“When we go to vote, let us evaluate with attention the candidates we ought to vote for”. That’s the advice of the Slovene bishops, who in preparation for the forthcoming parliamentary elections on 3 October, have drawn up a kind of vademecum on how Catholics should vote: “Let us vote for those candidates whom we can trust to support the respect for human life from conception to natural death they write -, and the family as the foundation of security, health, culture and well being, and who will defend family life, especially the right of parents to freely choose the cultural preparation and education of their own children, without any economic discrimination and in conformity with their own convictions. We need members of parliament who are able to accelerate economic development with suitable laws, but at the same time concerned about the poorest and weakest members of society. We should choose MPs able to guarantee honesty, transparency and stability in the whole system of the state constitution and at the personal level”, but also candidates who are able to “safeguard the beauty and harmony of the natural environment”, promote “Slovene culture” in the European Union, “recognize the great significance of the values of faith in society”, and committed “to a complete definition of the legal status of the Catholic Church, of the other churches and of the alternative religious movements in our country”. Lastly, the bishops exhort the faithful not to desert the polls: “Not going to vote in free and fair elections means renouncing one’s dignity as a free citizen”.
