‘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.

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck.

“When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale novel,” Buck, a Republican, said. “They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it’s like if you play the game. It’s a wonderful life.”

Things quickly change, however, if “you don’t play the game.”

“If you don’t play the game  …  it becomes a much less conformable existence here,” Buck said.  

Buck, who has served Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015, also previewed his new book, “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think,” which was published on Tuesday.  

Chapters in Buck’s book include “Why Washington is a Swamp,” “Play the Game–Or Else,” “Beating the Beltway Bullies,” and “What You Can Do To Drain the Swamp.”

Buck said his book addresses corruption present in government today that he was not prepared for after being elected to Congress in 2014.

“One of the things that I found startling when I got here is that you have to pay dues to be on a committee,” Buck said.

During the time he served on the House Judiciary Committee, Buck said he had to pay periodic dues of $200,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign committee of the House of Representatives.

Now, as a member of the House Rules Committee, Buck’s periodic dues are $450,000.       Read More

Democrats join Pope Francis on climate change

Mark Silk | July 26, 2016

A year ago, Pope Francis issued the encyclical Laudato Si’, his clarion call for international action to address the existential crisis of climate change. Yesterday, the Democratic party signaled it’s with the program by approving a platform that recognizes climate change as “an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time.”

Of greatest significance is a section on global threats that declares the United States must take the lead in “forging a robust global solution to the climate crisis.” Here’s what that means:

We are committed to a national mobilization, and to leading a global effort to mobilize nations to address this threat on a scale not seen since World War II. In the first 100 days of the next administration, the President will convene a summit of the world’s best engineers, climate scientists, policy experts, activists, and indigenous communities to chart a course to solve the climate crisis.

The contrast with the Republican platform could not be starker. That document calls the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution.” It rejects “the agendas of both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.”

Opining that climate change “is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue,” the Republicans pledge their support for “the development of all forms of energy that are marketable in a free economy without subsidies, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower.” Without actually denying climate change, they have set forth a blueprint for doing nothing about it.

That’s not to say that the Democratic agenda doesn’t leave a good deal to be desired. It proposes to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level that some climate scientists believe will have disastrous consequences and which in any event cannot be achieved if, as the platform proposes, 2050 is the target date for having the economy running entirely on clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent.

The learning curve remains steep. That’s why the promise of a climate change summit during the first 100 days of the next administration is critical. With the right people at the table, this will provide the marching orders for the World War II-scale mobilization to come.

I’d advise President Clinton to put her vice president in charge of the summit. Tim Kaine’s environmental record is far from perfect, but as governor of a coal-mining state with an endangered low-lying coastline, he learned how to negotiate the politics of climate change as well as anyone in national politics.

Plus Kaine is a Pope Francis Catholic. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he not only has Laudato Si’ on his shelf but has read it from cover to cover. And taken it to heart.       Religion News