Posted on 09/24/2016 2:00:00 PM PDT by NYer
.- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has released a list of 33 prominent conservative Catholic advisers for his campaign, according to reports from Philly.com, a website of The Inquirer and Daily News.
The announcement comes in the midst of a highly contentious election season and at a time when Trump is struggling in the polls among Catholic voters, according to some reports.
Among the released names of advisers are former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who ran for president in 2012 and 2016. When he left the race in February, Santorum originally endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio. When Rubio left the race in March, Santorum endorsed Trump, citing the vacant Supreme Court seat as a key reason.
Another key person reported as a new Catholic adviser for Trump is Joseph Cella, founder of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast who reportedly will be the chief liaison to the Trump campaign for Catholic affairs.
Notably, Cella is a signatory of An Appeal to Our Fellow Catholics, an open letter written by George Weigel and Robert P. George in March during the primaries and signed by more than 30 Catholic intellectual and readers, including Robert George, law professor at Princeton University; Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Catholic Womens Forum at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University.
The letter denounced Trump as a man manifestly unfit to be president of the United States who has driven our politics down to new levels of vulgarity. Citing Trumps ethnic prejudices, promises to punish the families of terrorists, and his sudden about-face on pro-life issues, among other issues, the signatories pleaded with Catholics not to vote for Trump in the primaries.
The new list of Trumps Catholic advisers also reportedly includes Tom Monaghan of Michigan, founder of Dominos Pizza and the Ave Maria University; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List; Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback; Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union; former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating (R); U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio; Jim Nicholson, former Republican national chairman, secretary of veterans affairs and ambassador to the Vatican; and longtime conservative leader Richard Viguerie.
The election season has thus far been a tumultuous one for Catholics, as leaders such as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia have noted.
Only God knows the human heart, so I presume that both major candidates for the White House this year intend well and have a reasonable level of personal decency behind their public images. But I also believe that each candidate is very bad news for our country, though in different ways, he said at the University of Notre Dame earlier this month.
One candidate, in the view of a lot of people, is a belligerent demagogue with an impulse control problem. And the other, also in the view of a lot of people, is a criminal liar, uniquely rich in stale ideas and bad priorities, he added.
Many Catholic leaders continue to debate whether Catholics can in good conscience vote for Trump, following the voting guidelines laid out by the United States Bishops.
The first debate between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will take place on Monday September 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island in New York.
I know that we Orthodox are few in number in the US, bur we are important—as the first Christian Church, and with our connections with key countries internationally.
Donald Trump should ask his friend Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson—as well as Orthodox layman Reince Priebus—to help him form an Orthodox Christian advisory group.
If not, I believe that Professor George is a single man and eligible to be elected to replace Frankie in the Vatican.
As a Catholic, I’m sickened by the mindless materialism to which most of my fellow Catholics subscribe. It’s hard to find bishops who know how to think or teach as Catholics; they do fine as Democrats. Here in the Seattle Archdiocese we have many tens of thousands of Democrats, a few Republicans, and even fewer Catholics.
Given the liturgical and moral traditionalism and conservatism of your church, your suggestion is a natural fit.
To which church of Orthodoxy does Priebus belong?
You betcha!
Greek.
Which "fellow Catholics" who are mindlessly materialistic are you referring to? One's faith has little to do with materialism. It's what children are taught at their mother's knee, so to speak, NOT from whatever faith they belong to.
Are the "fewer Catholics" in your area "sickening" you with THEIR "mindless materialism"??
Just trying to follow your logic, M_S.
Sartain is his bishop. Worse things than materialism are flourishing in the Seattle archdiocese.
Extremely impressive list! A true advisory panel, not just a list of names to impress Catholics. Many Catholics would not even recognize some of these names.
Also notice how few are drawn from politics. Really it’s a varied roll of “conservative” Catholics who are highly knowledgeable and respected. Pro-life, serious thinkers, not Katholics.
Fr. McCloskey would fit right on this list. Actually, he may have yet another “republican” convert in Trump! Trump, if he keeps pursuing deeper religious ideas, may end up a Catholic; he has the Catholic world view.
Absolutely, it’s bizzarre. The Catholic Right to Life booth is without fail set up at the fair exposition.
They had a pro-Life worker who was voting Hillary!
Securing ignorance and propaganda is a staple for Democrats.
Since Jesus left His Church to His Apostles, Peter being the first pope, He KNEW that humanity would err over and over and over again. But, He DID leave it that way so He must have known what He was doing.
He DIDN'T appear to defrocked and excommunicated Catholic priest Father Martin Luther or to any of the other founders of the myriad of Protestant denominations, so that He instructed Simon Peter Bar Jonah to "Feed my sheep" must have authority.
I would be very leery of a PERFECT pontiff, priest, minister, rabbi, reverend, male OR female person-of-the-cloth since NO ONE is perfect.
But, we never hear about any person-of-the-cloth peccadilloes except those of Catholic priests. THEY make international news.
I totally appreciate the frustration!! I dealt with this for many years in the Diocese of Albany. Then, 12 years ago, fed up with uber liberal and progressive bishop, priests and religious, along with the happy clappy liturgies, I asked our Lord to guide me to a holy priest, a reverent liturgy and a community in need of whatever my God-given gifts might be. I compiled a list of parishes within a certain radius of home and began attending mass at a different parish each week, repeating that prayer. The list included 2 Eastern Catholic Churches. It was at the Maronite Catholic Church that my prayer was answered. Look around ... there is a Melkite community that celebrates their Divine Liturgy at 11:30 on Sundays at St. Matthew Catholic Church. There may well be a Ukrainian Church, as well. The Eastern Catholic liturgies are beautiful, reverent and speak to the soul. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Yes, amazing.
Personally I consider a priest’s sex life his own business (as with us all). As long as no laws are broken, any ‘peccadilloes’ are for him and his confessor to sort out (as with us all).
My criticisms of bishops are aimed solely at matters of Teaching and Governance.
The archbishop is spot on.
Also I call Hillary America’a Jezabel for good reason.
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