(LifeSiteNews) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter to the Arizona-based Catholics for Catholics organization thanking them for their faith-based advocacy.
“Melania and I are grateful for your continued support and encouragement,” the statement begins. “Your love of God and Country is evident in everything you do. We admire your dedication to preserving America’s founding principles through your faith. You have realized God’s grace and righteousness by continuing to seek and share His wisdom.”
BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump SENDS @Cforc CATHOLICS FOR CATHOLICS A PERSONAL LETTER!
Read Below:Dear Catholics for Catholics,
Melania and I are grateful for your continued support and encouragement. Your love of God and Country is evident in everything you do. We admire… pic.twitter.com/9zBpy1SKin
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) September 6, 2024
The letter comes just two days after the Trump campaign announced it was relaunching the Catholics for Trump coalition. That group, which will be lead, somewhat controversially, by Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, was originally founded in 2020.
A number of high-profile Catholics supported Trump in the 2020 election, including Frank Pavone, Taylor Marshall, Austin Ruse, Jesse Romero, and others. It is not yet clear if those individuals will be involved with the coalition this time around. Among those who have endorsed the group include Callista Gingrich, Trump’s one-time Ambassador to the Holy See, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, and CatholicVote founder Brian Burch.
Trump’s letter, which encourages the organization to “take great pride in upholding the sacred Catholic values of love, compassion and charity,” was heralded by Catholics for Catholics founder John Yep as a sign Trump is taking concerns that Catholics have seriously.
“We love President Trump. Of course, we are acutely aware of where he as a non-Catholic falls short of Catholic teaching. We don’t ignore it. Rather, we are impelled to continue to show forth the beauty and power of our Catholic faith to him and those around him. And believe me, we have publicly witnessed to him and privately expressed our concerns,” he said in a press release.
Trump has come under intense criticism from religious Americans in recent weeks thanks to his announcement that he wants to force insurance companies to pay for immoral in-vitro fertilization treatments. Trump also said on Truth Social last month that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
Lile Rose of Live Action hinted in an interview with Politico that pro-lifers may have difficulty voting for Trump given his policies. LifeSite reporter Doug Mainwairing has similarly argued that Trump’s moderation on not only abortion but also embrace of pro-LGBT groups like the Log Cabin Republican indicates he has betrayed his most loyal supporters, social conservatives.
A recent survey of 1,000 Catholics conducted by EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research reveals that Trump is in danger of losing the Catholic Vote. The poll found that Catholic voters prefer Kamala Harris to Trump 50 percent to 43 percent with 6 percent undecided, with even wider margins among women, minorities, and those between the ages of 30 and 49.
However, Trump has not been negligent in shining light on the Biden-Harris administration’s attacks on Catholics. During his keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington D.C. this past January, Trump asked, “What’s going on with Catholics? They are being persecuted … by (Joe Biden),” a likely reference to the spying that the FBI has carried out on Latin Mass churches in recent years.
At a Turning Point USA event in July, Trump also recalled that “as a senator, (Kamala Harris) viciously attacked highly qualified judicial nominees simply because they were members of the Knights of Columbus, suggesting that their Catholic faith disqualified them from serving on the federal bench.” Trump added that “I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for the Democrats because they’re after the Catholics, almost as much as they’re after me.”
CatholicVote Vice President Josh Mercer told LifeSiteNews via text message Thursday that “the Trump campaign is definitely listening to concerned Catholics” whereas “Kamala Harris absolutely refuses to listen to the concerns of Catholics. In fact, Kamala Harris has a history of targeting pro-life activists. Just ask David Daleiden and Mark Houck.”
Houck is a Catholic father of seven who had his house raised by federal agents in 2022 for engaging in pro-life activism that was later found to not have violated the FACE Act.
Catholics for Catholics was founded in 2022 and counts General Michael Flynn as a senior adviser. It has engaged in a number of public demonstrations over the past several years, including a protest at the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium after the franchise hosted a group of drag performers masquerading as nuns.
The organization also coordinated a “Catholic Prayer for Trump” dinner at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate this summer and launched a “Masses for Trump” initiative in June that encourages laity to ask their priests to say a Mass for him.
Earlier this week, popular priest Fr. Chad Ripperger released a prayer consecrating the upcoming election in the United States to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among other things, it asks Mary to assist with “the integrity of the upcoming election and its outcome, so that what is spiritually and morally best for the citizens of our country may be accomplished.” It also begs that our elected officials “govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of Thy Son.”
Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei stated in a recent essay that Catholics can vote for “the lesser of two evils” when it comes to an election where neither of the candidates’ platforms are in alignment with the Church’s moral and social teachings.
“It is a pity that the Republican Party has failed to produce any candidate better than Donald Trump, but Kamala Harris certainly represents the greatest evil to be avoided. Trump deserves to be criticized on many points, but it is not fair to gift victory to Harris by voting for her or abstaining from voting,” he wrote.