OVERHEARD AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AT PRAYER

As our Party gathered in North Carolina for the Democratic National Convention, each session was opened and closed with a prayer, including the closing benediction by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Each day there were also special prayer meetings for the delegates as well as various workshops and meetings for faith groups.

Here are some of the comments made during the Convention:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We draw strength from our victories, and we learn from our mistakes, but we keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon, knowing that Providence is with us, and that we are surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.


SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL (Executive Director of NETWORK): Together, we understand that an immoral budget that hurts already struggling families does not reflect our nation’s values. We are better than that.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: While I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together, I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, “I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.”


PROFESSOR STEPHEN SCHNECK (Catholic University of America): When I look at the policies outside of the abortion arena, when I look at things like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and community health centers and public housing programs, these are all programs that are proven to have a good impact in lowering the abortion rates in the United States


CHRISTINA FORRESTER (Christian Democrats of America): A lot of our values as Christians are about taking care of the least of these, it’s concerning the poor, immigration, caring for people with mercy so we’re looking at things like, in the context of mercy, compassion and that’s what the Bible really talks about and that’s what Jesus tells us to do.  


HIS EMINENCE METROPOLITAN NICHOLAS (Greek Orthodox Bishop of Detroit): Let freedom reign in our hearts so that we would…never fear to give shelter to the homeless and displaced, never fear to treat our neighbor as ourselves, and never fear to give dignity and opportunity — as in Detroit and elsewhere in America — to the struggling unemployed and less fortunate.

  SEN. HARRY REID (US Senate Majority Leader): I’m a Democrat because I am a Mormon.


TAYLOR HARTLEY (LDS Democrats): As I think about how we are to put upon charity above all other virtues, I then think to myself, Ok, which political party most closely follows the virtues of charity and compassion and clearly, it’s the Democratic Party.