Catholic Democrats have my support by calling for all U.S. bishops to go public in support of Puerto Rican people

Catholic Democrats Urges U.S. Bishops to Join Archbishop Roberto O. Gonzalez Nieves, OFM in Calling for Trump to Disavow and Apologize for Degrading Remarks about Puerto Ricans at Madison Square Garden Trumpzi (Nazi) Rally.

Asserting both the charity of praying for Trump and at the same time the complicity with evil by voting for him.

BOSTON, Mass: NOVEMBER 4, 2024 – Catholic Democrats stands in solidarity with our Puerto Rican sisters and brothers, including Archbishop Roberto O. Gonzalez Nieves, OFM, after degrading remarks were made about Puerto Rico at a Trump campaign rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday. One of the speakers at the event who presented himself as a “comedian” remarked that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage.”

The campaign has said that "this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign." Although Donald Trump has said that "I have no idea who he is," he has not apologized or spoken any words of sorrow or regret.😕😡

Archbishop Gonzales Nieves posted a statement on social media on October 28th, saying, “I call on you, Mr. Trump, to disavow these comments as reflecting in any way your personal or political viewpoints." The Archbishop went on to say, “It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize. It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments.”

“I hope that the people of good will in our country, especially those who are Catholic, are paying attention to what happened at Madison Square Garden in the context of Pope Francis call for us to vote for ‘the lesser of two evils,’” said Anthea Butler, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania and adviser to Catholic Democrats. “It costs Trump nothing to publicly disavow these dehumanizing comments made by the comedian at his rally, and to apologize to our sister and brothers of Puerto Rican descent. He has not done so. Let us recall that in 2015, Pope Francis said that, ‘a person, who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.’”

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Its residents are U.S. Citizens but they cannot vote in presidential elections. They are not immigrants in the U.S. but they have undergone a long history of discrimination.

The Puerto Rican diaspora represents a little less than 2% of the U.S. population, or 6 million people. However, 12% of active-duty military personnel identify as Puerto Rican as a result of the cultural importance of patriotism to them and a long-standing tradition of service dating back to 1917 when they were first granted citizenship.

“It is difficult to identify any actions or words of Trump’s that mitigate the evil Pope Francis identified in his worldview toward migrants. What happened on Sunday only fortifies the Pope’s concerns,” said Nichole M. Flores, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and the Director of the Catholic Studies Initiative at the University of Virginia, and adviser to Catholic Democrats. “But putting Mr. Trump aside as a political candidate, it’s important for the U.S. Bishops to speak out against this dehumanizing rhetoric and join the call made by Archbishop Roberto O. Gonzalez Nieves. A number of U.S bishops spoke out in 2018 when he made his vulgar remarks about Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. It’s time to do so again. Both our Church and the American people need that leadership and the marginalized populations deserve it.”

A majority of both the Puerto Rican (56%) and stateside Puerto Rican (53%) populations identify as Catholic. This is more than twice the estimated Catholic population in the United States, estimated to be approximately 22% of the population.

“We should acknowledge two Christian realities. First, as difficult as it is for about half the country to admit, Donald Trump is our brother in Christ,” said Steve Krueger, President, Catholic Democrats. “That may be difficult for many Christians to accept and impossible for others to begin to understand. Nonetheless, we are called to pray for Trump. He needs our prayers. But second, we are not called to vote for him. To do so may even contribute to being complicit in the evil that is being perpetrated through him. To pray for Trump is a saintly act of charity. But to vote for Trump, at least for me, would be profane.”