Every day, Catholics across the Albany Diocese sit down behind desks, walk onto construction sites, stand up in front of classrooms, reach over to pick up telephones and bend down to lift up children. They are applying what they have learned in their training to become businesspeople, laborers, teachers, office workers and parents.

On Tuesday, you will be asked to stand in a voting booth and cast your ballot to decide the future leaders of our country, state and local communities. Are you ready to apply your knowledge as an adult Catholic there?

A recent comment in Christopher News Notes stated that "to get the best government possible, citizens have to take up the challenge. Citizens have rights spelled out in the Constitution and its amendments. They also have responsibilities." But often, the 23 percent of the entire U.S. population who are Roman Catholics don't take on their responsibility to vote. "What difference does it make who runs the country?" one Catholic asked The Evangelist recently. "I just care whether I have a job."

We would answer that attitude with this response:

* Voting is a right that not everyone has. Haitians taught us well how important the right to vote is when they turned out in droves, despite threats, for their first democratic election. A Haitian man who later came to the U.S. declared at his swearing-in as a citizen: "I want to have liberty, justice and to be a part of the government." We have had that right throughout the history of our country, and we need to show our pride in it.

* Voting is a moral responsibility. The U.S. Catholic Conference's 1996 statement on political responsibility notes that "we are called to measure every party and movement by how its agenda touches human life and human dignity." Even if you feel that a political candidate's decisions may not affect you personally, you have the responsibility to look at how others are affected -- and take a stand accordingly.

* As has been said time and time again, one vote can make a difference. Sixty million Catholics are a powerful force, whether we agree with one another or take different positions. If we do not make voting a priority, we become a nation without priorities.

There are many steps toward making America a better place. One of them is into a voting booth on Tuesday.

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