I’m obviously not the conflicted voter target for this, but imo this pitch is pretty damn good

100%. They thought being anti-abortion gave them a free pass to do whatever they wanted on literally any other issue.

And to be fair, the hierarchy let them get away with it for decades.

Hegseth saying “The Pharisee Press” should be a fully mask off moment. He is saying “The Jewish Press”. But Christians of all political stripes are so devoted to using Pharisees as a rhetorical prop that liberal Christians regularly insist it’s totally fine, no matter how many Jews try to explain.

Just learned Vance didn’t go through RCIA—the Catholic Church’s program of study for adult converts—which…tracks.

Instead, he found a like-minded Dominican fresh from ordination to tutor him. Either Vance retained nothing or they didn’t linger on just war theory or subsidiarity or the Gospel itself

For all the bombastic God talk, the religious illiteracy of this administration is staggering.

Just to wrap this up, the U.S. Church has been more hands-off under first Francis and now Leo XIV. The fact that the Pope spoke out the way he has about Iran is an indication of how monumentally out-of-step Vance is with his ow church.

If you’re not a longtime Church watcher, you’ll just have to trust me when I say that in Church-speak, this statement is a sick burn.

U.S. Bishops’ Chairman on Doctrine Issues Clarification on Just War Theory “When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercis...

I see the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has a response to Vance (and you, too, Mike Johnson, swerving way out of your lane).

“When Pope Leo XIV speaks…he is not merely offering opinions on theology…” 🔥

www.usccb.org/news/2026/us...

Cardinal Burke on Catholic Politicians & Holy Communion Cardinal Burke reflects on Canon 915, addressing the grave duty to uphold Eucharistic reverence and correct public scandal.

And we don’t have time to get into all the antics of the now-retired Cardinal Burke, perhaps the most out-spoken proponent of using denial of communion as a punishment. Just a few years ago, he was still describing John Kerry as someone who “claimed to be Catholic.” cardinalburke.com/presentation...

When Rosa DeLauro first ran for Congress, her archbishop threatened to decertify the Catholic high school where she was a trustee; it would no longer be a Catholic institution.

“Let me be perfectly clear,” the archbishop told DeLauro. “You, Kennedy, Dodd, Moynihan—you are not welcome in the Church"

When I wrote my book on Democrats & religion, I spoke with so many elected Democrats who had been called on the carpet by Church leaders.

David Obey told me about “a big shouting match” with a msgr in Madison who “tried to roast me alive” bc he wouldn’t vote to outlaw family planning.

The USCCB published a document in 1998 explicitly encouraging bishops & priests to take action against pro-choice Catholic pols:

“We urge those Catholic officials…to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well-being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin."

In 1996, Mary Landrieu ran for the Senate from Louisiana, and the retired archbishop of her diocese in New Orleans publicly declared that a vote for Landrieu (a Catholic, pro-choice Dem) would be considered a sin.

When Ferraro was scheduled to march in Philly’s Columbus Day parade a few weeks before Election Day, Cardinal Krol threatened to withdraw all the marching bands & kids from Catholic schools from the parade.

Ferraro dropped out of the parade.

When Geraldine Ferraro (Catholic Dem) was on the ticket in ‘84, her archbishop said that when it came to the church’s teaching on abortion, “There is no variance, there is no flexibility, there is no leeway” and refused to rule out excommunication for pro-choice pols like Ferraro.

Just a few of the times U.S. Catholic leaders have singled out/threatened Catholic Democrats for taking public stances in conflict with Church teachings (usually abortion or LGBTQ issues), arguing that Catholic office holders have a particular responsibility to represent the faith accurately: 🧵

Another way of putting this is that the effort to reduce teen pregnancies is one of the most successful domestic policies in history, certainly of the last 30 years.

Is “Remedial Catechism” a thing? Asking for our vice president.

“Just cause”? They still can’t give the public a straight answer about the cause for war.

“Last resort”? This was the first choice.

“Proportionality”? Let’s not even start.

You can’t simply claim that the war you want to pursue is just. That’s not how just war theory works.

Trump’s Iran War fails both key just war tests: Jus ad Bellum (the reasons behind the war) and Jus in Bello (conduct in war).

And if there was a third test for rhetoric during war, between Hegseth fantasizing about a modern crusade & Trump of destroying whole civilizations, that would fail as well

I’m neither a Catholic nor an apologist for the Church, but it was bananas for Trump to start this fight.

The Church has survived two millennia of empires. And it will be here long after Trump is dust.

Hoping my beloved divinity school prof Msgr Bryan Hehir (85) makes it through this nonsense as well!

San Francisco archbishop bars Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion due to abortion support San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is barred from receiving Holy Communion due to her pro-abortion stance -- marking an escalation in a deca...

This is how my congresswoman gets treated by the Archbishop.

www.foxnews.com/politics/san...

The only way the phrase “just war” can belong with “Trump’s unnecessary war against Iran” is in: “No honest, thoughtful Catholic on God’s green earth would think—much less argue—that Trump’s unnecessary war against Iran is a just war.”

And in another earlier life, I helped arrange “just war” debates around the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and leading up to the Iraq War.

They were fascinating, contentious, and people of good faith were sincerely divided on the question.

In one earlier life, I worked for a Catholic Dem who was repeatedly threatened by his local bishop and told he “no longer ha[d] the option of calling [himself] a Catholic” because he voted against a made-up “partial-birth abortion” ban.

I have receipts.

I don’t think religion should be used as a cudgel against Catholic Republicans any more than against Catholic Democrats.

But the audacity with which this baby convert VP is Augustine-splaining THE POPE is making my head spin.

Catholic Dems have had to vet churches for decades to see if they’ll be allowed to participate in the Eucharist or if the local clergy would love to make an example of them.

All I’m saying is that U.S. Catholic leaders have told Dems FOR DECADES that they may not call themselves “Catholic” if they’re a public figure who disagrees with church on key teachings.

The idea being that if you’re prominent & Catholic, you have a special responsibility to represent. 🧵

Real emotional divide between those of us who watched the Challenger explode in real time and those of you who did not.

Super excited for the safe return of the Artemis II crew. But a big no thank you on watching that live.