Showing posts with label Make America Catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Make America Catholic. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Biden's American Rescue Plan is Catholic social doctrine in action

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., display the "American Rescue Plan" March 10, 2021

NCR  Mar 12, 2021

Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress passed the $1.9 billion American Rescue Plan, (ARP) and President Joe Biden signed it into law yesterday. The new law includes efforts to confront the pandemic and the economic consequences of the pandemic, but it also addresses child poverty and other long-standing issues of economic inequality. Biden promised to "build back better," and this law is a major step toward redeeming that promise.

The plan constitutes a decisive repudiation of trickle-down economics in favor of a bottom-up approach to economic stimulus that is far more consistent with Catholic social teaching.

"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation — the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going — a fighting chance," the president said after the House passed the final legislation on Wednesday.

Biden and the Democrats have placed a big bet. If this stimulus package fails to stimulate the economy, if unemployment is still horrifically high next year, if children are still unable to go to schools in some cities because the poor ventilation in the school buildings make them viral incubators, if child poverty continues at its unconscionably high rate, the Democrats will pay a political price for this American Rescue Plan, and they will deserve to pay a price. And if it works, the Republicans might pay a price for having been bystanders at a time when so many of our fellow citizens are in profound pain. Whatever the political calculus, we all can hope that it works and, as Catholics, take some pride in the fact that our values and habits of ethical thought have played a role in coming to the nation's aid.

Current Justices of the Supreme Court: All Except Two Are Roman Catholics

Jamesjpn  January 11, 2021   

Six out of nine current Supreme Court Justices were nominated by Republican Presidents! And yet Roe vs. Wade has still not been overturned. And seven out of nine are Roman Catholics who are supposed to be against abortion!

John G. Roberts, Jr.

John G. Roberts, Jr.

John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States,
President George W. Bush, Republican, nominated him as Chief Justice of the United States, and he took his seat on September 29, 2005. Roberts is a devout Catholic and is married to an ardent pro-life activist. In spite of the fact he was nominated by a Republican and is supposed to hold traditional Christian values, he ruled with other Supreme Court justices in July 2020 that Nevada can impose tighter restrictions on churches than casinos to enforce social distancing guidelines. Moreover, Roberts concurred with the liberals on the court to strike down a Louisiana anti-abortion law! Why doesn’t the Pope excommunicate the guy? Something sinister is afoot. Maybe the RCC’s stance against abortion is really phony after all.
Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice,
President George Herbert Walker Bush, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he took his seat on October 23, 1991. Thomas was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic seminary.
 Stephen G. Breyer

Stephen G. Breyer

Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice,
President Clinton, Democrat, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on August 3, 1994. Breyer is Jewish.
Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice,
President George W. Bush, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on January 31, 2006. Alito is a practicing Catholic.
Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice,
President Barack Obama, Democrat, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009. Sotomayor is Catholic.
Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan, Associate Justice,
In 2009, President Obama, Democrat, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 10, 2010. She took her seat on August 7, 2010. Kagan is Jewish.
Neil M. Gorsuch

Neil M. Gorsuch

Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on April 10, 2017. Episcopalian, raised Roman Catholic
Brett M. Kavanaugh

Brett M. Kavanaugh

Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 6, 2018. Kavanaugh is a practicing Catholic.
Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett

Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice,
President Donald J. Trump, Republican, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat on October 27, 2020. Barrett is a practicing Catholic.


Sunday, January 31, 2021

In Biden’s Cabinet, Catholics and Jews dominate

The proposed Biden administration. Illustration by Kit Doyle
Religion News January 19, 2021

Joe Biden’s Cabinet is set to make history in a number of ways.

If all the nominees the president-elect has chosen are confirmed, the Cabinet — including the vice president, the heads of 15 executive departments and eight other key positions — will be the most racially and ethnically diverse ever. Among them are six African Americans, four Hispanics, three Asian Americans and one Native American. Half the nominees are women — the most ever nominated for a presidential Cabinet.

In terms of their religious backgrounds, the Cabinet nominees are also diverse. Like the president-elect, the majority — at least eight — are Catholic.  But five Jews have also been nominated, two Black Baptists and, if the surgeon general is included (often not), two Hindus. (A handful of Cabinet picks do not appear to identify with any religion.)

One group not represented? White evangelicals, the group most loyal to President Donald Trump.

Monday, November 30, 2020

Once feared as Vatican meddling, Catholic ideas could help America move forward

Religion News November 9, 2020

Americans once feared that Catholic politicians would push Rome's agenda. But in divisive times, we could do worse than implementing the Church's principles of reconciliation and multilateralism. 

 When New York Gov. Al Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated by a major American party, and John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, ran in 1928 and 1960, respectively, many Americans feared that, if elected, the two would pursue a hidden Catholic agenda. These days, few fear the influence of the pope on a Biden administration. Indeed, in this time of division, pandemic, racism and global warming, we could do worse than implementing a truly Catholic agenda.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Current U.S. Supreme Court Justices as of October 2020

 

Source

For Trump, Conservative Catholics Are The New Evangelicals

    NPR   October 26, 2020

Four years ago, white evangelicals rallied behind Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, and he reveled in their adulation.

"The evangelicals love me, and I love them," Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, evangelicals were the only faith group he singled out for thanks, saying their support was "a big reason for me being here tonight."

In the general election, however, it was not the evangelicals who carried Trump to victory but Catholics, a group he had rarely mentioned in his speeches.

People were quite amazed at the overall impact that the white evangelicals had in the election, but I think what was missed was the critical role of the Catholic voters," says Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

Despite losing the popular vote, Trump reached the presidency in large part because he won traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all states in which Catholics outnumber evangelicals by significant margins.

"It was the Catholic vote that won those states for Donald Trump," says Tim Huelskamp, a former Republican congressman from Kansas now serving as an adviser to the Catholics for Trump movement, a coalition that did not formally exist in 2016.

Monday, August 31, 2020

‘Ave Maria’ caps Republican National Convention: ‘Most Catholic moment in American history’


Life News Aug 28, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Republican National Convention concluded with what one commentator has called “the most Catholic moment in American history”: the performance of “Ave Maria” – the “Hail Mary” prayer, put to music. 

Opera singer Christopher Macchio offered a beautiful rendition of the song, cherished by Catholics, from the Blue Room balcony of the White House after President Donald Trump’s speech officially accepting his party’s nomination to run for reelection. 

After the sung prayer to Our Lady, Macchio invited the Trump family and guests gathered on the south lawn of the White House to join in singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.”

“God will honor those who honor Him (and those who honor the Mother of God the Son),” proclaimed Dr. Taylor Marshall, Catholic author and a member of Catholics for Trump advisory board.  “Ave Maria!!!!”

“This is the most Catholic moment in American history,” declared conservative Catholic commentator John Zmirak. “Thank New York City, a once great Catholic city, for making potus possible.”

“By all means let's invoke the help of Jesus' mother in protecting our nation & our descendants from those who consider abortion ‘sacred’ and our physical, sexual natures as the tools of fetishists, quack doctors, and pornographers,” continued Zmirak in a subsequent Tweet. 

“The stakes could not be clearer this election,” he added.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Archbishop letter to President Trump

June 7, 2020
Holy Trinity Sunday
Mr. President,

In recent months we have been witnessing the formation of two opposing sides that I would call Biblical: the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light constitute the most conspicuous part of humanity, while the children of darkness represent an absolute minority. And yet the former are the object of a sort of discrimination which places them in a situation of moral inferiority with respect to their adversaries, who often hold strategic positions in government, in politics, in the economy and in the media. In an apparently inexplicable way, the good are held hostage by the wicked and by those who help them either out of self-interest or fearfulness.

These two sides, which have a Biblical nature, follow the clear separation between the offspring of the Woman and the offspring of the Serpent. On the one hand, there are those who, although they have a thousand defects and weaknesses, are motivated by the desire to do good, to be honest, to raise a family, to engage in work, to give prosperity to their homeland, to help the needy, and, in obedience to the Law of God, to merit the Kingdom of Heaven. On the other hand, there are those who serve themselves, who do not hold any moral principles, who want to demolish the family and the nation, exploit workers to make themselves unduly wealthy, foment internal divisions and wars, and accumulate power and money: for them the fallacious illusion of temporal well-being will one day – if they do not repent – yield to the terrible fate that awaits them, far from God, in eternal damnation.

...

Although it may seem disconcerting, the opposing alignments I have described are also found in religious circles. There are faithful Shepherds who care for the flock of Christ, but there are also mercenary infidels who seek to scatter the flock and hand the sheep over to be devoured by ravenous wolves. It is not surprising that these mercenaries are allies of the children of darkness and hate the children of light: just as there is a deep state, there is also a deep church that betrays its duties and forswears its proper commitments before God. Thus the Invisible Enemy, whom good rulers fight against in public affairs, is also fought against by good shepherds in the ecclesiastical sphere. It is a spiritual battle, which I spoke about in my recent Appeal which was published on May 8.

For the first time, the United States has in you a President who courageously defends the right to life, who is not ashamed to denounce the persecution of Christians throughout the world, who speaks of Jesus Christ and the right of citizens to freedom of worship. Your participation in the March for Life, and more recently your proclamation of the month of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, are actions that confirm which side you wish to fight on. And I dare to believe that both of us are on the same side in this battle, albeit with different weapons.

For this reason, I believe that the attack to which you were subjected after your visit to the National Shrine of Saint John Paul II is part of the orchestrated media narrative which seeks not to fight racism and bring social order, but to aggravate dispositions; not to bring justice, but to legitimize violence and crime; not to serve the truth, but to favor one political faction. And it is disconcerting that there are Bishops – such as those whom I recently denounced – who, by their words, prove that they are aligned on the opposing side. They are subservient to the deep state, to globalism, to aligned thought, to the New World Order which they invoke ever more frequently in the name of a universal brotherhood which has nothing Christian about it, but which evokes the Masonic ideals of those who want to dominate the world by driving God out of the courts, out of schools, out of families, and perhaps even out of churches.

The American people are mature and have now understood how much the mainstream media does not want to spread the truth but seeks to silence and distort it, spreading the lie that is useful for the purposes of their masters. However, it is important that the good – who are the majority – wake up from their sluggishness and do not accept being deceived by a minority of dishonest people with unavowable purposes. It is necessary that the good, the children of light, come together and make their voices heard. What more effective way is there to do this, Mr. President, than by prayer, asking the Lord to protect you, the United States, and all of humanity from this enormous attack of the Enemy? Before the power of prayer, the deceptions of the children of darkness will collapse, their plots will be revealed, their betrayal will be shown, their frightening power will end in nothing, brought to light and exposed for what it is: an infernal deception.

Mr. President, my prayer is constantly turned to the beloved American nation, where I had the privilege and honor of being sent by Pope Benedict XVI as Apostolic Nuncio. In this dramatic and decisive hour for all of humanity, I am praying for you and also for all those who are at your side in the government of the United States. I trust that the American people are united with me and you in prayer to Almighty God.

United against the Invisible Enemy of all humanity, I bless you and the First Lady, the beloved American nation, and all men and women of good will.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò
Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana
Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America            Lifesite

Trump visits the shrine of John Paul II

NY Post  June 2020

President Trump and the first lady visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Northeast Washington, DC, Tuesday, a day after Trump appeared at looting-damaged St. John’s Episcopal Church.

The president and Melania Trump walked from the building about 11:45 a.m. onto a large outdoor patio, turned and faced the assembled media and posed for a photo.

They then turned around and stood for several minutes before the statue of the late pontiff, where a wreath had been laid earlier, before walking back inside the building without speaking or taking questions.

John Paul II served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, and was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in April 2014. The effort to erect the shrine was spearheaded by the Knights of Columbus, a lay Roman Catholic organization.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Court Case That Could Finally Take Down Antiquated Anti-Catholic Laws





The Atlantic. January 12, 2020 
Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear one of the most significant education cases in decades: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. Centering around a modest tax-credit scholarship program in Montana, Espinoza could have major ramifications for educational-choice programs across America, which help nearly half a million students attend private schools.

In deciding Espinoza, the Court has the opportunity to do more than just settle the fate of one controversial tax credit; it could also junk Montana’s Blaine Amendment, finding it in violation of the Constitution’s religious-freedom and equal-protection clauses. In doing so, it would set a strong precedent against any law born of bigotry, even if other justifications seem neutral.

The Espinoza case dates back to 2015, when, shortly after state lawmakers enacted the tax-credit scholarship program, the Montana Department of Revenue devised a rule that banned families from using the scholarships to attend religious schools, which account for more than two-thirds of the state’s private schools. The case is brought by three Montana moms whose children are thriving at a private religious school; without the tax-credit scholarships, the families are struggling to pay tuition. (Litigating on behalf of the parents is the Institute for Justice, where I work, though I’m not directly involved with the lawsuit.)

In May 2017, a trial court ruled in their favor and struck down the Department of Revenue’s rule. But in December 2018, the Montana Supreme Court reversed the decision, citing what is commonly known as Montana’s Blaine Amendment. Enacted during a wave of anti-Catholic bigotry in 1889, the amendment bans “direct or indirect” public funding for any “sectarian purpose.” According to the majority opinion, the tax-credit scholarship program violates the Blaine Amendment, even though it’s funded entirely through voluntary, charitable, private donations incentivized by the state’s tax credit. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and it will be argued on January 22.

Today, 37 states have Blaine Amendments in their state constitution, though the precise wording varies. The amendments are named after Representative James G. Blaine of Maine, who in 1876 proposed a federal constitutional amendment that would have prohibited state funding for schools “under the control of any religious sect.” Blaine’s amendment passed the U.S. House of Representatives but fell just short of the supermajority it needed to pass the U.S. Senate.

Even though Blaine’s amendment was never enacted nationwide, Congress later required many potential states to adopt a version of the amendment in order to be admitted to the union. Starting with the Enabling Act of 1889, Congress granted statehood to Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington only after their state constitutions guaranteed that their public schools would be “free from sectarian control.” Senator Henry Blair of New Hampshire, who regularly reintroduced the Blaine Amendment in subsequent sessions, called this provision of the Enabling Act “the very essence” of his proposal, and praised Congress for setting a “great precedent.”

At first glance, Blaine Amendments may seem like a benign way to ensure the government’s neutrality toward religion. In the 1875 speech that inspired Representative Blaine, President Ulysses S. Grant called for a federal ban on government funding for “sectarian schools” in order to “keep the Church and state forever separate.” More recently, nine states with Blaine Amendments collectively filed an amicus brief in the Espinoza case, arguing that no-aid provisions like theirs and Montana’s merely “sought to solidify the Framers’ original design separating church and State.”

But Blaine Amendments weren’t truly devoted to the separation of Church and state. Instead, they were mainly focused on separating the Catholic Church and state. Although public schools are largely secular today, that wasn’t the case in the 19th century. Public or “common” schools typically instilled in their students a nondenominational form of Protestantism, requiring them to sing hymns, pray, and read from the King James Bible—in direct conflict with Catholic dogma.

Refusing to send their children to schools that clashed with their values, many Catholic families (often immigrants) created their own private, religiously affiliated school systems. In turn, those parochial schools quickly became a target for bigoted attacks, most infamously by the Know Nothing party, and later by the American Protective Association. The association was particularly powerful in Montana: At the APA’s peak, up to one-tenth of Montana residents were members. The fact that Blaine Amendments featured so prominently in the platforms of those groups clearly shows that prejudice was a motivating factor behind state Blaine Amendments.      More

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Pope donated $500,000 to Mexico-based projects to help migrant communities

ABC News Apr 27, 2019
Pope Francis donated $500,000 to Mexico-based projects to help migrant communities as media attention has faded, the Vatican said Saturday. 
 The funds will be distributed between 27 projects associated with 16 Mexican dioceses and congregations, all of which asked for help to continue providing food, lodging, and basic necessities to those fleeing their home countries through Mexico.
“In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometers on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the U.S. border remains closed to them,” said a press release from Peter's Pence, the organization handling the funds.