Pope Leo requested mail ballot for Illinois midterms, says clerk
Pope Leo XIV requested a mail ballot for Illinois’ upcoming midterm elections, according to the Will County clerk’s office. The pope is registered at a New Lenox, Illinois, address and remains a U.S. citizen; his ballot had not been received as of Oct. 29. If he votes, Leo would become the first pontiff to cast a ballot in a U.S. election. In an April message, Leo said democracy values citizens’ responsible participation and their ability to elect and hold leaders accountable.
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Pope Leo XIV requested a mail ballot for Illinois’ 2026 midterm elections, according to the Will County clerk’s office. As of Oct. 29, the ballot had not been received; if he casts it, he would be the first pope to vote in a U.S. election.
The Chicago-born pope, whose name before his election was Robert Francis Prevost, requested the ballot on Oct. 3. He is registered to vote at a New Lenox, Illinois, address, where his elder brother John also lives, and remains a U.S. citizen as well as a citizen of Peru.
The Will County ballot includes the U.S. Senate and governor races, along with county and judicial contests. Illinois voters do not register by party and may choose which party’s ballot to use in a primary; registered voters may vote by mail.
According to voting records cited by the Chicago Sun-Times, Prevost voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016, and Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010. The records also show votes in general elections in 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2024, but not in Illinois’ March 2026 primary.
In an April message to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Leo said authentic democracy recognizes each person’s dignity and calls citizens to participate responsibly in pursuing the common good. Citing St. John Paul II, he said democracy enables participation in political choices and allows voters to hold leaders accountable or replace them peacefully; he added that democracy remains healthy when grounded in moral law and a true vision of the human person.
Catholic teaching on voting, conscience, and democratic responsibility
Catholic teaching treats voting as a serious act of moral responsibility, not merely a private preference or a party loyalty test. Catholics are called to participate in public life for the common good, guided by a conscience formed by truth, reason, and the Church’s moral teaching. The Church does not prescribe a candidate; the voter must make a prudent judgment that respects the dignity of every person and weighs political choices in their proper moral order.
In Catholic teaching, conscience is a judgment of reason about whether a particular act is right or wrong. It is not simply a feeling, a personal preference, or permission to do whatever one has already decided to do. Conscience deserves to be followed, but Catholics also have a serious, lifelong responsibility to form it: to seek truth, learn the Church’s teaching, understand the relevant facts, and reflect prayerfully. A sincere judgment can still be mistaken if it is made without adequate attention to truth and moral principles.
This formation matters because voting is not just choosing the candidate one likes best. It involves judging real candidates, policies, likely consequences, and the responsibilities of public office. The bishops encourage Catholics to use reliable information and to develop prudence—the virtue that helps a person discern what is genuinely good in a particular situation and choose appropriate means to pursue it.
“The truth is something we receive, not something we make.”
That principle cautions against treating political judgment as though personal conviction alone makes a choice morally sound. At the same time, forming conscience does not mean that every voter will reach the same conclusion about every complex policy or candidate. The Church teaches moral principles; applying them prudently to particular circumstances is the lay voter’s responsibility.
A key distinction is between supporting a candidate’s position that promotes an intrinsically evil act and voting for a candidate for other grave reasons while rejecting that position. An intrinsically evil act is one that is wrong by its very nature, not merely because of bad motives or harmful circumstances. The bishops identify abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, and racist behavior as examples. A Catholic may not vote for a candidate with the intention of supporting such a position; doing so would involve formal cooperation in grave evil.
This does not mean that the presence of one unacceptable position automatically answers every voting question. The bishops say a Catholic may, in some circumstances, vote for a candidate despite that candidate’s unacceptable position on an intrinsically evil act—but only for truly grave moral reasons, not for narrow self-interest, partisan preference, or indifference to the evil. The voter must reject the candidate’s unacceptable position rather than treat the vote as approval of it.
If every available candidate holds a position promoting an intrinsically evil act, the voter faces a difficult judgment. The bishops say one may decide not to vote for any candidate, or, after careful deliberation, vote for the candidate considered less likely to advance that position and more likely to promote other genuine human goods. This is not a mechanical formula: the judgment must consider the candidates’ commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence the issue.
Catholic moral judgment does not treat every political issue as having identical moral weight. The bishops say that the obligation to oppose policies promoting intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on conscience and action. But they also warn against using a candidate’s opposition to one such evil as a reason to ignore other serious questions involving human life and dignity.
Thus, Catholic voting is neither a “single-issue” shortcut nor a calculation in which all concerns are interchangeable. A voter should consider the full range of relevant moral questions while recognizing that some acts and policies directly violate fundamental moral principles. The Church’s broader social vision includes the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity. These principles help assess not only the stated platform of a candidate but also the likely effects of policies on people, especially those who are vulnerable.
The Church’s role is to teach moral principles and help form consciences, not to endorse or oppose candidates. The bishops explicitly leave candidate choices to individual Catholics acting with a properly formed conscience. They also caution that Catholic principles should not be selected or applied selectively to serve partisan interests.
The Catholic call to political participation rests on the belief that human dignity carries responsibilities toward the community. The bishops cite the Catechism’s teaching that all should participate, according to their role, in promoting the common good and that, as far as possible, citizens should take an active part in public life. They describe political engagement as a way of serving others—not simply a contest between parties or interests.
That responsibility is broader than casting a ballot. It includes learning about public questions, discussing them honestly, holding public officials accountable, and contributing to social life in ways suited to one’s circumstances. The bishops stress that political participation should be shaped by concern for human dignity, the common good, and the protection of the weak and vulnerable. They also say Catholics should be guided more by moral convictions than by attachment to a party or interest group.
Democratic responsibility therefore includes both moral seriousness and civic humility. Catholics should act on the truths they have learned, but recognize that complex political choices require prudence and careful judgment. The practical aim is not simply to win an election or advance a faction, but to help build a society more just and respectful of human dignity. The supplied Church teaching does not name a preferred candidate or provide a universal ranking of every policy dispute; it offers moral principles and assigns voters the responsibility to apply them conscientiously.