Lydia M. Peña, S.L.

I was born and raised in Valencia County in western New Mexico. It was a county where Democrats won elections. Nonetheless, my Republican father, Pablo Peña, ran and won several elections for County Commissioner. It was his values, honesty and ability to walk his talk that got him elected time and time again.

As a woman, who happens to be Hispanic and a Catholic nun, I am casting my vote for Barack Obama for President. Here is another man like my father with impeccable values, first rate intellect and temperament, ready to lead our beloved country during these very challenging economic times. Barack Obama is confident and humble, surrounding himself with both men and women, Democrats and Republicans, who can help him put pro-life programs to work for our economy, education and health care. I am pro-life from conception to natural death and I believe that we need programs that encourage pregnant women and their families to keep their pregnancies to full term. The solution to reducing abortions is to be pro-life and pro-family, that is encourage creating, nurturing, and funding of programs that support women, children and families.

I ask my Hispanic and Catholic brothers and sisters to be multi-issue voters as urged by the U.S. Catholic bishops, "a consistent ethic of life should guide all Catholic engagement in political life. This Catholic ethic neither treats all issues as morally equivalent nor reduces Catholic teaching to one or two issues." This teaching compels us to oppose unjust war, torture, genocide, poverty, Racism, the death penalty, and to find ways to protect our earth.

Let us use careful study and prayerful discernment as we move forward in this election.