Fr. Gary Regula, with St. Jerome Roman Catholic Parish in Phoenix, is joyful that political conventions have ended, because one person cannot change the government or the world; except, of course, Jesus Christ.

The U.S.'s government was formed in a checks-and-balance system to allow for no one branch to overpower the other, Regula said in the church's Aug. 30 bulletin. Our freedoms come from the balances between the three branches, even though they don't talk so much as yell at each other. 

"There is a lot of yelling at one another" Regula said in the bulletin. "There is a great deal of judgment taking place. There is even condemnation of people in a particular party (even from their own party members) because they will not simply vote the way the whole party is voting."

Regula said these elected officials are chosen for a reason— to represent us— and they need to start doing just that. 

"Thus, they need to stop acting like little children," he said in the bulletin. "Once again this is not a judgment, but a statement of fact. Have we ever seen children playing a game, and one becomes offended at something said to them or about them, and they pick up their bat and ball and leave? Have we heard children getting into tussles with their friends, and if it gets out of hand they say I am going to bring my brother who is bigger and he will beat you up?"

This is typical behavior for young children. But adults, especially elected officials, should know better. 

"We should demand that anyone that seeks to serve in public office should act as an adult that will respect the opinions of others and be willing to dialogue with others to find a resolution to problems," Regula said in the bulletin. "We should expect that they will share their great ideas with others because they cannot put them into action on their own. We should not expect any one person or party to be the answer to our problems as that would be sacrilegious, as only one has the power to make anything great; and He, Jesus Christ has already done that by His life, death and resurrection."