There were about 40 people in attendance, admittedly a sparse turnout in a parish of almost 3,000 families. After hearing the presenters, we wrote down our questions on 3x5 cards, which were read one at a time. I thought folks might be interested in some of the questions that were asked. Since I'm pressed for time, I'm omitting the answers, but I can say that in general they hewed very closely to the ideas presented in Faithful Citizenship.

"What is the bishops' position on immigration? I'm concerned about people who come to this country illegally.""Are the bishops' concerned that the Campaign for Human Development has made donations to ACORN?""If both candidates in an election seem morally unacceptable, can you in good conscience abstain from voting?""Why do the bishops talk so much about abortion and gay rights and rarely talk about the war in Iraq or poverty.""Since only Congress can make laws and the President only enforces them, can't we discount Roe v. Wade when voting for the office of President?""Section 38 of Faithful Citizenship states that the choices of individual voters can affect their salvation. Can the panel please comment?""Since the Democratic Party is a pro-choice party and abortion is an intrinsic evil, how can a Catholic support Democrats?"