(LifeSiteNews) — The Trump campaign has announced the re-launching of Catholics for Trump, an initiative that played an influential role in courting Catholic voters during the 2020 election.
The move comes amid severe criticism from Catholics on social media who were furious over Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he wants to force insurance companies to pay for immoral in-vitro fertilization treatments.
We Catholics are 100% against Trump taking our tax-payer money to fund IVF procedures!
Somebody tell Trump that this is wrong.
Catholics (and many Protestants) will not support this. Extremely disappointing. https://t.co/q8CC7treiW
— Dr Taylor Marshall™️ (@TaylorRMarshall) August 30, 2024
The two largest religious groups in the US, Catholics and Southern Baptists, both formally oppose IVF. Many other Americans also reject it as immoral. It seems ill-advised for a political campaign to mandate that so many likely voters support something they consider gravely evil.
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) August 30, 2024
According to a press release issued Wednesday, Catholics for Trump supports the “vital principles of religious liberty and defending family values that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed.”
That language, while admirable, stands in contrast to not only what the Trump campaign has done with its aggressive outreach to the pro-LGBT Log Cabin Republicans but what the Catholics for Trump website itself, which appears to have not been updated in four years, says: “The Catholics for Trump Coalition is committed to safeguarding the vital principles of religious liberty and the sanctity of life that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed.”
Someone forgot to update the ‘Catholics for Trump’ website from 2020, which says Trump will stand for the ‘sanctity of life.’ Yesterday’s announcement removed that language and instead says he will stand for religious freedom and ‘family values.’ Link here https://t.co/PZQjpotpUR pic.twitter.com/XoYiTQfPjB
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) September 5, 2024
The swapping out of the term “sanctity of life” with “defending family values” was seemingly intentional, as Trump has attempted to steer clear of the abortion issue on multiple occasions this campaign season. For instance, although Trump recently clarified that he will be voting against a Florida ballot proposal that would codify abortion on demand throughout pregnancy, over the past several months his campaign has said he will veto a national abortion ban. His Catholic Vice-Presidential pick JD Vance has also come out in favor of widespread availability of chemical abortion pills. This after Trump gutted dozens of pro-life references in the GOP platform and removed opposition to homosexual “marriage,” all while hosting a gay soiree at Mar-a-Lago in December 2022. The Catholics for Trump website notably fails to include in his accomplishments the overturning of Roe v. Wade, though it does mention several pro-religious freedom victories.
At the bottom of the Catholics for Trump press release is a list of eight quotes attributed to prominent Catholics, among them being Callista Gingrich, Trump’s one-time Ambassador to the Holy See, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, who are running the group, and CatholicVote founder Brian Burch. Most of their remarks warn about the threat Kamala Harris will pose to Catholics if she wins. Some are quoted as saying that Trump will protect the rights of Catholics to practice their faith.
The inclusion of Burch is significant in that CatholicVote issued a rather critical statement about the Trump campaign titled “Catholics First” on August 30. It said that while Kamala Harris “poses a far greater threat” to America and that “no Catholic can support her,” Catholics “cannot write a blank check to Trump. Sometimes pushing back is needed.” The statement was issued in the aftermath of Trump’s “unacceptable” IVF comments.
CatholicVote Vice President Josh Mercer told LifeSiteNews via text message earlier today that the coalition’s launch shows 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.”
A number of high-profile Catholics came out in support for Trump in the 2020 election, including Frank Pavone, Austin Ruse, Jesse Romero, and others. It is not yet clear if those individuals will be involved with year’s Catholics for Trump initiative.
While on the campaign trail, Trump has not been negligent in mentioning the Biden-Harris administration’s attacks on Catholics. During his keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “2024 Road to Majority” conference in Washington D.C. this past January, Trump asked, “what’s going on with Catholics? They are being persecuted … by (Joe Biden).”
At a Turning Point USA event in July, Trump 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.”
While the 2020 Catholics for Trump coalition has laid dormant until now, John Yep’s Arizona-based Catholics for Catholics organization, which was founded in 2022 and counts General Michael Flynn as a senior adviser, has engaged in a number of public demonstrations in its absence, including a protest at the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium for hosting a group of drag performers masquerading as nuns.
Yep’s organization also held a “Catholic Prayer for Trump” dinner at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate this summer. The group launched a “Masses for Trump” initiative in June that encourages laity to ask their priests to say a Mass for him.
In a statement released Wednesday, Catholics for Catholics said, in part, the following:
As a Catholic group that has been on the frontlines of this battle for months now to protect Catholic and American values through the election of Donald Trump, the news of more Catholic leaders like Santorum speaking out to say the obvious is encouraging. Newly arrived reinforcements are what we need to carry President Trump over the finish line.
We at Catholics for Catholics will continue to back President Trump as we have done already.
In a personal letter that President Trump and the First Lady recently wrote to us to thank us for our efforts, they said, ‘You should take pride in upholding the sacred Catholic values of love, compassion, and charity.’ We couldn’t agree more and as we approach the greatest election in American history. Let us continue to work as if it all depended on us, and to pray as if it all depended on God.
Earlier this week popular priest Fr. Chad Ripperger released a prayer consecrating the upcoming election in the United States to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ripperger announced the prayer while appearing on Doug Barry’s U.S. Grace Force show on Tuesday.
Among other things, Ripperger’s prayer 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 notes that “our nation has departed from the ways of Thy Son” and humbly asks “that Thou wouldst turn Thine eyes upon our country to bring about its conversion.” It then begs elected officials to “govern according to the spiritual and moral principles which will bring our nation into conformity with the teachings of Thy Son.”
Several Catholic commentators, including Ripperger, have stated that Catholics can vote for “the lesser of two evils” when it comes to elections where neither of the candidates’ platforms are in alignment with the Church’s moral and social teachings.