(LifeSiteNews) — Are you or someone you know still discerning about voting in the 2024 U.S. elections? Are you still reviewing candidate records and platforms? A new Catholic website aims to help.
HolyFamilyHelp.US, formed by a group of lay Catholics in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and endorsed by Bishop Joseph Strickland, seeks to assist voters in evaluating the major party presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. The nonpartisan site includes extensive information on the candidates’ records and platform, including a page assessing Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, against the Ten Commandments.
HolyFamilyHelp.US notes that abortion is the “pre-eminent” issue for Catholics when voting, as the U.S. Catholic bishops have repeatedly declared, and emphasizes other “non-negotiable” values, such as religious liberty and parents’ right to educate their children.
It also reiterates that Catholics are called to vote for the lesser evil in elections, as Cardinal Raymond Burke and other Church figures, such as exorcist Father Chad Ripperger and Father Chris Alar, MIC, have affirmed.
“Acknowledging that neither Presidential candidate and neither political party is perfectly aligned with the above true teaching of the Church, our site cites reliable sources all attesting that, under such circumstances, a Christian is morally obligated to vote, and to vote in such a way to lessen evil,” the website states.
Harris has made abortion the centerpiece of her campaign, has pledged to sign a federal law that would legalize virtually unrestricted abortion in all 50 states, and opposes religious exemptions. Walz has a similar a radical pro-abortion stance and, as governor of Minnesota, signed a law that legalized abortion up to birth in the state. Both candidates also support “gender transitions” for children and LGBT indoctrination in schools, which Trump opposes.
Trump, who had a pro-life record as president, has said that he would not back a federal abortion ban and has embraced in vitro fertilization (IVF) while upholding Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and allows states to ban abortion. In February, nearly 90,000 babies were estimated to have been saved so far due to the Dobbs ruling. Harris and Walz both strongly support IVF.
HolyFamilyHelp.US has additionally run a pre-election education program that involves calling on pastors and parishes to stress the importance of voting for life.
The site includes a letter to pastors and flyers for parishes to include in bulletins and on parish websites and for pastors to highlight in homilies, including several from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). One flyer, the USCCB’s “Priorities at the Polls” bulletin insert, notes that the U.S. bishops continue to declare abortion their “preeminent priority, because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.”
“People of good will must boldly stand up against this intrinsic evil, especially when it is occurring on a massive scale, implemented in law and funded, in some instances, by the government,” states the document, written by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, the chairman emeritus of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
READ: New website launches pre-election program encouraging Catholics to vote for life
Another flyer, the “USCCB Respect Life Month Statement, October 2024” by Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, the current USCCB pro-life chairman, reads, “We must renew our commitment to work for the legal protection of every human life, from conception to natural death, and to vote for candidates who will defend the life and dignity of the human person.”
Peter Elliott, the founder of HolyFamilyHelp.US, told LifeSiteNews that he sent letters to each bishop in six swing states, asking them to implement the site’s pre-election education program, but only three dioceses replied: the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Dioceses of Charlotte and Arlington, each of which responded with appreciation.
Elliott added that the pre-election program developed by the Diocese of Charlotte “had essentially the same content” as HolyFamilyHelp.US program.
“All of the other bishops completely ignored my letters,” he told LifeSite. “Ironically, the fact that an almost-identical program to ours had been developed independently in the Diocese of Charlotte is proof positive that our program was and is not radical.”
Editor’s note: This article is not an endorsement by LifeSiteNews for any political candidate for office.