BIDEN RESPONDS TO THE TRUMP RIOTS

"The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable. Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same.

Donald Trump has been president for almost four years. The temperature in the country is higher, tensions run stronger, divisions run deeper. And all of us are less safe because he can’t do the job of the American president."

"This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence — because for years, he has fomented it,"

"He may believe mouthing the words 'law and order' makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is. Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?"

"We need justice in America. And we need safety in America," Biden will say. "We are facing multiple crises — crises that, under Donald Trump, keep multiplying. COVID. Economic devastation. Unwarranted police violence. Emboldened white nationalists. A reckoning on race. Declining faith in a bright American future."

"The common thread? An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better. An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order,"

"We must remember the words of Pope John Paul, quoting Scripture, 'Be Not Afraid!'"

-- JOE BIDEN

ANOTHER PRO-LIFE REPUBLICAN IS VOTING FOR JOE BIDEN

 

MONA CHAREN: Why This Pro-Life Conservative Is Voting for Biden

Since I announced publicly that I will be voting for Joe Biden in November, I’ve received a few communications from puzzled readers. “How can you, a supposedly pro-life woman, support someone who believes in killing babies?” Others say, “What do you not like about Trump’s record? The tax cuts? The record jobs numbers? The conservative judges?” One reader summed things up with “I used to like you.”

I understand. I feel the same way about many people myself.

I will try to respond for the sake of those who, like me, find themselves alienated from the Republican Party despite some policy agreements with the Trump administration.

Let’s start with abortion. I have been pro-life my entire adult life. I haven’t changed. I continue to find the practice abhorrent, and will persist in trying to persuade others. But I’ve noticed a tendency among pro-life conservatives to forgive absolutely everything else if a politician expresses the right views on abortion. This is a mirror image of the left, as we saw when Bill Clinton was accused of sexual misconduct. Many liberals were willing to overlook his gross behavior toward women in the name of preserving abortion rights. Call it “abortion washing.” Both sides do it.

Abortion washing shuts down moral reflection. Rather than do the work of analyzing how one good thing weighs in the balance against other considerations, abortion washing permits the brain to snap shut, the conscience to put its feet up.

My views on abortion can’t be severed from the rest of my worldview. I oppose abortion because it’s morally wrong. I understand that women are sometimes plunged into terrible life crises by unplanned pregnancies, which is why I do what I can to provide help for them. Crisis pregnancies can present agonizing choices, but I don’t think killing is an acceptable solution because life is sacred.

That doesn’t settle the matter of how to place abortion within the matrix of factors that go into voting. There are prudential considerations. While I would prefer to vote for someone who upholds the right to life, I’ve never believed that electing presidents who agree with me will lead to dramatic changes in abortion law, nor is the law itself the only way to discourage abortion. The number of abortions has been declining steadily since 1981. It dropped during Republican presidencies and during Democratic presidencies, and now stands below the rate in 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided and when abortion was illegal in 44 states.

The Supreme Court, despite Republican appointments, has side-stepped many opportunities to reverse Roe. As David French noted, Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter were harsh critics of the decision, but chose, on the bench, to vote for continuity. So if the logic is to support presidents based on the kind of Supreme Court nominees they will choose, the chances that any particular appointment will have the effect of changing the law seem remote.

It has always been my hope to change people’s hearts, so that this cruel practice—like slavery, torture, and mutilation—can be put (mostly) behind us.

Being pro-life is part of an overall approach to ethical questions. It’s wrong to take innocent life. But other things are immoral too. It’s also wrong to swindle people, to degrade and demonize, to incite violence, to bully, and while we’re at it, to steal, to bear false witness, to commit adultery, and to covet. I don’t think Trump has committed murder, and he seems to have honored his parents (though perhaps in the wrong way). But as for the other eight of the 10 commandments, Donald Trump has flagrantly, even proudly violated them all, and encouraged his followers to regard his absence of conscience as strength.

Donald Trump is a daily, even hourly, assault on the very idea of morality, even as he obliterates truth. His influence is like sulphuric acid on our civic bonds. His cruelty is contagious. Remember how he mocked a handicapped reporter in 2016? His defenders either denied the obvious facts, or insisted that, while Trump himself might be “politically incorrect,” his supporters wouldn’t be influenced by that aspect of his character.

Alas, they are. Consider the incredibly moving moment during the Democratic National Convention when young Braydon Harrington, who struggles with stuttering, introduced Joe Biden. That night, an Atlantic editor with the same affliction tweeted “This is what stutterers face every day. I’m in awe of Braydon’s courage and resolve.” But Austin Ruse, author of The Catholic Case for Trump, tweeted his doubts that Biden ever stuttered, and replied to another comment with, “W-w-w-w-w-w-what?”

Casual cruelty has become the fashion for many Republicans. Trump acolytes have adopted the mob-boss style that Trump brought to the Oval Office. When former Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen was preparing to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Matt Gaetz, tweeted, “Hey @MichaelCohen212 — Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot.” (Gaetz was rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for this last week.)

Even U.S. senators and cabinet secretaries have aped Trump’s bullying tactics. During Trump’s impeachment trial, Senator Rand Paul (R., KY) repeatedly badgered Chief Justice John Roberts to reveal the name of the whistleblower—in violation of the spirit of whistleblower protection statutes, and despite knowing that it might endanger that person’s safety. When Roberts declined, Paul revealed the name himself on the Senate floor. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo permitted his aggression free reign when NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly asked a question he didn’t like, screaming profanity at her. Sen. Martha McSally, perhaps sensing that the new Republican chic is rudeness, wheeled on a CNN reporter and called him a “liberal hack” before you could say Trumpian. And Ted Cruz, self-styled “constitutional conservative,” has made a show of joining the social media group Parler, which hosts alt-right and other unsavory characters, the better to “own” Twitter.

It isn’t just a matter of style. At Donald Trump’s order, thousands of children, including hundreds under the age of four, were forcibly separated from their parents at the border. Pro-lifers are tender-hearted about the most vulnerable members of society. So images like this must stir something. Separating children from their parents is a barbaric act. In the crush of outrages over the past three and a half years, it has gotten swallowed up, but the horror of what was done in our name should never be forgotten.

All of this is familiar to Trump supporters, along with the “fine people” in Charlottesville, the mocking of reporters for wearing face masks, the Joe-Scarborough-is-a murderer intimations, the Lafayette Park tear gas, denying the legitimacy of elections, the bleach enemas, and on and on. They accept it. Some Trump supporters genuinely hate Trump’s imbecilic tweets and disordered personality. But they will vote for him because they believe that the left is far worse.

Gaetz, characteristically subtle, claimed at the RNC that Biden and Democrats will “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door. And the defunded police aren’t on their way.”

Writing in Commentary, Abe Greenwald proclaims that the violence following George Floyd’s death is the start of a revolution. Echoing the alarm of the Flight 93 election argument from 2016, he writes, “The battle for the survival of the United States of America is upon us.” Speaker after speaker at the Republican National Convention has sounded the same theme. The left is on the march. Violent mobs are coming for your suburban home. If you don’t vote for Trump, Antifa will control your town council, AOC will confiscate your guns, and Al Sharpton will dismantle the police.

Funny, but I could have sworn that the Democratic Party nominated Joe Biden last week, not Alexandria Ocasio Cortez or Bernie Sanders.

Look, there are extremists on the left, and the Democratic Party has a weakness for not wishing to call them out. Democrats do the truth and themselves no favors by attempting to gloss over the looting, arson, and vandalism that have persisted in Portland, Chicago, and other cities throughout the summer. And they insult the millions of peaceful protesters who expressed the conscience of the nation by failing to distinguish them from criminals who used the opportunity to pillage and destroy.

Some of the extremists are not on the streets, but on the editorial boards of leading newspapers, on university faculties, and in other positions of cultural influence.

But it’s dishonest, and frankly, a bit hysterical to attempt to hang every sin of the left around Joe Biden’s neck. He’s no radical, and the party that nominated him showed that its centrist core was stronger than its extremist wing.

Biden denounced violence in cities, saying:

The vast majority of the protests have been peaceful. Anyone who burns or pillages… should be arrested. They are a problem for society and they make a mockery of what the march is all about. They should be tried, arrested and put in jail.

As for calls to “defund the police,” Biden kept his balance.

Absolutely not. I do not support [defunding the police] and I never have. What I support is strong and serious reform of police departments which most serious police officers in the country support. And we should have transparency in what in fact occurs within police departments as it relates to accusations of brutality or violating peoples’ rights.

In the wake of renewed violence following yet another horrific police shooting, this time in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Biden repeated this message, expressing deep sympathy for Jacob Blake and his family, outrage at what happened, and also condemnation of violence, saying “burning down communities is not protest, it’s needless violence . . . That’s wrong.” Biden struck exactly the right tone.

The argument that the left is worse doesn’t persuade me. Strange as it is to write those words after 30 plus years as a conservative columnist, I have to say that when you compare the state of the two major parties today, the Republicans are more frightening.

It is the Republican party that has officially become a personality cult, declaring that it will not adopt a platform but will simply follow whatever Trump dictates. It is the Republican party that pretends that COVID-19 will magically disappear. It is the Republican party that has elevated a series of criminals and grifters including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roy Moore, Steve Bannon, Wayne LaPierre, Rudy Giuliani, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Roger Stone. It is the Republican party that shamefully declined to uphold the Constitution when Trump diverted funds to his border wall. It is the Republican party that has become truth-optional. And it is the Republican party that now opens its arms to adherents of a deranged but nonetheless dangerous new cult called QAnon, which a (defeated) Republican called “mental gonorrhea,” and which in December, 2016, inspired a man to open fire in a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., as part of a “self investigation.” The FBI has designated QAnon a domestic terror threat, yet minority leader Kevin McCarthy has committed to providing committee assignments to Marjorie Taylor Greene, should she be elected in November

There is putrefaction where the Republican party’s essence should be, and appointing pro-life judges cannot mask the stench. So this conservative is voting for the Democrats. Will the GOP reform? I hope so. But my priority isn’t trying to heal the Republican party. It’s trying to heal the country.



Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a contributor to The Bulwark, and host of The Bulwark’s Beg to Differ podcast.

WHY THIS PRO-LIFE CONSERVATIVE IS VOTING FOR BIDEN

350+ FAITH LEADERS ANNOUCE SUPPORT FOR JOE BIDEN

More than 350 faith and community leaders have issued an endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, adding new voices to the campaign as it ramps up its engagement with religious groups.

The list which is linked at the end of this post is a diverse list of religious leaders, many of whom are backing a candidate publicly for the first time.

The Rev. Fred Davie, a Presbyterian minister and executive vice president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, was the chief organizer of the endorsements, and who stated “Our country is at an historic inflection point and in desperate need of moral leadership.  This election presents a stark moral contrast between the common good values of the Biden-Harris agenda and the divisiveness of the current administration.”

Other endorsers — most of whom organizers said are acting as individuals and not on behalf of their affiliated organizations — include the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, an author and Lutheran pastor; David Gushee, an author and Christian ethicist; David Beckmann, president emeritus of the Christian organization Bread for the World; Diana Butler Bass, author and historian of religion; Rabbi Jack Moline, head of Interfaith Alliance; Ron Sider, founder of Evangelicals for Social Action; the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, pastor at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, Fr. Peter Daly, a Roman Catholic priest, Joshua DuBois, former head of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under Barack Obama; and the Rev. Amos Brown, pastor at Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, where Harris attends.

The endorsements come on the heels of last week’s unusually faith-themed Democratic National Convention, with prime-time speakers repeatedly referencing religion or making mention of Biden’s devout Catholicism. 

In the past, right wing religious leaders occupied most of the air space, but opposition to the policies and actions of Donald Trump has activated Christian and other faith leaders and laity like never before.  

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris campaign’s larger faith outreach operation continues to work across the nation under the direction of Josh Dickson, an evangelical Christian and former Republican, who oversees faith engagement.  State level groups of particular faith traditions are operating at the national state, and local level.  By joining "Believers for Biden" on the campaign website, you can be included in these efforts.

Faith Leaders for Joe

CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS CONSIDER MIKE PENCE TOO INFLAMATORY TO SPEAK

Wisconsin Lutheran College is affiliated with the very conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). For clarification, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The smaller and more conservative group is the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (a nationwide body). Smaller and more conservative still is the WELS.

The college, located in Milwaukee, had invited Vice President Mike Pence as its commencement speakers for this Saturday. Pence left the Catholic Church to join conservative Protestantism and seemed a good fit for the college.

Wisconsin Lutheran College said the administration and the school's board of regents jointly decided to "present a different speaker instead" ahead of its Saturday commencement "after further review with careful consideration of the escalating events in Kenosha." The school said it will instead have the Rev. Mark Jeske, a Lutheran minister, serve as the commencement speaker.  

More than 270 students and alumni of the conservative Protestant college had previously signed an open letter objecting to the vice president's visit. The group, which called themselves "Concerned Members of the WLC Community," said the decision to host Pence was "disrespectful."

"This administration has been divisive and degrading. As a governor and now as the vice president, Mike Pence has failed to promote policies that reflect Christian values," the letter read.

That letter predated incidents in nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin, where civic and religious leaders are seeking to de-escalate tensions. The Pence appearance would be counter productive as just last night the Vice President slammed peaceful anti-racism protesters and offered no words for racial justice or police reform.

Kenosha police shot Blake seven times in the back on Sunday evening, minutes after responding to a domestic incident. Blake survived but is paralyzed from the waist down, and the shooting sparked several nights of protests and violence. On Tuesday night, authorities allege that Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Trump supporter from Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed two peaceful protesters and wounded a third.

It is notable that white conservative Protestants, as the WLC's students and faculty largely are, are showing increased opposition to the Trump agenda when educated by their own conservative theology.  We also find this among graduates of conservative Catholic colleges such as Franciscan University of Steubenville.  

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SIGNALS TO PRO-CHOICE VOTERS THAT NOTHING WILL CHANGE

 

The Trump Administration has issued a detailed report designed to assure swing voters that the Administration's 'Mexico City Policy" is largely meaningless.  The report makes no claim that a single abortion has been prevented by the policy. 

Republican operatives have long held out the 'Mexico City Policy' as a bone to social conservatives as a way of advancing their twin objectives of doing less for the poor and opposing abortion.  The policy meant that under certain carefully preselected circumstances, international organizations could not receive federal grants if they used non-US funds to perform or refer clients to abortions.  The policy was carefully written to not disallow hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to groups favored by the Republican Party.  

The Trump Administration is now appealing to pro-choice voters with a report that the policy only impact 8 out of 1,360 direct grantees.  It does also not dispute the finding that of the 8 health care organizations, the policy has resulted in an increased number of abortions as women did not receive health care that may have led them to choose life.  

While the MCP has resulted in no evidence that it has prevented a single abortion, the Trump Administration has actually INCREASED funding to entities not covered under the MCP but who receive foreign aid and pay for abortions.  

A copy of the report can be found here:

Trump Administration Report on MCP

MICHAEL STEELE -- REPUBLICAN, PRO-LIFE, CATHOLIC -- ENDORSES BIDEN

Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and life long Catholic who considered the priesthood has become the latest Republican to announce his support for the election of Joe Biden as President. 

Here is what the strongly conservative and Republican Deacon Keith Fournier wrote about Mr. Steele in the conservative "Catholic Online" website:  

He was born at Andrews Air Force base in Prince George's County, Maryland on October 19, 1958 and subsequently adopted. This African American child was then raised in a family of Democrats. His political turn to the Republican Party did not come from his having attained success in almost every endeavor he has undertaken, which he has. Rather, according to this well spoken and inspiring man, it came from watching the lived example of his mother, Maebell and hearing the convincing positions of a man named Ronald Reagan.

Michael Steele's mother suffered a tragedy in 1962 when her husband, Michael's father, died of liver disease. She went to work and through her sacrifice raised him and his sister on a minimum wage job. Her ethic of hard work and deep dedication to her children were an inspiration to her young son. They have also been replicated in him, according to those who know him best. He is considered one of the hardest working and most ethical public servants in American political life.

He attended Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C. and is among the first in his family to go to College. He earned his Bachelors degree (B.A.) in international relations at Johns Hopkins and his Law Degree (J.D.) from Georgetown University Law Center. Michael Steele has a deeply rooted and sincere Catholic Christian faith. As a young man he considered a vocation to the priesthood and spent time at the Augustinian seminary at Villanova. After a period of discernment and study he chose to pursue marriage and family and what would become a distinguished career in law and public service. His Novice master for the Augustinians, Fr. Francis J. Doyle, told the Baltimore Sun "Michael was a very bright, articulate man who I would say gave himself very sincerely to the whole process of discernment." Michael Steele is happily married to Andrea Steele. They have two sons, Michael and Drew. The Steele family faithfully attends Mass at and belongs to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Landover Hills, Maryland.  Michael Steele is Pro-Life.

The good Deacon continues about a piece about Steele he read in "Inside Catholic", another conservative Catholic publication edited by a leading Republican figure: 

Michael Steele made his pro-life views very clear when he was running for the Maryland Senate seat in 2006. Maryland is not a state especially friendly to pro-life politicians, and the fact that Steele did not down-play his convictions should settle the matter.... In 2003, Russ Shaw and I convened a meeting in DC with the then-president of the USCCB, Bishop Wilton Gregory, and its executive committee. ...In addition to the bishops, there were about 60 Catholic leaders and journalists present, including Peggy Noonan, Kate O'Beirne, Gene Zurlo, Frank Hanna, Bill Donohue, Pat Madrid, and Tom Hoopes. But one of the most memorable interventions was made by Michael Steele. When he rose to his feet, very few people knew who he was. The fact that he was Lt. Gov. of Maryland got everyone's attention, but the fact that he was an African-American Republican really raised some bishops' eyebrows, as I recall.

Steele did not succeed in his task of reforming the Republican Party.  But Michael Steele, devoted Catholic Republican now sees that Joe Biden is the man for the moment.  His integrity is attested to by even some of the most conservative Republicans.  We are happy to welcome him as a Catholic for Joe Biden. 

THE CURRY FAMILY SPEAKS OF FAITH AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

 

LEADING EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE TAKES A LOOK AT JOE BIDEN'S FAITH

 

'Christianity Today', the leading American evangelical journal, has taken a look at Joe Biden and his faith.  It notes that Biden might not bring evangelical Protestants and Catholic together, but people from all faiths are impressed with Biden's sincerity and decency.  It mentions a campaign ad that shows former Vice President Joe Biden making Pope Francis laugh during a meeting in St. Peter’s Basilica and speaking with a group of smiling nuns on a street in Rome. In a voice over, Biden talks about the importance of his Catholic faith and how, for him, the nuns epitomized the church’s teaching that “we are our brothers’ keeper,” a biblical idea that shapes his liberal politics.

The article notes that experts on the historically complicated relationship between American Catholics and evangelicals say this emphasis—primarily aimed at Catholic and mainline Protestant voters—may not help Biden win over white evangelicals, a core part of President Donald Trump’s base. But it also won’t hurt.  “He is viewed as having an authentic faith,” said Richard Mouw, former president of Fuller Theological Seminary and professor of faith and public life.

Shaun Casey, a Protestant seminary professor found that “There is a growing dissatisfaction among evangelicals with Trump.  They know Trump’s weaknesses: His immorality, his incoherence, his rage and incompetence. But I don’t see it leading them into the Democratic Party.”

Casey concludes some white evangelical Protestants may just stay home on election day.  

FR. JAMES MARTIN, SJ, CLOSING BENEDICTION AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

 

Fr. James Martin, SJ

JLD's Line from Last Night

"BIDEN GOES TO CHURCH SO REGULARLY THAT HE DOESN'T EVEN NEED TEAR GAS AND FEDERAL AGENTS TO GET THERE"

THURSDAY: HOLY MASS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

On Thursday morning there will be a celebration of the Holy Mass for the Democratic National Convention delegates and others participating in the Convention.  Father Thomas J. Reese, SJ, will be the celebrant.  It will be at 9am ET/8am CT.

All are welcome to participate remotely as we pray for our country, our nominee and fellow Catholic, Joe Biden, and for his family.   

To participate use the livestream link below:

Democratic National Convention Mass

Joe Donnelly: Joe Biden is a man of faith. Donald Trump, a man of falsehood.

Former U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly has written an article in the Indianapolis Star.  Portions of it are cited below.  The full article can be accessed by the link at the bottom.  

JOE DONNELLY | INDIANAPOLIS STAR | August 16, 2020

   

I recently saw Donald Trump’s blustering comments challenging Joe Biden’s faith and beliefs – this from the very same Donald Trump who took great pleasure in mocking those with disabilities during his campaign.

Donald Trump has made a lot of fact-free statements in recent years, but his incoherent babbling about who qualifies as appropriately religious would be comical if it were not so pathetic and desperate.

Joe Biden lives his faith every day. Every Sunday, he is on his knees attending Mass and praying for his country, his family, and all those in need in our beloved nation. I know this because I know Joe Biden and I come from the same Irish Catholic faith tradition.......

In the Bible, Luke states that “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Joe Biden has always embraced that passage with his life’s work. He has worked in food pantries, fights for health care and makes sure those who are struggling have shelter because he believes that is what God expects us to do with the gifts our Creator has given to us.

When I was 10 years old, my mom died from cancer. My dad, who was deeply religious, put his arm around all of us and told us we’d stick together and make it through. I found out later that my dad told his friend that “without my faith, I could never have gotten through such tough times.”

That’s also Joe Biden’s story. His deep Catholic faith helped him survive and hold his boys close after they lost his wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi in 1972. His devotion to God helped him care for all those around him rather than himself after the crushing loss of his son Beau in 2015.

Joe Biden’s life has been filled with heartbreak and loss, but his unwavering faith in God’s mercy and plan has enabled Joe to dedicate his life to others and help fill their lives with faith and love.

.....

Donald Trump makes things up all the time, and his comments on Joe Biden’s religious life are at best nonsensical. This Sunday, Joe Biden as usual will be on his knees in Church praying for our nation, our people, and those who are most at risk. I and others around our country will be praying for Joe Biden and for God to give him the wisdom needed for the task ahead.

Joe Donnelly is the former congressman from the 2nd District of Indiana and the former U.S. senator from Indiana. He is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Indystar

Fr. James Martin, SJ; Sr. Simone Campbell to speak at Democratic National Convention

Fr. James Martin, S.J. will deliver an invocation at the Democratic National Convention this week on the night when former Vice President Joe Biden will become the fourth Catholic to accept his party's formal nomination for president of the United States.  The Republican Party has never nominated a Catholic.

Fr. Martin, an editor-at-large at America Magazine and one of the most well known American priests on social media.  Fr. Martin was invited by the Vatican to be a speaker at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland. Fr. Martin, who is also a consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications, appointed by the Holy Father, Pope Francis. 

Also speaking at the convention will be Sr. Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network a Catholic social justice lobby, which played a critical role in soliciting the support of many Catholic religious sisters behind the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. 

BIDENS OFFER THEIR PRAYERS

Vice President Biden issued the following statement having heard the sad new of the passing of the President's brother:  

“Mr. President, Jill and I are sad to learn of your younger brother Robert’s passing.  I know the tremendous pain of losing a loved one — and I know how important family is in moments like these. I hope you know that our prayers are with you all.”

Catholics organize national campaign to register young Latino voters

Catholic organizations have launched a nationwide campaign to register young Latino citizens to vote.  This Catholic program has the potential to add a huge number of young Latinos to the voter rolls before the November election.   

The campaign is named "#Every3Seconds".  Around 800,000 Latinos turn 18 each year, according to the Pew Research Center. The majority of them were born in the U.S. or are naturalized citizens, eligible to vote in the 2020 election.

#Every30Seconds' name is based on Pew's above statistic of 800,000 Latinos turning 18 a year; That equates to roughly one every 30 seconds, the campaign says. 

The national campaign is led by Latino young adults and organized by La RED, the National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana; the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry; the National Catholic Partnership on Disabilities; The Office of Hispanic and Ethnic Ministry of the Joliet, Illinois, Diocese; and Instituto Fe y Vida, as well as several national faith-based organizations.

"We need to encourage our young Hispanic Catholics to register and to vote," said Adriana Visoso, president of La RED. "And [we need] to ensure that no political affiliations or candidates will be recommended in any part of the campaign. … We just want to ensure that they know that they have power, that they have a right to vote, to decide."

Verónica López is a young adult organizer for the #Every30Seconds campaign. She says voting is an important part of living Catholic social teaching, and she hopes to empower other young Latino Catholics to join her at the polls in November (Courtesy Verónica López/ Verónica Salgado)

López, who moved to the U.S. when she was 12 and became a citizen at 21, said ever since she became eligible, she's made an effort to educate herself about the issues that matter to her and her community, and pick the candidates who best represent those values. She said voting is important to her as a way to live out Catholic social teaching and advocate for people in her community who can't vote. 

"Being Catholic compels you to go out, to be informed, to really exercise your civic duty, to know who you're voting for, and to get involved with all of the issues and all of the concerns that affect us all," she said. "Because something that affects just one person in the other part of the country; it's going to affect you, too, eventually."

People who aren't eligible to vote themselves are also participating in the campaign, including Julio Beltran, a "Dreamer" from Texas, among the 800,000 who were brought to this country as children with their undocumented families and are now seeking legal status. Beltran, assistant director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry at the Diocese of Beaumont, said he got involved in the campaign as a young adult organizer to help "make the young people aware of the power they have and the responsibility they have as Catholics."

Beltran, who works with young people in his ministry, said young adults sometimes encounter an overwhelming amount of information about candidates and policies but not enough about how to actually register and fill out a ballot.

Black Catholics laud Harris pick

 

Vice President Joe Biden’s choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate elicited support and good wishes from key Black Catholics. 

“This is headline news. It’s the first of its kind,” said Father Aniedi Okure, O.P., executive director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, about the choice of Harris, the first Black vice presidential nominee of a major political party.

A native of Nigeria, Father Okure has lived in the United States since the late 1980s and called himself “a voting card-carrying citizen” of the United States.

“Given what the country has been going through lately, with the fallout from (the killing of) George Floyd,” Father Okure told Catholic News Service, “it is something that’s pointing in the right direction, if I may use the word. The United States is an inclusive community. All of this is happening, and things are getting better in that sense. So I think really it’s something to look forward to,” he added, noting, “They haven’t won yet.”

Donna Toliver Grimes, associate director of African American affairs in the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, said "I was so elated. We, the community, need good news, and this was just wonderful.  She wasn’t my top candidate in the primaries, and she wasn’t my top pick for vice president, but she’s really deserving and brings a lot to the table.”

Black Catholics should look at Biden and Harris for “policy that is favorable to people on the margins. If I say ‘for African Americans,’ it benefits other people on the margins as well,” Grimes said. “That’s a concern to deal with this voting-rights, voter-suppression issue. “I would expect he (Biden) would put good people in his Cabinet, who would not damage the agencies, or ignore the mission,” Grimes said.

While Harris was raised by her non-Christian mother, Kamala began attending Christian churches as a young girl and even sang in the children's choir.  Today, Harris is a member of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, led by Rev. Amos Brown, who lauded her as “a quintessential scholar” who would unite “the spirituality, the genius and the nonviolent traditions” of her parents’ backgrounds and of the African American community.  “She’s a spiritual person,” Brown said of Harris.

ANOTHER PRO-LIFE REPUBLICAN IS VOTING FOR BIDEN AND ASK YOU DO TOO

 

This is just one testimonial of a pro-life Republican who is switching and voting for Joe Biden.  This year, the pro-life vote is extremely divided.  We bring you the perspectives of those pro-lifers who have chosen Joe Biden.

Biden campaign faith director talks Christian beliefs,

 

Biden campaign faith director talks Christian beliefs, outreach to evangelicals and systemic racism

By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter 

Josh Dickson

The newly appointed head of faith outreach for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is working on getting evangelicals to support the Democratic nominee.

During the Obama administration, for a time, Dickson worked as the director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Dickson believes some evangelicals are moving toward supporting Biden. An example of this, he said, is seeing evangelical leaders' embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We have seen evangelicals marching in the streets, we have seen evangelicals talking about Black Lives Matter and speaking and praising Black Lives Matter,” said Dickson. “We've seen a tremendous response from individual pastors who have large followings who have marched in the streets. We've seen leaders, elected leaders who have marched in the streets from evangelical backgrounds.”

This level of support leads Dickson to conclude that “the real religious issue in this election is fighting systemic racism.” Biden, he said, has an advantage in handling that issue.

“We want to let people of faith know that in this moment that they are valued and they matter to the vice president and to this campaign and to the future direction of this country,” continued Dickson.

The Christian Post interviewed Dickson on a variety of topics, including his faith journey, political views, and why he thinks evangelicals should support Biden for president despite certain ideological differences.

Staying Christian, changing parties

Born into a conservative family in which many attended Moody Bible Institute, Dickson had a Christian upbringing that involved attending church on Sundays and Wednesdays.

While enrolled at the University of Michigan, Dickson oversaw outreach efforts for the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter. After college, he became a teacher in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Dickson explained to CP that it was his belief in “the redemptive ministry and Gospel of Jesus” that inspired him to take the teaching job instead of pursuing law school, noting that he was inspired by Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, much is required.”

"It’s the core of my values; it’s the first thing I identify with. It drives everything that I do — being a Christian, being a believer,” said Dickson.

"My faith also led me into the public service arena after college, and it was the reason why I chose to be a teacher in the South Side of Chicago."

Dickson said that teaching in Chicago "really opened my eyes to the ministry of Jesus in a different way that I hadn't been as exposed to.”

“It really helped me see more of the example He set for us by how He lived His life and the ways that He showed His love, compassion, and commitment to the inherent and God-given dignity of other people through service,” he said.

"In the Gospels, Jesus says 'the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.' I think I really found what that meant for me a lot more when I was teaching and working in the little village community on the South Side of Chicago and working with the students that I worked with. The families were all just incredible people who were still invested in our shared work, trying to ensure that their children had just as much opportunity, regardless of their zip code or the color of their skin."

Dickson initially self-identified as a Republican. In 2004, the first presidential election he voted in, Dickson said he supported incumbent George W. Bush.

...

Dickson believes that Biden, a practicing Catholic, is “an authentic man of faith whose faith and values inform his political participation, his long history of fighting for civil rights and fighting for the least of these.”

Biden’s beliefs will inform his presidency, Dickson told CP, citing as an example the former vice president’s recently released racial economic equity statement.

“I think that it encapsulates how Joe Biden's faith is going to inform his vision for the country. It is very much rooted in those values that come from Catholic teaching and rooted in those values that are very much centered on the common good,” he said.

for more of the article, click here:  Christian Post

FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE: TRUMP COULDN'T BE MORE WRONG ABOUT BIDEN'S FAITH

Melissa Roberts wrote the following column distributed by Religious News Service.  The link at the bottom will take you to the full article.

 

Joe Biden Prays to the Blessed Mother

On Thursday (Aug. 6), after Joe Biden had spent the morning addressing a meeting of the leaders of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, a predominantly Black denomination, President Trump used part of a press conference to make wild assertions about the former vice president's approach to faith. If Biden were to become president, Trump said, there would be “no religion, no anything.” He claimed Biden would “hurt the Bible” and “hurt God.” Trump asserted that Biden was “against God.”

As a White House staffer, I had the opportunity to see Vice President Biden up close. Trump’s assertions could not be more wrong. With these remarks, Trump has demonstrated once again that he doesn’t tell the truth and doesn’t understand faith, religion’s role in American public life, or Joe Biden.

During my first weeks as special assistant to President Obama, the White House hosted the 2013 Easter Prayer Breakfast. Obama and Biden both gave eloquent remarks about their personal faith at the breakfast and greeted participants, Christians who were diverse not only in terms of their denominations but also their political stripes.

I was still learning the ropes, and my lack of experience showed that day. When I saw Biden later, he smiled warmly and said, “Are you getting the hang of it?” Needless to say, it’s unusual for a person of Biden’s rank to check on and encourage a staffer. Nevertheless, that’s the sort of kindness Joe Biden extends to everyone. 

It’s what we Baptists call walking the talk. Biden speaks readily and movingly about his personal faith, including the duty to love one’s neighbor. But even more importantly, he lives out his faith on a daily basis.

Biden is also a regular churchgoer. Even when Vice President Biden was on the road during the Obama-Biden administration, he would quietly find a church to attend. His focus was on worshipping, not on being seen doing so.  

Moreover, Biden was at home not just in churches but in houses of worship of all kinds. He has longstanding friendships and working relationships with people of many different faiths. Biden has a profound appreciation for the remarkable pluralism that has characterized America at its best.

I also saw that Biden takes the voices of people of faith seriously. Some government officials just “call in the collars” — contacting clergy at the last minute to ask them to bless deals they’ve had no opportunity to shape. That’s not Biden’s approach. 

....

Vice President Biden demonstrated the same kind of leadership in preparing for Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. The goal wasn’t to have a photo opportunity; it was to use the power of the moment to change people’s lives for the better. Biden became personally and deeply involved in finding areas of common ground between the Vatican and the administration, including by convening a series of meetings with religious and other civil society leaders.

When the pope arrived at the White House, the Obama-Biden administration was able to announce a number of executive actions, including a marked increase in the number of refugees the United States could accept, partnerships with civil society organizations to combat climate change and new efforts to promote religious freedom around the world.

Having a president who cares deeply about others and respects everyone’s dignity matters. Having a president who understands fundamental American principles matters. Having a president who listens and reaches out to people with differing views matters. Having a president who demonstrates humility and tells the truth matters.

Melissa Rogers served as special assistant to President Barack Obama and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships from 2013-2017. She is the author of "Faith in American Public Life" 

Trump Wrong on Biden Faith

TRUMP MOVES TO DEFUND SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security is a bedrock program for senior citizens and the disabled.  It is a social insurance program that was designed under Catholic inspiration thanks to the effort of Msgr. John A. Ryan, an advisor to FDR and the foremost Catholic social thinker of his day, along with ideas developed by Catholic social leaders in Germany.

The Democratic Party has never weakened in its defense of Social Security and JOE BIDEN will defend this program for the elderly and disabled.

In reaction to Trump's plan to defund Social Security, Vice President Biden announced:  

"One order is Donald Trump’s first shot in a new, reckless war on Social Security. Trump announced a payroll tax plan with no protections or guarantees — like the ones the Obama-Biden administration enforced a decade ago — that the Social Security Trust Fund will be made whole. And, Trump specifically stated today that if re-elected, he plans to undermine the entire financial footing of Social Security. He is laying out his roadmap to cutting Social Security. Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt."

Please stand with Joe  Biden against Trump's plan to defund this important (and very Catholic) social insurance program.  

Catholic Bishop John Stowe rebukes Trump as 'anti-life'

 

Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, publicly criticized President Donald Trump during a July 31 webinar.  This has been one of the strongest and most direct criticisms of Trump by an American Catholic bishop, though Pope Francis himself has taken Trump to task on occasion. 

Notable, the Bishop joined with a growing number of faithful Catholic voices not over matters such as immigration, capital punishment, care for Creation, labor rights and other issues where the Catholic Church has a clear position rejected by Trump.  The Bishop called Trump "anti-life."

In the webinar, the Bishop stated:  "For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance. He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that," Stowe said.

The Bishop continued, "Pope Francis has given us a great definition of what pro-life means.  He basically tells us we can't claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border, if we support exposing people at the border to COVID-19 because of the facilities that they're in, if we support denying people who have need for adequate health care access to health care, if we keep people from getting the housing or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life." 

But for Stowe, being truly pro-life must include efforts towards racial, social and environmental justice. "We have to be concerned for the unborn children, it's foundational for us," Stowe said. But, he added, "our understanding of pro-life has to be the vision that was described as the seamless garment vision." That vision gained traction after a 1983 speech by the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

Right wing elements have long rejected a broad vision of protecting human life.  Not only have they rejected offenses against human life because of race and economic injustice but have also disregarded offenses against unborn life when it does not fit with their partisan political agenda.  Spontaneous abortions caused by environmental pollution and industrial chemicals are unmentioned,.  Proven social programs that reduce abortion such as universal health care and paid parental leave are opposed.  And these Right-wing activists even oppose provisions of the Affordable Care Act that prohibited discrimination in health insurance against the unborn by requiring that the unborn be included in parent's heath care policies.  

Biden has spent his life drawing from his Catholic faith

The Washington Post has a very good article today in response to Trump's blasphemous and false accusation.

By Julie Zauzmer and Sarah Pulliam Bailey

August 7, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

When Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, his welcomer-in-chief was then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Almost wherever Francis went, Biden was there — in the White House and the Capitol, and also in sacred spaces, including at Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Biden followed the pope from Washington to Philadelphia, leading a farewell ceremony for the visiting dignitary he has called “the single most popular figure in the world.”

This week, President Trump painted a very different picture of Biden, mocking his presumptive Democratic opponent as a man hostile to religion. “Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything,” Trump said of Biden on Thursday. “Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy, our kind of energy.”

Biden, who was the country’s first Catholic vice president and would be the first Catholic president in more than half a century, has been motivated by his faith throughout his long career in politics.

Although he has prominently disagreed with the political goals of some religious groups, including the Catholic Church, he also has often proved that he understands them.

“When you went to an event in Washington, D.C., with [Biden], it was the only room that included priests and nuns," said Christopher Jolly Hale, who was executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good during the Obama administration and is now running for Congress in Tennessee. “It was always strange to see the habits and collars among the most powerful in Washington.”

Others noted that Biden almost always has rosary beads in his pocket, and frequently holds them in his hand — including while he monitored the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. He has written and spoken at length of how faith helped him grieve the loss of his first wife and daughter many years ago, and his son Beau more recently.

Biden declined an interview request. In a statement, he called Trump’s attack “shameful,” saying that his faith is the “bedrock foundation of my life."

”President Trump’s decision today to profane God and to smear my faith in a political attack," Biden said, "is a stark reminder of what the stakes of this fight truly are.”

Francis's 'politically loaded gift' to Trump during his Vatican visit: A copy of his own writing on climate change

Like John F. Kennedy, the only Catholic president to date, Biden has been criticized from both the right and the left for policy stances that are related to his religion, especially on the issue of abortion.

.....

Catholics, who make up nearly one-quarter of voters, historically are politically split, with Latino Catholics favoring Democrats and White Catholics somewhat more favorable toward Republicans. Polling by Pew Research Center in July showed Biden slightly leading Trump among Catholic voters, 52 percent to 47 percent.

Trump is far less popular with White Catholics than with White evangelical Protestants, who also strongly oppose abortion.

.....

Rocco Palmo, editor of Whispers in Loggia, a news site on Catholicism, questioned Trump’s connection of support for gun ownership to religious belief, noting that Catholic bishops have spoken out several times on the need for gun restrictions.

"Some Catholics are going to say, ‘You don’t tell us who’s one of us and who isn’t,’ " Palmo said. “Since when was that the role of government? The bishops are the authoritative teachers of the faith, not the president of the United States.”

.......

The relationship between the U.S. government and the Vatican has been uneasy since Trump’s election in 2016. Francis has provoked Trump several times, including calling him “not Christian.” Trump, in response, called the pope’s words “disgraceful.”

Biden’s campaign, and Catholic Democrats who have worked with him, say that Biden would repair the bond — a relationship with diplomatic implications, not just religious ones, as the Vatican has a history of working with Washington to deliver aid in global trouble spots and of brokering international agreements.

In a call earlier this year with Catholic leaders, Trump called himself the “best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church,” according to the online Catholic newspaper Crux. He has campaigned hard to win Catholic votes, particularly White Catholics in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Biden, too, is reaching out to Catholics, holding prayer calls and Zoom meetings for faith leaders and planning virtual house parties where supporters can invite friends from their parishes to talk about electing the next Catholic president.

Campbell, the nun who advocated for Obamacare, remembers her family’s joy when Kennedy was elected in 1960, even though some of his policy positions clashed with the church.

If Biden became the second Catholic in the Oval Office, Campbell said, “There would be pride in that."

Washington Post

STATEMENT BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ON HIS FAITH

After Trump's disgusting and blasphemous statement yesterday, we think we should just let our candidate speak for himself: 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

August 6, 2020

Statement by Vice President Joe Biden on His Faith

Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: it’s provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it’s kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy. And in this moment of darkness for our country — of pain, of division, and of sickness for so many Americans — my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us. 

For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful. It’s beneath the office he holds and it’s beneath the dignity the American people so rightly expect and deserve from their leaders. However, like the words of so many other insecure bullies, President Trump’s comments reveal more about him than they do about anyone else. They show us a man willing to stoop to any low for political gain, and someone whose actions are completely at odds with the values and teachings that he professes to believe in. 

My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as I would myself, while President Trump only seeks to divide us. My faith teaches me to care for the least among us, while President Trump seems to only be concerned about his gilded friends. My faith teaches me to welcome the stranger, while President Trump tears families apart. My faith teaches me to walk humbly, while President Trump teargassed peaceful protestors so he could walk over to a church for a photo op.

As I’ve said so many times before, we’re in the battle for the soul of our nation, and President Trump’s decision today to profane God and to smear my faith in a political attack is a stark reminder of what the stakes of this fight truly are.

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TONITE: DR. JILL BIDEN SPEAKS ABOUT HER FAITH AND VALUES

Believers for Biden National Call to Action featuring Dr. Jill Biden

Tonight, Thursday, August 6th, 8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT Dr. Biden will speak about her journey of faith on the campaign trail as she so poignantly shared at the virtual Believers for Biden Concert last Sunday evening. To participate, register here:  CATHOLICS FOR BIDEN ZOOM MEETING