By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service • Posted October 28, 2024

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After a two-day trip to Ukraine Oct.19-20, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said that U.S. Catholics must thoughtfully consider the implications of recent escalations in the region without succumbing to polarized political discourse.

Speaking with Catholic News Service Oct. 25, the archbishop, in Rome to participate in the Synod of Bishops on synodality, stressed the need for Catholics “to beware of the political rhetoric and things that are overblown on both sides of the aisle” and statements that “may or may not be true at all.”

When it comes to the role of the United States’ support for Ukraine, “we want to assist the Ukrainian people,” Archbishop Lori said. “We do not want to fall into isolationism; I think we should have learned that from 1939 forward.”

“On the other hand, I think we also want to make sure that we don’t contribute to the escalation of conflict,” he said.

A White House spokesman said Oct. 23 that at least 3,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia by ship to undergo military training, marking a significant escalation of the war. The extent of their involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine remains unclear.

“I don’t think we realize either how difficult it would be to achieve some kind of a way out of his struggle,” Archbishop Lori said. “People are offering prescriptions of one kind or another but on the ground it’s a lot more difficult.”

With the U.S. presidential election only days away, the archbishop said that Catholic voters have an obligation to “read informed commentary, not partisan commentary, to try to understand really what the position of each candidate is.”

Discerning one’s vote should also be “a matter of prayer and reflection,” he said.

Archbishop Lori, who serves as vice president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, explained that the bishops’ political guidance for Catholic voters describes abortion as the “preeminent priority” among political issues “not because we think nothing else is wrong and nothing else is a big threat to human life” but because the right to life is “the most fundamental right of all.”

Abortion is a central concern of the church in U.S. politics “really because of the utter innocence of the babies whose lives have been lost, their utter vulnerability,” he said. “That’s why we would speak of it as preeminent. It does not mean, however, that there are not other things that have to be woven into the calculus of voting.”

“I think that it’s up to every Catholic voter in the United States to take faithful citizenship” — the bishops’ document on bring faith to bear on political issues — “ponder it, and make the best decision that he or she can make,” he said. “We should be demanding that our candidates tell us what they actually think, what their policies would be and what they would do; that we do not do this is to our detriment.”