U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean remembers a homily in her home parish when she was first running to represent Pennsylvania’s 4th District in 2018. « The pastor said, ‘You know what you have to do on Tuesday. You cannot vote for anybody who is pro-choice,' » she recalled the priest preaching.
Dean, who has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood for her support of legal abortion, said she remembers feeling « disrespected for who I was, what my faith believes and what I stood for. »
As a part of an Aug. 21 panel of Catholics at the Democratic National Convention, Dean said she wants her party and her church to know that « Catholics are not a monolith. »
Panelist Miguel Diaz of Loyola University Chicago also stressed the diversity of Catholics in the United States and worldwide. « To try to paint a monolithic picture is neither accurate, nor just, » said Diaz, former ambassador to the Holy See during the Obama administration.
Whatever their beliefs about abortion or its legality — and there is a breadth of opinions — most Catholic Democrats at the convention say they enthusiastically support the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket and see no problem with their party’s pro-choice platform. They told NCR that their faith informs their political views and is the foundation of the values that prompt them to vote Democratic.
« A lot of my core values align with the Democratic Party and with my faith, » said Caroline McGraw, who at 23 is the youngest delegate from New York. She also has seen Catholic pro-life friends who « grew up Republican » support Biden and now Harris, because Trump « is against a lot of our values as Catholics. »
McGraw was part of the panel on « The Importance of Catholic Voters, » sponsored by Catholics Vote Common Good. The group’s national co-chair, Patrick Carolan, pointed out that « the one sin that’s mentioned most by Jesus in the Bible and in the Gospels is hypocrisy. »
Claiming to be pro-life but refusing to fund the social safety net, or cutting mental health funding after blaming a mass shooting on mental health issues, is « the definition of hypocrisy, » Carolan said.
« We need to tell our story and talk about what it means to be Catholic and Christian, » he said. « We’ve allowed the other side to co-opt the term ‘pro-life.’ Pro-life doesn’t start and end with abortion. … We have to talk about pro-life being everything. »
Carolan’s message to Catholic voters: « You’re not going to go to hell for voting for a Democrat. »
Bibiana Boerio, a delegate from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, calls herself a « Pope Francis voter. »
« I’m not worried about going to hell, » said Boerio, who ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2018 but lost in her heavily Republican district in southwestern Pennsylvania. « I believe the world is too complex for black-and-white simple answers. »
Advertisement
On the abortion issue, Boerio cites the separation of church and state. « I don’t want to live in a place where my religion is forced on someone else, » she said, noting that people of other faiths have different definitions of when life begins.
Sinsinawa Dominican Sr. Reg McKillip said on the panel that religious women have been supporting « all life issues » for a long time. « This is not a new role for us, » she said.
Patrick Kompare, who came from suburban Chicago to attend the panel, believes in « letting people make their own choice on the matter [of abortion] because it’s such a deeply personal thing. »
A student at the University of Notre Dame, he supports Harris for president in part because during an internship with a labor union he met families for whom « this election could make or break them. »
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania’s 5th District recalled a town hall at Villanova University shortly after the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade. When students were asked what were the most important issues to them, « every young woman in that room said reproductive rights. »
« To be saying that in front of their professors at a Catholic university — that’s something, » Scanlon said on the panel.
Scanlon said she appreciated the convention’s focus on reclaiming patriotism and faith as « shared American values, » especially since « so much of the last eight years has been about dividing people. »
Christopher Hale, a political consultant who led Catholic outreach for Barack Obama in 2012, said the idea that one party represents Catholic teaching and values « is just not true » and that increasingly faith voters are not making their choices based on one issue.
« The reality is that Catholics are going to make choices that are complicated, » he said. « A Catholic can vote for Kamala Harris. A Catholic can vote for Donald Trump. I don’t think there’s any argument that a Catholic should vote for one or the other. »
At an offsite press conference on the first day of the convention, the group Democrats for Life of America argued that the party was pushing out pro-life voters.
« To secure victory, Democrats must expand our coalition and engage with swing voters who are more reticent to the pro-abortion rhetoric that has dominated Democratic politics for the past fifteen years, » according to a white paper that the group distributed at the press conference.
But Christopher Carroll, a member of Catholics Vote Common Good’s national steering committee, said the Democratic Party needs to reach out to all Catholic voters, including ones like him.
« I’m a proud openly gay, pro-choice Catholic, » he said on the panel. « I go to Mass every Sunday and Bible study every Tuesday. That doesn’t make me a Republican. That makes me Catholic. »
Carroll, who is also campaign manager for Connecticut U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, said parties ignore Catholic voters to their peril. « When you reach out to this demographic, you win. »
