(London) A clear call to vote, and vote well, on the matters that the Church has most at heart, at the election of June 8th that will establish “how our country will leave the European Union and the values we are fondest of”. This call comes from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, which, in a letter to the faithful that will be read out in all parish churches the next weekend, calls all Catholics “to take actively part in the election”. “While voting for a party instead of another is a matter of conscience”, the bishops write, “it is important to go to the polls as we get ready to leave the European Union”. The election has been very quickly organised by Prime Minister Theresa May, even if voters should not have had to vote until 2020, because the Prime Minister wants to further strengthen the power of the Conservative Party before starting the negotiations on Brexit. The 650 members of the House of Commons will be elected. In their message, the Bishops of England and Wales mention the principles listed by Pope Francis in his encyclical “Evangelii gaudium” and call voters to vote for nominees who “will heal the rifts of our society, will take care of the weaker ones and the way our public services must be run”, and they also mention the risk that the United Kingdom may split after Brexit.