General Election 2024

A letter from the Catholic Bishops of Scotland

This General Election presents us with an opportunity to connect our voting to our Catholic faith and elect an individual representative who reflects as closely as possible our values and beliefs.

It is an opportunity to proclaim the dignity and value of every human being, made in the image and likeness of God, and promote the common good. The human person is both the foundation and the goal of society, and the principal task of society is to defend and foster human dignity in its laws and institutions which should, in turn, support peace and justice at home and abroad.

During elections, a range of issues compete for our attention. And whilst the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland does not endorse or support individual candidates or parties, we highlight some of the key issues here so that individual Catholics may reflect on, and raise them, with parliamentary candidates.

Human Life

It is the duty of all of us to uphold the most basic and fundamental human right – the right to life, which is both inalienable and inviolable. At the heart of the political response to the Covid Pandemic was the desire to protect and care for the most vulnerable. In a truly compassionate society, this desire to protect and care ought to extend to all people, including the unborn child in the womb. We should urge MPs to recognise human life from the moment of conception and ensure that the conditions are present to protect and care for both mother and child.

This also applies at the end of life. Dangerous proposals to legalise assisted suicide must be rejected in favour of improvements to palliative care and a commitment to meet the needs of vulnerable people at the end of life, including providing the care and compassion they need to help them live. Our politicians should be urged to learn the lessons of how assisted suicide legislation introduced in some countries has already become an intolerable and unjust pressure upon the elderly, the weak and the disabled to see themselves - and to be considered by others - a burden to society and thus to end their lives, or have their lives ended for them. This is an injustice that ought to be resisted before it can begin.

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