Pope Leo XIV votes in US midterm elections via mail-in ballot
The Holy See Press Office announced that Pope Leo XIV, a U.S. citizen, cast a mail-in ballot in Chicago for the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. The Pope expressed his belief that citizens have both the right and the duty to participate in democratic processes. The statement noted that he also voted when eligible during his years living in Peru; the midterms will elect all 435 House members, 35 senators, and governors in 36 states.
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Pope Leo XIV has cast a mail-in ballot in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, and the Vatican says he views participation in democratic processes as both a right and a duty. The election is scheduled for November 3, with contests for Congress, governorships and other state and local offices.
The Holy See Press Office said Leo, a U.S. citizen, submitted his ballot in Chicago. It said he has voted in U.S. elections whenever eligible and also exercised his voting rights during his years living in Peru.
Voters will decide all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats. Governors will also be elected in 36 states, alongside numerous state and local officials.
Eligible U.S. citizens living abroad and military members away from their voting residence may cast absentee ballots in federal elections.
The moral foundations of Catholic participation in democratic life
Catholic participation in democracy rests on the conviction that political life is part of moral life: citizens are responsible for helping build a society that respects every person and serves the common good. Democracy enables citizens to share in public decisions, but majority rule by itself does not make a decision just. Catholics are called to participate with well-formed consciences, to defend fundamental moral goods, and to recognize that many practical political choices allow legitimate disagreement.
The starting point is the dignity of each human person. Catholic teaching holds that people have worth and rights that do not depend on government granting them; political institutions are therefore accountable to the human good, rather than being free to define that good however they choose. The U.S. bishops describe dignity as central to Catholic moral and social teaching, and say that it grounds both rights and duties.
This dignity gives political participation its purpose: promoting the common good—the social conditions that allow people and communities to live humanly and flourish. It means seeking the good of the whole society, not merely the advantage of one’s party, class, religious community, or other interest group. Catholics are consequently called to work for the good of neighbors who do not share their faith as well as for fellow Catholics.
The common good includes protection of human life and dignity, justice and solidarity, peace, freedom, and care for the vulnerable. It also involves attention to social arrangements and institutions: public life can express charity when it serves people in need and addresses harms that individuals cannot resolve alone. The bishops therefore describe political engagement as a form of social charity, while warning that sin can shape social structures as well as individual choices.
Catholic teaching regards public involvement as a normal part of responsible citizenship. This includes voting, but is broader than voting: citizens can contribute in different ways to public discussion, legislation, administration, culture, and social life. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says democracy depends on the “active, responsible and generous involvement” of its citizens; the U.S. bishops call responsible citizenship a virtue and political participation a moral obligation.
For lay Catholics, this engagement is also part of their Christian vocation. Faith is not confined to worship or private life; the conscience a person seeks to form as a Christian should also guide public responsibilities. This does not mean that every political choice is dictated by the Church. It means that Catholics should bring moral seriousness to those choices rather than treating political life as a zone where their moral convictions no longer apply.
Democracy offers a valuable way for citizens to participate in decisions that govern their common life. But democratic procedures do not, by themselves, establish what is right. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith warns that democracy needs a sound moral foundation and cannot rest on the assumption that every view of human good is equally true. A majority’s support for a policy does not settle whether that policy respects human dignity or justice.
That moral foundation includes basic rights and ethical principles that should not be discarded simply because they are politically inconvenient. The Congregation identifies the protection of human life from conception to natural death, the rights of the human embryo, the family, parental freedom in education, religious freedom, social justice, solidarity and subsidiarity, and peace as matters requiring serious moral attention. These principles are not a complete platform or a prescription for every law; they are standards by which political proposals must be assessed.
Catholics must form their consciences rather than simply follow party loyalty, personal advantage, or immediate political pressure. The U.S. bishops urge Catholics to be guided more by moral convictions than by attachment to a party or interest group, and say that political choices should not lead a person to neglect fundamental moral truths or approve intrinsically evil acts.
At the same time, Catholic teaching does not require Catholics to support one party or to agree on every policy. The Congregation recognizes that political problems can be technically complex, that circumstances vary, and that different strategies may serve the same underlying value. Catholics may therefore choose among different political approaches compatible with the faith and the natural moral law, using their judgment about what best serves the common good. The Church does not claim to prescribe one solution to every temporal question.
The distinction is between legitimate disagreement about means and circumstances and treating fundamental moral principles as optional. Catholics can debate how best to pursue a just end while still agreeing that human dignity and basic rights must be respected. Pluralism makes room for different morally acceptable approaches; it does not mean that every moral position is equally sound.
Catholics do not have to set aside their religious identity to participate responsibly in a pluralistic democracy. The bishops affirm the right of religious communities and believers to speak and participate in public life without discrimination or pressure to abandon their moral convictions. They also describe Catholic contributions as drawing on both human reason and the light of Scripture and Church teaching.
This public role is not a claim that the Church should exercise political power or that civil law should impose Catholic belief. The Congregation says the Church’s role is to teach and illuminate consciences, not to eliminate Catholics’ freedom of judgment on contingent political matters. Catholics, in turn, are to cooperate with others according to their competence and responsibilities, seeking a more just society while respecting the proper independence of temporal political affairs.
In practice, Catholic participation means considering whether political choices promote the dignity and rights of persons, protect the vulnerable, and contribute to the good of society as a whole. It means taking fundamental moral principles seriously while recognizing that policy questions often require prudential judgment—reasoned assessment of what is feasible and likely to serve the common good in particular circumstances. It also means engaging with people who disagree, rather than assuming that political opponents are outside the bounds of civic life.
The moral foundation is thus neither withdrawal from democratic life nor uncritical loyalty to a political movement. It is responsible participation shaped by conscience, human dignity, and service to the common good: a commitment to contribute to public life without surrendering fundamental moral convictions or claiming that every political dispute has only one Catholic answer.