Candidates for president of the United States search votes not only for voters from alleged hesitant states, but besides for Catholics. Pope Francis late stated that Americans are faced with the choice of "minor evil" due to the fact that neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris want to stand up for life. Currently, more Catholic voters are to support Trump, but there is besides a large group of people declaring themselves Catholic, who intend to cast their vote on the utmost left represented by Harris, and even run actively, raising funds and votes for the Democratic candidate.
Vice president Kamala Harris refused to attend this year's conventional Al Smith dinner. fresh York Cardinal Timothy Dolan joked that the last presidential candidate to leave a charity event, Walter Mondale in 1984, lost in 49 states.
Harris' staff explained that they had to focus on campaigning in the states crucial to settle the results of this year's presidential election, which will take place in little than a month.
In August, John Pavlovitz, a progressive Christian author and activist, organised the appeal “Christians for Kamala”. The action involving 35,000 participants brought over $200,000. The event was attended by about 30 speakers, including 2 Catholics: Patrick Carolan of the Catholics Vote Common Good and comedian John Fugelsang, who says he is simply a "progressive Catholic".
In September, there was a rally for Harris with Catholic participation alone. They besides participated in the National Democratic Convention through the Catholics Vote Common Good, which organised a panel on "The Designation of Catholic Voters".
Although Harris, as a child, came into contact with Hinduism and Christianity, she joined the Baptist sect at an adult age. At the same time, she married a Jew. Currently, she inactive identifies herself as a Baptist and is associated with a congregation in San Francisco. The voters convince that her relation with both Hinduism and Christianity helped to build a commitment to social justice. "My earliest memories of Bible teachings afraid the loving God, the God who asked us to 'talk on behalf of those who cannot talk for themselves' and 'defend the rights of the mediocre and the needy'," she wrote in her 2019 memoirs. She argued that as believers, “we must live our religion and show it in action.”
However, this does not hinder her with large power to fight the right of children conceived to birth, supporting the alleged abortion practically until the end of pregnancy.
Among the organizations that support Harris is the Catholics for Harris-Walz, whose work is coordinated by Alex Nason. It is an authoritative run committee whose mission is "to fight for democracy, freedom, the regulation of law, American culture and the free world." The group calls Catholics, seeking to vote for Harris. He is besides trying to win the voices of young Catholic voters who are “weary of polarized and hateful rhetoric.” Nason, operating among the Irish, argues that "Vice president Harris and politician Walz are united by a set of fundamental values rooted in the faith", which Catholics are to desire.
As part of the various events held weekly, Joe Donnelly, erstwhile US Ambassador to the Holy See, Simone Campbell, erstwhile manager of Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Anthea Butler, prof. of the University of Pennsylvania and MSNBC commentator, and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, spoke.
Nason is assisted by about 30 Catholics who advise during the Harris election campaign. Among them are representatives of the Catholics Vote Common Good and Catholic Democrats, activists, political strategists, elected officials, theologians and scientists.
Catholics Vote Common Good was established in 2021 in Minnesota. She's headed by Denise Murphy McGraw and Patrick Carolan. Its mission is to “create a common ground at the interface of religion and politics for Catholics, uncovering areas of agreement based on common ideals specified as respect for the dignity of all people and building a community”.
This is an ecumenical and progressive organization that works closely with Vote Common Good, formed in 2018. The group assisted in Biden's election campaign. Both groups were present at the National Convention of Democrats in Chicago, where they organised a panel discussion on "The meaning of Catholic voters". It was attended by politicians, scientists, activists and Catholic delegates who were to tell Catholics, "You will not go to hell for voting for Democrats."
Patrick Carolan emphasizes that Catholics like to perceive to another Catholics, so they effort to scope them in different ways. They contact by telephone, send postcards with the inscription, “As a believer, delight join me in voting for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, mildness and self-control, and for Harris/Valz”.
This year, a Catholics for Kamala organization was besides established, involving Dr. Patrick Whelan. It points out that "Catholics for Kamala are a joint effort of Catholic organizations that cooperate to elect Vice president Kamala Harris and politician Tim Walz to the highest positions in the country and aid them advance Catholic social justice priorities in our country".
Whelan is simply a bioethic and erstwhile president of Catholic Democrats. He erstwhile wrote a brochure entitled "The Catholic Case for Obama", in which he justified the issue of promoting access to abortion with the request to "reduce abortions and find a common ground of agreement" (sic!).
In the current election cycle, he established cooperation with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend as part of "The Catholic Case for Kamala", pointing out that the current elections will find the future of "democracy, wellness care, race, corruption, ultimate Court, global warming, immigration, economy, death punishment and abroad policy". The issue of limiting access to abortion, its criminalisation is raised. The authors of this year's brochure scare the “roots of Opus Dei” of Trump's team, “Project 2025” (collection of right-wing political proposals from the Heritage Foundation).
"We decided to compose this brochure due to the fact that Trump's planet is so offensive to virtually all aspect of what can be considered a actual Catholic sensitivity," the authors wrote in the introduction. At the same time, they expressed hope that their words "could reassure any people about voting for Vice president Harris and politician Tim Walz as the right thing to do".
Another group is Catholics for the Future besides founded in Washington this summer, and is headed by Stephen Schneck, Patrick Bergquist and Patricia Fugere. The task of this organization is to rise funds for advertising in key states that are battlefields. The actions are aimed at “Catholics, erstwhile Catholics and Catholics.”
Patricia Fugere is simply a lawyer, co-founder and erstwhile executive manager of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. Patrick Bergquist is simply a management consultant and Schneck is the president of the United States global spiritual Freedom Commission.
Schneck pointed out that Catholic groups operating in the electoral area have modest resources. Their task is to rise as many funds as possible to aid “pick a president who best reflects the values of our faith”.
Catholics for Harris is another organization founded in 2024, and its leader is Christopher Hale. This political consultant after Biden's withdrawal compiled an email list of 19,000 Catholics present on the X platform, among whom the run is being conducted.
Faith in Public Life Action founded in 2004, with Jeanné Lewis at the head encourages to vote on Harris in the name of the implementation of the “moral order of a just and inclusive country that allows everyone to live full humanity”. The group builds "the strength and culture of belonging among the various influential spiritual leaders and provides them with resources to make narratives on the imagination of American democracy".
Faith in Public Life Action has an educational counterpart: religion in Public Life. They are not typically Catholic organizations, but they are circumstantial coalitions of various clergymen with Catholics. The emphasis is on "compassion, dignity and responsibility". They organise ‘pacifists training’ to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power.
The past of religion in Public Life dates back to 2005. It was then a liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, which examined the progressive spiritual movement ordered the creation of an organization for the spiritual left. The head of the group since 2022 is Presbyterian pastor Jen Butler.
Another organization is Catholic Democrats founded in 2004. Its president is Steven Krueger, and its office are in Boston. This is simply a group that claims to represent a Catholic voice in the Democratic Party, and the main nonsubjective is to advance "a rich Catholic tradition of social justice in public space and in the Democratic organization to aid make a more just and peaceful society and advance an knowing of integral ecology".
The organization was initially formed to support John Kerry's 2004 run to recapture Catholic Republican organization voters. In 2020, the organization funded media campaigns in key states of Blue Wall: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as organized an online petition supporting Biden following Trump's attacks on his faith.
They now claim that "the policy, achievements and character of Kamala Harris are best suited to advance the common good". These activists primarily contact Catholic priests in key counties to “recollect to them the politics of US bishops against the stubbornness of the parish”.
Source: ncronline.org
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