Election season is over, but the analysis is not. In the interest of looking ahead, we offer the following to all concerned.

To Democratic Party leaders: Morality matters to people, including America's Catholics (even if they have 65 million definitions of what "morality" means). Faith matters. Religion matters. And not everyone to whom morality, faith and religion matter is an extremist right-wing wacko, and they certainly don't appreciate being demonized as such.

This election, furthermore, should tell you that you can no longer take for granted those constituencies (notably, Catholics and Latinos) which supported you so strongly in the past. It is ironic, and more than a little hypocritical, that a party which prides itself on practicing inclusivity and welcoming diversity will not allow abortion opponents an opportunity to speak at its national conventions.

Regardless of how committed and sincere you are to establishing greater economic opportunity for the poor and affordable health insurance for everyone, your self-styled reputation as the party that protects the underprivileged will continue to ring hollow if you remain rigid in defense of abortion rights. The unborn are people, too, and deserve your concern and protection, even if they can't vote for you. Think of it in these terms: According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, research affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, there were 19.1 million abortions in the U.S. from 1973 to 1986. That's 19.1 million people who never got a chance to vote this year; President Bush won re-election by 4 million.

To Republican Party leaders: Moral values are not limited to what many of you may define as "life issues" or "family issues." Not everyone who voted against the president and for John Kerry is an amoral left-wing kook. High-and-mighty pronouncements about morality and family values don't register as well with families whose wage-earners cannot find work that pays a living wage or offers any kind of health insurance.

Moreover, the world is not America's Ponderosa whose problems can be solved by a couple of Cartwrights and a few rounds of buckshot (or worse). Nor is the world desperate to be Americanized, any more than the U.S. is waiting to be Christianized. Tenuous world security, a fragile world environment and a lopsided world economy that leaves too many millions living in poverty are serious problems that demand serious dialogue.

And serious dialogue demands courage and humility, not inflexibility and arrogance. There is a difference between being principled and being obstinate, and this current administration has shown a propensity for both. Prayer is a good starting point to learn the difference.

To America's Catholic bishops: No one disputes your role as teachers of the faith, and no one expects you to shy away from serious issues, or to tell the faithful, "Hey, do whatever you want, it's O.K." But neither can anyone, including yourselves, deny that your role as teachers, especially in moral matters, has been compromised in the minds of many by the clergy sexual abuse scandal. And that makes your role as teachers even more challenging.

Those of you who have spoken forcefully against voting for politicians who favor abortion are further aware that not everyone who calls himself or herself Catholic agrees with you, and that some in fact detest the idea of anyone telling or suggesting to them how to vote. That's to be expected, especially in the post-9/11 age when many Americans (Catholics included) feel less and less in control of their lives.

And when people believe that so much that is important to them --- their physical safety, their economic security, their jobs, their desire not to be subjected to God-knows-what kind of media --- is beyond their control, it is only natural for them to take umbrage when the voting booth, the one place where they believe they do have control, comes under scrutiny. It is especially true for those --- women and African Americans, for example --- whose right to vote has been won only after long, arduous battles.

So when you teach and share the Good News, please --- be sensitive. Your faithful will not always agree with you (as if you didn't know), but they will love and respect the bishop who teaches with not only the wisdom but the compassionate heart that was modeled by Jesus the Good Shepherd.

To everyone: Based on your mail and phone calls, our coverage of this election season had its ups and downs. We (the editor most of all) do not claim to have done everything right, or as well as we could have, but our coverage has attempted to both shed light on the key issues of the election, and to provide a forum for civil and constructive dialogue. You readers have played a necessary role in that dialogue, and for that we thank you.

It is easy, too easy, to demonize those with whom we do not agree, and it happened all too often this election season, where Christian charity and love gave way to hostility and ridicule. Demonization does nothing to advance serious dialogue or a fuller understanding of the issues we address daily, and so as we move forward --- winners and losers --- let us pray that the political process, in which we all play a part, may be filled with efforts to work with and not against those with whom we disagree. Let us also pray that we may be open to growth and learning (from our opponents, even), and at the same time remain steadfast in living the values modeled by Jesus.

And let us remember that if we believe in the Risen Lord, we also believe that all of us are created in the image of God. Let us treat one another with the respect and love that God has given us to share with the world.

---Mike Nelson