The Catholic Morning Show

Why Voting Is a Catholic Responsibility: Forming Your Conscience Before Election Day – Dr. John Huynh – 10/28/2026

Episode Summary

Dr. John Huynh, Director of Social Justice for the Diocese of Des Moines and Catholic Charities, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to discuss faithful citizenship and why Catholics have a moral responsibility to vote. He explains how rights and responsibilities flow from human dignity, why the Catholic faith is not a political ideology, and what it truly means to form your conscience. With the 2026 midterm election days away, he points Iowa Catholics to practical resources from the Iowa Catholic Conference and the USCCB.

Episode Notes

Feeling apathetic about the election or frustrated with your choices? Dr. John Huynh, Director of Social Justice for the Diocese of Des Moines and Catholic Charities, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to reframe voting as an act of love for neighbor and the common good. As always, the Church does not endorse candidates or parties.

Highlights:

• Rights and responsibilities go together: Every person bears inherent dignity as one made in the image and likeness of God, and that dignity places claims on us toward our neighbor.
• True freedom: Freedom isn't the absence of restraint; it's the capacity to choose what is good.
• The key question at the ballot: Not only "what's in it for me?" but "what do I owe the common good?"
• Don't baptize a political platform: Christianity existed before our political parties and will outlast them.
• What conscience is (and isn't): Conscience is a judgment of reason, not a feeling, and it must be formed by Church teaching rather than by our existing preferences.
• The full moral vision: life from conception to natural death, family and community, the poor, the dignity of work, religious liberty, care for creation, and the stranger and immigrant.
• Faithful citizenship beyond Election Day: a healthy society depends on people taking responsibility for one another locally.

Resources mentioned:

• Iowa Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of Iowa's bishops: https://www.iowacatholicconference.org/
• ICC 2026 Faithful Citizenship flyer (English & Spanish): https://www.dmdiocese.org/news/icc-releases-faithful-citizenship-flyer
• USCCB, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship-title

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

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