” “Elections: appeal of the bishops

For the third time since the declaration of the birth of the autonomous Slovak Republic (1st January 1993) the people of this country are gearing up to vote in another general election. The elections to be held on 20-21 September contrast with those of four years ago, which were characterized by great confusion. Then the situation was marked by a sharp conflict between the two opposite sides of the political spectrum: on the one hand, the strong party of Vladimir Meciar (HZDS) and on the other a compact opposition. Numerous members (and future MPs) of Christian inspiration were active in most of the parties at that time. After the last elections, the coalition, having achieved its goal, began to dissolve and the problems not only refused to go away but even increased (growth of foreign debt, rise in unemployment, inflation, growing drug addiction, problems of housing, collapse of various banks, growth of crime, police corruption, political scandals…). The protraction of this situation discouraged citizens and favoured the birth of new political parties with a young nomenklatura big on ambitions and promises. The left disintegrated into a number of small groups. The new parties (“Alliance of the New Citizen”, “Orientation”), the former of the right, the latter of the left, have few representatives of Christian faith within their ranks. All this fragmentation discourages the participation od citizens in the elections. The vote is “a moral obligation”. To understand the pastoral letter of the Slovak episcopate, read out in all churches two weeks ago, we need to bear this scenario in mind. In the first part of their letter the bishops warn against not cherishing vain illusions and not expecting a general change from the elections alone. The problems of the family and work, and also the country’s political problems, need to be solved through personal conversion and change of heart. “The elections – write the bishops – are not a magic wand. However in the current context this event, which will decide the direction in which the country will go, matters a great deal”. That’s why the episcopate insists on the moral obligation of citizens to participate in the elections “because otherwise, by abstaining, one would favour the candidate that the elector rejects”. “We are concerned – the letter continues – by the eventuality of those who do not respect Christian and human values taking in hand the destiny of our country”. By supporting those parties that express political intentions of this kind, according to the bishops, “the Christian would cause an affront both to himself and to God, source of all good”. The Episcopal Conference thus invites all the faithful to participate in the elections “responsibly, with conscience and awareness”. A prayer before the elections. The letter met with a positive response in the non government organizations that are monitoring the election campaign (e.g. “Fair Play”). Controversy, on the other hand, was caused by the flier of Archbishop Jan Sokol of Bratislava–Trnava, the largest Slovak diocese. Distributed in 60,000 copies in the churches of the archdiocese, the flier opens with a “Prayer before the elections” (taken from the decisive elections of 1946), to which the archbishop adds a comment: “We, your pastors, cannot tell you whom to elect. But we can ‘suggest to you’ the criteria on the basis of which to evaluate programmes and candidates”. Reactions of the mass media, denouncing the anticlericalism of many parties, have not been lacking either. It seems that the inistence on the “moral obligation” to vote has achieved its objective, since opinion polls of sociologists and politologists a few weeks ago predicted participation in the ballot of only 65-70% of the electorate, whereas now the estimate has risen to about 80%.