President-elect Joe Biden spread inspiration by "Restoring the soul of our nation"

Press release echo published by Catholic Democrats*:

November 9, 2020 (Boston, Mass.) – Catholic Democrats is celebrating the election of former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris as President and Vice President of the United States. President-elect Biden, who was the first Catholic Vice President, will only be the second Catholic to serve as President. Vice President-elect Harris will bring many firsts to the office of the vice president, including being the first woman of color.

“ 'Catholic Democrats' is thrilled and gratified to offer congratulations and our continued prayers to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris. Throughout this campaign, the former vice president has led with a consistent message, rooted in his Catholic faith, of the need to restore the soul of our nation,” said Steven A. Krueger , president of Catholic Democrats . “He has withstood disgraceful withering attacks on his faith, while remaining steadfastly grounded in his Catholicism imbued in him from childhood and strengthened by the personal tragedies of his life. And without fanfare, he quietly empowered his campaign to reach out to and work with Catholic voters on an unprecedented basis – creating a base of support for his healing agenda. This victory is a testament to President-elect Biden’s and Vice President-elect Harris’ vision for the future of our great nation.”

Catholic Democrats focused the organization’s campaign efforts on broadly pushing back against attacks on President-elect Biden’s Catholic faith and specifically focusing on the Catholic vote in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In August, Catholic Democrats launched a Catholic Statement of Support after President Trump said that President-elect Biden was “against God.” On October 19th, Catholic Democrats sent a letter to every pastor and parish administrator in Pennsylvania , asking them to keep partisan politicking away from their parishes. And in the last week of the campaign, Catholic Democrats conducted a Facebook ad campaign that focused on Catholic voters in the Keystone State, with over 500,000 newsfeed ads being distributed to 250,000 moderate and left-leaning voting age Catholics.

The organization is now looking forward to supporting the incoming Biden-Harris administration’s challenging work to heal and restore the soul of our nation and to return civil discourse to the public square and comity to our democratic institutions. We also anxiously await the social justice initiatives of the new Administration that will provide sustenance and hope for the most vulnerable and marginalized among us.

“Joe Biden is the ideal president to heal America, protect America‘s health, and expand Social Security to ensure Americans of prosperity and dignity,” said James Roosevelt Jr. , an expert in healthcare policy and a member of the Catholic Democrats Board. “I’ve known Joe Biden for a long time and there is no doubt that the Biden-Harris victory will save hundreds of thousands of lives by both establishing science-based policies to address the COVID-19 pandemic and by implementing public policies that will provide the basic human right of health care for all. We now live in an era where Pope Francis leads our church and Joe Biden leads our country and this provides Catholics and all people of goodwill reason ‘to rejoice and be glad.’”

“As an African American woman, I can attest that the last four years have been a nightmare for many people of color and the ‘other,’ in our country,” said Leslye Colvin , a member of Catholic Democrats Board. “The difficult days of the 45th president’s term in office were anathema to the common good. During the presidential campaign, I drew inspiration from the prophetic message of President-elect Joe Biden, as well as his choice of Kamala Harris, a woman of color, for his running mate who has provided inspiration to women and girls of all races and creeds. ‘Restoring the soul of our nation’ is more than a campaign theme to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. It represents a renewed commitment to the promise of America and to redeem our soul from our nation’s original sins of chattel slavery and genocide, as well as the deep-seated institutional racism that our society is only beginning to acknowledge.”

"As someone who embraces Catholic teaching of the consistent life ethic across the breadth of moral issues confronting our society, I was heartened to be invited by the Biden Campaign to speak on the Catholics for Biden calls,” said Jeannie Gaffigan , writer, television producer, mother of five, bestselling author and recent supporter of Catholic Democrats . “I believe that a crucial part of healing for our nation will necessarily include a new conversation on what it means to be ‘pro-life’ that does not fall neatly into predetermined partisan labels. I have confidence that President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will create an atmosphere where those challenging conversations can take place.”

“To me, the essence of our Catholicism lies in striving for holiness,” said Patrick Whelan MD PhD , the founder of Catholic Democrats and a member of the board who researched and wrote The Catholic Case for Joe Biden. 

“I will be proud to have a president whose Catholicism was instilled so deeply in him as a child, and reinforced throughout his life. He will bring his Catholic sensibilities, strengthened in personal tragedy, to his deliberations on how to best address the pressing moral issues of our time and the healing of our nation.”

*About Catholic Democrats:  Catholic Democrats , a national advocacy organization with over 50,000 supporters across all platforms in all 50 states, including over 25,000 Twitter followers, represents a Catholic voice within the Democratic Party and a Democratic voice in the Catholic Church whose mission is to advance the rich Catholic Social Justice Tradition in the public square and within the Democratic Party, to help form a more just, and peaceful society and to advance an understanding of an "integral ecology."