Dear Pro-Life Friends,

As if you didn’t know, Election Day has arrived.

Very soon the political ads will stop. The media horserace talk will wane, and the country will have a new face politically.

Politics, politics, politics. But wait…

Election Day 2010 also falls on the feast of All Souls Day – a day in which we pray for the faithfully departed. We the “Church militant” are called to offer prayers (especially Holy Mass), and sacrifices for those that have died.

Election Day on All Souls Day. A coincidence? Maybe not.

Remembering the faithfully departed as we are inundated with election news can put things quickly into perspective. Our goal as Catholics in public life is not a Republican or Democratic goal. It is not a celebration of politics for its own sake. Instead, it is prayer-filled exercise in response to the Gospel to “make disciples of all nations” – including America.

What happens on Election Day may signal a change in the direction of our country. Indeed, we have tirelessly worked and prayed these past weeks and months for such a change. But political victories and defeats come and go. Our vision must be bigger.

Recalling the souls of the faithfully departed is also a reminder that one day, we too will join them.

There we hope to be purged of our sinfulness, and along with our family and friends, await the fullness of our salvation won for us by Christ.

But we also pray that someone else will be there. And not just someone. Millions of someones.

Among the many souls who have gone before us are millions of unborn children, deprived of the right to life by the lie of “choice” and a cultural and legal reality that sanctioned their death.

In the end, our work is ultimately about these Holy Souls and our own souls. This is why we produce our ads, promote civic action, and urge voters to properly form their consciences and vote. Because the life of every person, born and unborn, is not only a gift, but is also the home of an eternal soul!

Tomorrow we pray, and tomorrow we vote. And tomorrow we remember the unborn -- not in sadness, but with joyful hope that after our work here is done, by God’s grace, we may enter with them into paradise.

May the memory of these departed and all our departed love ones inspire us to build a culture of life on Election Day and every day.