HOLY FATHER CALLS JOE BIDEN TO CONGRATULATE HIM ON HIS ELECTION

 

Totus Tuus, Maria

 

This morning, Vice President Biden attended Holy Mass.  We too turn to prayer.  We ask our Blessed Mother not for victory for any candidate, for that is our job here on Earth which we have been working diligently.  We ask her for inner peace in these troubled times and for unity and concord among the people of our nation.  Amen. 

JOE BIDEN AT MASS FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1st

 Joe Biden at Mass yesterday in Delaware.  Humble, devout, serene, prayerful.  

ANOTHER AD REACHING OUT TO CATHOLIC VOTERS

Joe Biden's rising support among Catholic voters clearly has resulted because of the very active Catholic outreach conducted by the Biden campaign and a number of independent organizations.  We find that our work has far exceeded past Democratic efforts and far exceeded the feeble attempts by the Trump campaign and its allied organizations. 

Here is yet another of the Catholic outreach ads produced in support of Joe Biden and warning Catholics of the dangers of Trump:

POLITICO: FALLING CATHOLIC SUPPORT MAY DOOM TRUMP

Trump faces an existential risk: Slipping Catholic support

The state of the Catholic vote underscores Trump’s challenge in winning over religious voters who appear inclined to support Biden — despite approving of the president’s job performance.

Four years after Catholic Americans helped seal Donald Trump’s come-from-behind victory with a flood of support in the industrial Midwest, they could deliver his defeat on Tuesday.

In the closing days of the 2020 race, polls have shown Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with a steady lead among Catholic voters, one of the most consequential voting blocs this presidential cycle and a demographic the Trump campaign is counting on to deliver all-important toss-ups — like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio — to their side on Election Day.

“There’s no doubt we have to win the Catholic vote. It is essential to our reelection,” said Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.

But the state of the Catholic vote four days before the Nov. 3 election underscores the immense challenge the Trump campaign has faced in its year-long attempt to lock in religious voters who appear inclined to support Biden — despite approving of the president’s job performance — out of sheer frustration with Trump's personality and concerns over the division his presidency has sowed.

A mid-October survey by EWTN and RealClearPolitics showed Trump with a 47 percent approval rating among Catholics, but only 40 percent support when respondents were asked who they would vote for if the election were held today. Ditto for a Marquette Law School poll released last week where Trump’s job approval rating (52 percent) among Wisconsin Catholics exceeded their support for his reelection (48 percent).

“If he loses, it’s because people who otherwise support him are just sick of it all,” said one adviser to the Trump campaign. “It’s because of voters who kind of like Trump, but ‘just can’t take this anymore.’ It’s because voters will choose a calm Thanksgiving dinner with their Democratic and Republican relatives over another policy victory or Supreme Court justice.”

It’s a concern that is particularly salient among Catholic voters in Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes region, where a cultural kinship with Biden, a practicing Catholic himself, has put the president at a disadvantage. And it’s a conundrum some of Trump’s allies begrudgingly admit could sink his shot at a second term.

“Half of Biden’s advantage right now is the shift among Catholics, who are facing a push-and-pull effect. Trump has pushed them away with his gruffness and extremism, while Biden pulls them in because he’s a white Catholic himself who speaks authentically about their shared faith,” said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University who has been tracking data on Catholic voters in the Trump era.

The other issue for Trump is that in his campaign’s effort to court Catholic voters with a laser-like focus on his conservative policy accomplishments, they have allowed concerns about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, immigration and the protests over racial injustice to go unaddressed......

Only 29 percent of non-Protestant/Catholic voters said they somewhat or strongly agree that Trump “keeps his promises,” according to a POLITICO-Morning Consult survey conducted after the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn., last Thursday. The same survey also found that Catholic voters trust Biden more on the economy, jobs, health care, the coronavirus, race relations and public safety — suggesting the president’s opposition to coronavirus-related church lockdowns, which he and his campaign have billed as a threat to religious freedom, and his law-and-order message have failed to attract Catholic voters as much as Biden’s approach. In Wisconsin alone, a state where one in four religious adults identify as Catholic, 53 percent of Catholic voters disapprove of his response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Marquette Law School poll.

 “I really think the Catholic vote is the canary in the coal mine. If exit polls show Trump in the low 50s with white Catholics in Pennsylvania, it’s game over for him there and Michigan and Wisconsin,” said Burge....

Read the whole article here:  Politico

JOE BIDEN OP-ED PUBLISHED IN THE 'CHRISTIAN POST'

 

Joe Biden writes on his faith and values in his powerful op-ed in the Christian Post, "The Greatest Commandment has Guided My Politics." A true testament to why he is the clear moral choice in this election. Read it in full here: Christian Post - Joe Biden

CHARACTER COUNTS

CHARACTER COUNTS: In 2018, well before he ran for president, a bystander took this candid photo of Joe Biden talking to a homeless man outside of a movie theater in Georgetown where Joe had taken his granddaughter to the movies. Biden was seen writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to the man. Character is about what you do when no one is watching. Can ANYONE imagine Trump doing this?

JOE BIDEN'S MESSAGE TO PEOPLE OF FAITH

 Joe Biden offers a non-partisan message to churches nationwide: 

Biden Speaks to Church members 

BIDEN CATHOLIC OUTREACH EXTENDS TO CHALDEAN CATHOLICS

 

Biden Speaking to Chaldean Catholic and Assyrian Community Leaders Last Spring

Eastern rite Catholics are not left out of the Biden campaign's robust Catholic outreach efforts.  The Biden's campaign Chaldean Advisory Council has been working hard to activate, engage and turn out the Chaldean/Assyrian community in Michigan, the swing state that has the largest Chaldean Catholic community (Illinois and California also have large numbers of Chaldeans, but those states are firmly with Biden-Harris).  

The Chaldean Advisory Council will mobilize voters in the community through trusted channels, recruit volunteers for weekly phone-banks, friend-banks and other GOTV (Get Out the Vote) efforts, and urge voters to vote early in this election, preferably for Biden.  Led by Nathan Kalasho and Wisam Naoum, the Advisory Council also is forming a Chaldean/Assyrian Women for Biden group to reach women voters in the community.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know that to win this election and flip Michigan blue, they need to mobilize a broad, diverse coalition of voters to turn out,” said Biden for President Michigan State Director Eric Hyers. “Winning in Michigan means earning the support of the Chaldean/Assyrian communities in the state.

“With the help of the Chaldean Advisory Council, we’re speaking directly to members of the community about how a Biden-Harris administration would make their lives better. And it’s resonating with voters.”

Other Eastern rite Catholic outreach is occurring through Ukrainian Americans for Biden.  

A PRAYER FOR AMERICA

 

The Love --  A moving prayer and hymn by Joe Biden, Jennifer Hudson, and Black Eyed Peas.

BIDEN: TRUMP LOOKS DOWN ON CATHOLICS

JOE BIDEN accused the US President of looking down his nose at Irish Catholic and working-class people.

Biden has declared the President is racist, stating "He's the racist!", and said that Trump, who was born into the upper class, looked down his nose on people different to him.

"It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends look down on so many people," the former Vice President said.

"They look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics, like me, who grow up in Scranton.

"They look down on people who don’t have money. They look down on people who are of a different faith. They looked down on people who are a different color.

"In fact, we’re all Americans. The only way we’re going to bring this country together is bring everybody together. There’s nothing we cannot do, if we do it together. We can take this on and we can defeat racism in America."

The Catholics Who Hate Joe Biden—And Pope Francis

 The Catholics Who Hate Joe Biden—And Pope Francis

Some of Trump’s most committed Catholic supporters have leveled dark charges against Biden as they battle to sway the vote in crucial swing states. And wait until you hear what they think of the pope.

from, The Atlantic, by Tish Durkin

The president has aligned his reelection campaign with a proudly revanchist corner of the Church, one unfamiliar to many American Catholics, even those adamantly opposed to abortion. This faction’s positions on women, gay people, Muslims, immigration, socialism, and climate change are much closer to those of pro-Trump white evangelicals than to those of liberal Catholics, whom they consider not to be Catholics at all. Far from being bothered by Trump’s scuffles with the pope—Francis has called the president’s immigration policies “not Christian,” Trump has called him “disgraceful” for saying such a thing, and so on—these ultraconservatives applaud the attacks on the leader of their Church. To them, Francis is the embodiment of abhorrent modernist, globalist, even secularist values.

The effective leader of this part of the Church, which is both superglued to certainty and whirring with conspiracy, is Carlo Maria Viganò. “So honored by Archbishop Viganò’s incredible letter to me,” Trump tweeted in early June, to little general notice. “I hope everyone, religious or not, reads it!” Later, during one of the several White House interviews he has granted to EWTN, the conservative Catholic television network, the president lauded Viganò as a “great gentleman,” who’d written “a tremendous letter of support from the Catholic Church.”....

As Pope Francis might be at pains to point out, Viganò doesn’t speak for the Church. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as the papal nuncio, or representative, to Washington, D.C., in 2011, a post he occupied until 2016, when he entered an exceedingly active retirement, lobbing grenades at Benedict’s more liberal successor. The most sensational of these was Viganò’s 2018 call for Francis to resign ...

Read the whole story here:  The Atlantic

Biden - Harris Ad Narrated by Sam Elliott

This is not specifically a Catholic outreach ad, but it is so good that we had to share it.  Sam Elliott narrates it.  

MORE CATHOLIC OUTREACH ADS SUPPORTING JOE BIDEN

The Catholic outreach around the Biden campaign has been amazing.  We have state, local and diocesan Catholics for Biden groups across the nation.  We've had wonderful participation in our virtual Catholics for Biden events and great volunteers for our Catholic to Catholic phone banks.  We are seeing high quality, meaningful advertisements reaching out to Catholic voters.  Here is another ad.  This one is by Faith2020, an independent group that is supporting the Biden - Harris ticket.  In it a Pittsburgh, pro-life Catholic mother talks about why she is voting for Joe Biden.  Click on below to watch.

NEW BIDEN CAMPAIGN ADS - 'PRINCIPLES' AND 'A MAN GUIDED BY FAITH'

The Biden campaign has two campaign ads we feel will appeal to faithful Catholic voters.  Click below to see them.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN'S CATHOLIC OUTREACH IS TO CATHOLICS HOSTILE TO THE HOLY FATHER

 “A lot of people are holding their hands over their ears until the Argentine socialist is gone.” — former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R), the father of current New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R)

From a website accusing Pope Francis of being part of a Masonic conspiracy.

One of the puzzling features of the current Presidential campaign is that while Catholics supporting Joe Biden as well as the Biden Campaign are respectful towards the Holy Father while the Trump Campaign and its Catholic outreach surrogates are often openly hostile to Pope Francis.  This has troubled some mainstream Catholic Republicans as a bad strategy and identified Trump with the anti-Francis cabal.  

Trump has tweeted out support former papal nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was relieved of his duties by Pope Francis and now lives in retirement.  He has called for Pope Francis to resign, an unheard of action of a Catholic archbishop.  Trump also tweeted support for the author and online polemicist Taylor Marshall.  Marshall is known for his criticism of Church authorities and has proclaimed about the Holy Father that "I resist him to his face."   He has accused the Pope of allowing Freemasonry to take over the Vatican.  Marshall has recently been associated with the traditionalist priestly Society of St. Pius X, who are in “irregular communion” with the Catholic Church. He has tweeted that Catholic men should not attend diocesan seminaries, spoken about his “resistance” to Pope Francis, and has recently clashed with Bishop Robert Barron, who reportedly referred to him as an “extremist,” amid a disagreement over the role of clerics and laity amid the destruction of the statues of saints.

Marshal’s 2019 book “Infiltration” claims to outline a plot by which “Modernists and Marxists hatched a plan to subvert the Catholic Church from within. Their goal: to change Her doctrine, Her liturgy, and Her mission,” according to the book’s website.

The journalist Ed Condon of the conservative Catholic CNA news service has written:  

Officials working in the Trump administration have told CNA that they have been frustrated by recent presidential tweets elevating controversial Catholic figures...

Two Catholics in senior positions in the administration told CNA the decision to elevate Viganò and Marshall has put the White House at odds with the U.S. bishops, instead of putting a focus on issues of agreement, and has frustrated some Catholic administration officials.

...[O]ne White House official told CNA. “I believe in the work I’m doing, and believe it matters as a Catholic. But I spend enough time just defending that simple premise – I don’t want to have to deal with crazy Catholic Twitter too.”

A second senior administration official, who attends weekly meetings with the president in the Oval Office, told CNA the president believes he has not been supported by U.S. bishops for his efforts on religious liberty, and that White House strategists have urged him to court Catholic votes through figures like Marshall and Viganò.

Trump apparently considers the Pope and many of the Catholic bishops as enemies, with particular anger for the criticism he received from the Archbishop of Washington for using a Catholic chapel as a photo op background after he had anti-racism protestors tear-gassed.  

With that in mind, the Catholic reporter Michael Sean Winters writes:

That news was followed by the more bizarre — and perhaps more desperate? — news that Trey Trainor, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Election Commission had sat for an interview with Michael Voris at Church Militant. And not just an interview. Trainor seemed to fit right into the conspiratorial, fringy, Archbishop-Carlo-Maria-Viganò-loving and Vatican-II-hating climate at Church Militant.  

Trainor warned that electing Joe Biden constituted an "existential threat" to the Catholic Church and — apparently ignorant of canon law and the theology of the sacrament of holy orders — asserted that priests should defy their bishop if the bishop orders them to stay away from partisanship in the pulpit.

Here is the problem for the Trump campaign. Yes, he needs to motivate his base. He also needs to avoid giving reasons to stay home and not vote to his "soft" supporters, the 4% or 5% who do not approve of his job performance but tell pollsters they plan to vote for him over Biden. He needs their votes, too, and cozying up to cranks like Church Militant tends to turn off those more moderate voters.

Then there is Frank Pavone, the priest heavily involved in the Trump campaign but also denied any pastoral ministry from his bishop.  Pavone apparently has been for the second time dismissed from his diocese (a very rare action) and seems to now be permanently without a priestly assignment or diocese. 

It has been noted why people like Viganò, Pavone and Marshall appeal to Trump. Conspiracy theories, communists, freemasons, tons of retweets and YouTube followers? It’s right up his alley.  

The question is, why would a Catholic loyal to the Holy Father support a presidential candidate attacking the Pope and supporting those trying to destroy him?

THE CATHOLIC VOTER GUIDE IS ON-LINE

For Catholics researching the candidates' positions on Catholic issues, one excellent resource is the Catholic Voter Guide.  

The Catholic Voter Guide is a non-partisan, fact based aid for Catholic voters.  It lists all 47 issues the Catholic Bishops have taken a stance on and then provides links to direct statements made by both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  

The website was was created by a group of  theological authors and lay Catholic ministers to help spread the Bishop's document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship."  Each contributor has a Masters Degree in Theology or Political Science. 

Here is the link:  Catholic Voter Guide

THE BIDEN PLAN FOR SAFEGUARDING AMERICA’S FAITH-BASED COMMUNITIES

America was built on a foundation of religious freedom and tolerance. We haven’t always lived up to these ideals, but we’ve never stopped trying. And today, with communities of faith increasingly being targeted with hate-filled acts of violence and intimidation, we must redouble our efforts to reach our highest values.

In recent years, anti-Semitism has increased markedly, with anti-Semitic incidents and assaults spiking during the Trump Presidency. This alarming pattern of increased, and increasingly dangerous, prejudice has impacted those outside the Jewish faith as well. Christian, Muslim, and Sikh communities, among others, have all fallen victim to acts of domestic terrorism in the past few years.

These despicable attacks, which have wounded communities and destroyed lives from Poway to Charleston to Pittsburgh to Bloomington to Sutherland Springs to White Settlement, are unmistakably acts of terrorism — they are designed to use fear and violence to undermine people’s ability to proudly celebrate their faith. This evil has no place in our country. As president, Joe Biden will safeguard our nation’s religious communities through policies that ensure national and communal security support to faith-based organizations.

The Biden Plan for Safeguarding America’s Faith-Based Communities recognizes that we must involve federal, state, and local governments, as well as our houses of worship, in order to strike at the core of extremist violence and the social conditions that give rise to it. As president, Biden will lead by example: with tolerance and understanding from the highest levels of our government. He will also restore a national culture of inclusiveness that encourages individuals of all faiths to celebrate their beliefs openly and without fear of harm or reprisal. He will take on the NRA and gun manufacturers to pass critical gun safety reforms and get weapons of war out of our communities. And, Biden will demonstrate a personal interest in the security of our religious communities.

Biden’s Plan consists of several complementary policy proposals:

Providing Increased Security Grants to Religious Communities
Establishing a Faith Based Law Enforcement Program
Strengthening Prosecution of Hate Crimes

These proposals to provide direct protection to faith-based communities are an important start. But, more will be needed. No American should fear attending a religious service, school, or community center. We all have a right to practice our faith openly, or to practice no faith at all—a right that is being degraded under the Trump Administration’s watch. The Biden Plan for Safeguarding America’s Faith-Based Communities will empower religious organizations to provide safe places of worship and community for their members, while also reaffirming our national commitment to freedom, tolerance, and inclusivity.

Providing Increased Security Grants to Religious Communities

First and foremost, Biden will ensure that places of worship have access to robust and direct security support from the federal government. We cannot leave our faith-based organizations to rely on donations and internal fundraising efforts to guard against deadly attacks. As president, Biden will work with Congress to attain an immediate and substantial increase in direct security grant funding to faith-based organizations through the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).

NSGP grants have already helped places of worship around the country to improve the safety of congregation members. This funding has been used to:
Harden physical infrastructure to guard against arson and other forms of attack;
Hire and staff trained armed security personnel;
Conduct communal security training;
Implement facility access controls; and
Improve emergency preparedness and life-saving incident response protocols.

Existing annual funding levels for the NSGP are plainly insufficient. Requests from faith-based organizations last year, according to some estimates, far outstripped the available funding of just $90 million. In the future, funding for this critical program must increase by multiples to meet the need, particularly with anticipated demand for grants given the recent history and pattern of attacks. Upon taking office, Biden will convene the faith-based community with DHS to identify an appropriate funding allocation for the NSGP. Biden will then work closely with Congress to secure this funding as an urgent priority. And, he will further direct DHS to streamline the NSGP vetting and disbursement process to ensure that federal funding will more quickly reach the congregations and organizations that so desperately need it.

Establishing a Faith-Based Law Enforcement Program

In addition to his support for increased direct grant funding, Biden will press for legislation to authorize a new law enforcement program, housed within the Department of Justice (DOJ), dedicated to preventing attacks against faith-based organizations. This program will provide federal, state, and local law enforcement with:
Tools to process and operationalize, as appropriate, domestic extremist threat information;
Training in active threat preparation and response at religious community sites; and
Financial assistance to fund local law enforcement to protect houses of worship.

This program will also be supplemented by new efforts, led by DHS and supported by DOJ, to build security capacity within faith-based organizations. These efforts will take the form of tabletop security exercises with community institutions, classroom training, and other programs designed to transfer best practices between government security experts and local religious communities.

Strengthening Prosecutions of Hate Crimes

Investments in law enforcement and capacity building will be complemented by Biden’s commitment to bringing to justice the perpetrators of violence against our religious communities.

Biden will direct the Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of hate crimes — crimes which have increased significantly under the Trump Administration. Biden will also seek legislation that increases the potential sentence for certain hate crimes that occur in houses of worship and other religious community sites. And, in the interim, he will do everything in his executive power to ensure that the Department of Justice aggressively pursues such heinous acts of violence to the fullest extent of the law.

Integrating Support for Faith-Based Communities into a Broader anti-Hate Agenda

Biden believes that we must treat both the symptoms and the causes of anti-religious extremism. The Trump Administration courts the growing white supremacist movement in our country, and has brought its advocates into the inner circles of the White House. This appalling embrace gives political cover to and encourages the forces that terrorize our diverse communities. It will end under the Biden Administration.

Biden will advance whole-of-society efforts to prevent and address all forms of extremist violence in the United States. He will build capacity to diagnose and treat mental health issues that impact many who are susceptible toward violence. He will demand that social media and technology platforms do more to root out toxic extremist content that is radicalizing people online. And finally, he will prioritize information sharing so that when the federal government learns of threats directed at religious organizations online, that information is shared promptly with local authorities and with the targeted organization.

BISHOP OF SAN DIEGO STANDS UP FOR JOE BIDEN

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego slammed people questioning Biden's personal Catholic faith based on his positions on abortion rights. McElroy said that when it comes to questions of public policy, abortion legislation is a matter of prudential judgment.

"One very sad dimension of the election cycle we are witnessing," said McElroy, is "the public denial of candidates' identity as Catholics because of a specific policy position they have taken. Such denials are injurious because they reduce Catholic social teaching to a single issue. But they are offensive because they constitute an assault on the meaning of what it is to be Catholic."

During the campaign Republican political operatives, Catholics hostile to the Holy Father, and some others have crudely attacked Joe Biden's Catholic faith.

"Being Catholic means having a grace-filled relationship with God. Being Catholic means loving the Church. Being Catholic means participating in the sacramental life of the church. Being a Catholic means trying to transform the world by the light of the Gospel," McElroy continued. "To reduce that magnificent, multidimensional gift of God's love to a single question of public policy is repugnant and should have no place in public discourse."

On the question of abortion, he said that because Catholicism teaches that some actions, including abortion, are "intrinsically evil," meaning that they are "always and everywhere wrong," some church leaders have claimed that "candidates who seek laws opposing intrinsically evil actions automatically have a primary claim to political support in the Catholic conscience."  McElroy rejected that claim, telling attendees that "the framing of legislation is inescapably the realm of prudential judgment, not intrinsic evil."

"While a specific act of abortion is intrinsically evil, the formulation of individual laws regarding abortion is not," he said. "It is an imperative of conscience for Catholic disciples to seek legal protections for the unborn. But whether these protections take the form of sanctioning the doctor or the pregnant mother, whether those sanctions should be civil or criminal penalties, and the volatile issues pertaining to outlawing abortions arising from rape, incest and danger to the mother are all questions of deep disagreement among advocates wholeheartedly devoted to the protection of unborn children. Like the issues of fighting poverty and addressing climate change, the issue of abortion in law and public policy is a realm where prudential judgment is essential and determinative."

McElroy encouraged all Catholics to approach the ballot box with a thorough examination of their consciences, prayer and commitment to fully advancing the Gospel, and said that it is "morally legitimate" for Catholics to come to different conclusions as to for whom to cast their vote. 

San Diego is the second largest diocese in California, after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Other American bishops and cardinals have made comments similar to Bishop McElroy including Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Tobin of Newark, Archbishop Gregory of Washington, Archbishop Wester of Santa Fe, Bishop Stowe of Lexington, Bishop Callahan of La Crosse, Bishop Seitz of El Paso, and Bishop Zubik of Pittsburgh.  

CATHOLIC AD SUPPORTING JOE BIDEN

Another independent group is placing ads urging Catholics to vote for Joe Biden.  This is just one more example of the robust effort to support Catholics voting for Joe Biden.  Keep it up!