Catholic Right Gives Up on Telling Catholics to Vote Pro-life. Now Just Says “Vote Republican.”

ROMNEY'S REVERSAL ON ABORTION OKAY.  ELECTING GOP IS WHAT'S IMPORTANT TO SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES

After years of telling Catholics that abortion policy is a “non-negotiable” principle, but that policies for the poor, working families and world peace can be ignored and dispensed with, Right-wing groups claiming a Catholic identity have not expressed any problem with Romney abandoning any anti-abortion agenda. The Right is still telling Catholics to vote Republican even when it does nothing to protect the unborn.

On Wednesday, Romney’s campaign released a new ad aimed at pro-choice women. “You know, those ads saying Mitt Romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme, so I looked into it,” says a young woman identified as Sarah Minto. “Turns out Romney doesn’t oppose contraception at all. In fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother’s life.” And last week, he told the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

Romney declared that “Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.” He also said employers should not be able to bar women from receiving such insurance, an apparent reversal of his previous position on that hot-button topic.

And Romney’s new found (or re-found from his days as Governor) pro-choice position has not met with any objection from social conservatives.

“If it’s hurting him to bring up the abortion issue, then I’m OK if he doesn’t,” said Bradley Mattis, head of the Life Issues Institute in Cincinnati. Rev. Frank Pavone, head of “Priests for Life” also justified support for Romney despite the GOP nominee’s position that the right to an abortion is a “settled” matter of law.

The ultraright “Catholic Vote” has even moved beyond not caring about Romney’s position on abortion to becoming a total Republican front group even when it means condoning the killing of unborn life. While their arguments for Romney vary from a claim he told funnier jokes than Obama at the Al Smith dinner to advocacy for Austrian School economics, the kicker is in their most recent attack on Obama for being “anti-coal.” In fact what the President supports is controls on Mercury pollution which, among other health hazards, causes the death of too many unborn lives. They are even ready to defend abortion/miscarriages when it is part of the GOP agenda of opposition to regulation.

LATINO CATHOLICS OVERWHELMINGLY FOR OBAMA

LATINO CATHOLICS SOLID

IN SUPPORT FOR THE PRESIDENT

A new study by the Pew Research Center revealed that three-quarters of Latino Catholics are President Barack Obama supporters while only 19% say they will vote for Romney. Strong support for the President exists among most elements of Latino Catholics including the most frequent church-goers. Catholics Latinos are more likely to support Obama than Latinos in general. The nonprofit research organization also found that 71 percent of Hispanics who are Catholic are Democrats, while 21 percent are Republicans.

The research also revealed that Latino evangelical Protestants support Obama 50 percent, while they support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney 39 percent. Thus is far more favorable the white evangelical Protestants who support Romney often have hostile views towards issues important to Latinos such as the DREAM Act.

While the strong support from these Catholics is very welcome, it also presents a strategic advantage.  Churches and non-profit groups are free to engage in non-partisan voter turnout efforts, including calls from the pulpit, church bulletin or by other means.  Maximizing turnout at Latino Catholics parishes means at least 75% of the votes will go to the President.  Let's do all we can at our Latino parishes to turn out the vote!

CATHOLIC REPUBLICAN ACTIVIST ARRESTED IN VOTER FRAUD

GOP VOTER FRAUD ARRESTEE FORMERLY WITH "C-FAM"

While there has been a concerted effort by Republican leaders to erect new barriers to voting, often impacting the poor, minorities and working families the toughest, there have been almost no actual examples of in person voter fraud.

Nevertheless, the first and only arrest this year we are aware of voter fraud has been by a Catholic Republican activist, we are sad to report. Colin Small got his political education with the Right-Wing Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, headed by anti-gay rights activist Austin Ruse. Small then was hired by a Republican voter registration effort as a supervisor, where he destroyed voter registration applications. The sheriff’s office in Harrisonburg, VA, said Small had been charged with 13 counts of destruction of voter registration applications, disclosure of voter registration information, and obstruction of justice.

Virginia has a long history of obstructing the rights of racial minorities and workers from participating in the political process. It is unfortunate this tradition is being carried out, now by illegal means, by a activist in the Catholic Right.

AL SMITH DINNER

PRESIDENT AND ROMNEY JOIN CATHOLIC PRELATES AT AL SMITH DINNER

In a time of a sorry lack of civility in political discourse, it is a blessing that the Al Smith Dinner for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York brings together both candidates, the leaders of the Catholic Church including USCCB President/Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan and many people of good will. 

Governor Romney showed great dignity in his remarks that ""Don't tell anyone I said so, but our 44th president has many gifts and a beautiful family that would make any man proud. ... In our country, you can oppose someone in politics and make a confident case against their policies without any ill will. And that's how it is for me."

President Obama received a standing ovation when he rose to speak at the Catholic Charities gala.  At the usually lighthearted event, both men made jokes at their own expense, but President Obama ended on a serious note, proclaming in the words of Saint Paul:  “It’s written in Scripture that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:4)

DON'T LOOK FOR PAUL RYAN AT ST. VINNIE'S

Paul Ryan Absent At Soup Kitchens, Shelters In His District, Says Catholic Charities

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Paul Ryan's awkward visit last week to a Youngstown, Ohio, soup kitchen made national headlines and has been the butt of late-night jokes. The head of the charity that runs the soup kitchen complained to The Washington Post that Ryan and Co. "ramrodded their way" in for an unauthorized photo-op.

Ryan's surprise visit was an even bigger shock to people who run organizations dedicated to serving the needy back in his Wisconsin congressional district...

Ryan, despite more than 13 years in Congress, appears to be very much a stranger to those charities. None of the food pantry or shelter workers interviewed by The Huffington Post could recall Ryan having visited...
Carol Hulburt, a coordinator at a food pantry in Milton, Wis., said Ryan has not once visited in the roughly 15 years she has worked there...

A worker who answered the phones at the House of Mercy family shelter said she has not seen the congressman come through its doors in the 10 years she has worked at the facility...

Eric Levitt, Janesville's city manager, has volunteered with House of Mercy for nearly two years. He said he has not seen Ryan there...

Even when invited, Ryan hasn't shown up. Robert Borremans told The Washington Post in August that in the nine years he has run Janesville's Rock County Job Center, multiple invitations have failed to secure a visit from Ryan. "I've reached the point I don't ask anymore," Borremans said.


Read more here:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/paul-ryan-soup-kitchen-wisconsin_n_1976623.html

IRISH PREFER OBAMA OVER ROMNEY-RYAN

By Conor Humphries, GRAIGUENAMANAGH, Ireland, Oct 16 (Reuters) -

In the land of his ancestors, Paul Ryan's Irish charm is failing him

Despite his name, Roman Catholic faith and immigrant-made-good family history, the Irish half of the Republican ticket is failing to win the allegiance of the old country from Barack Obama, a skilled hand at playing the Irish card.

Obama struck public relations gold last year by sharing a Guinness with a distant cousin in the village of Moneygall after an amateur genealogist traced his ancestors there. Pictures of cheering Irish crowds were beamed across the United States.

But 100 kilometers (60 miles) down the road, Ryan's ancestral hometown is feeling the cold shoulder and like Ireland as a whole, most of the locals are rooting for his Democratic presidential rivals.

"He doesn't have the charisma, he hasn't connected with the people," said Pat Nolan as he strolled passed the 13th century stone church in the village of Graiguenamanagh where Ryan's great-great grandparents were married.

......


Despite the Ryan connection, few locals are hoping for a Republican victory across the ocean.

"It would give a boost to a nice small town like this, but I would forgo it. I wouldn't want to inflict him on the American people," said Margaret, a 64-year-old cashier, upset by Ryan's plans to cut welfare and Medicare health cover for the elderly. She withheld her family name to avoid angering her employer.

A straw poll of 20 people on a recent afternoon found 12 Obama supporters and none for Ryan and running mate Mitt Romney.

Ninety-six percent of people in Ireland who have decided would back Obama and Irish Catholic running mate Joe Biden if they had a vote, according to a September poll of 1,000 people by Gallup International.

"He's too far right-wing for this part of the world," said Martin Brett, the former mayor of the county's capital Kilkenny, who hosted Ryan's uncle when he came to trace his roots in the region a few years ago.

.....


The Wisconsin congressman has not endeared himself to his kin by holding their country up as a cautionary tale of bad practice.

Ryan's web site refers to Ireland 11 times, eight as an example of the economic doom facing the United States if it doesn't address its budget deficit and three as a rival to the Cayman Islands as a tax haven threatening American jobs.

When Ryan told a crowd in his home state how his great grandfather had fled the Irish potato famine with just the shirt on his back, the crowd lapped it up.

But an Irish historian of the famine, John Kelly, rebuked him days later for espousing a laissez faire economic philosophy he said was strikingly similar to that of British policymakers whom many in Ireland blame for the deaths of millions.


Read more here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/paul-ryan-ireland_n_1969520.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

"Nuff Said...