A Catholic President in Spirit

Democratic New York Governor Alfred Smith was the very first Catholic to run for president, having secured his party’s nomination in 1928. Despite losing to Republican Herbert Hoover, Smith won the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Since then, two similar candidates have been elected to the highest office in the land.

Like Smith, both were Democrats and baptized Catholics. While I believe Smith would have represented his faith well, the same cannot be said of the other two. President John F. Kenndy danced away from his religion whenever it suited his politics while President Joe Biden boasted about what a devout Catholic he was at every opportunity. But he never walked the Catholic walk.

In my opinion, both men were in reality what I call Cinos that is Catholics in name only. President Donald Trump, while not a Catholic, has been since his near assassination acting more like a Catholic on some major issues than either of his predecessors. Perhaps I should start calling him, a Ciso, that is a Catholic in spirit only.

For many years, the Church in America has been faced with two distinct moral issues, namely immigration and abortion. Our seriously ill pontiff has displayed an almost singular focus on immigration. In a letter to the American Catholic bishops, Pope Francis denounced President Trump’s mass deportation of refugees as morally wrong.

In the wake of the pope’s life-threatening illness, I will skip my discussion of the immigration issue and focus entirely on abortion, which should be of paramount consideration to the Church. Phil Boas of the Arizonia Republic wrote that the pope had kicked Trump’s butt on deportation and immigration but don’t laugh, Democrats. He is also kicking yours.

One can say, the pope had figuratively kicked the Democrats’ butt on abortion when he said it was murder in the Jesuit publication, America Magazine. I may be misjudging the pontiff on this but abortion has been a national problem for so long, I sometimes think he should be saying more about it. I think early in his papacy he said There are other issues.

His criticism of President Trump often mirrors some of the same disapproval one could easily hear from a liberal Democrat. What truly concerns me has more to do with partisan politics. While Pope Francis has expressed little love for President Trump, his close relationship with our former president Joe Biden who had made visits to the Vatican before and during his presidency, is in strict contrast. This is a fact Biden is quick to address when he boasts of after their visits how the pope would always tell him how good a Catholic, he was. Pope Francis has repeatedly failed to mention Trump’s, sometimes heroic stand on abortion while appearing to be looking away from Biden’s full and unequitable promotion of abortion on demand.

This begs the question. Has former president Biden ever demonstrated a right conscience on this issue? To the contrary, Biden had been, not only a cheerleader for abortion rights, but used his presidential power to advance abortion at every stage and venue. When called on it, he would say he was a devout Catholic and this was just business, echoing Tony Soprano.

The pope has never denied any of these hyperboles from a Catholic who has advanced abortion more than any other president in our history. Has the pope or any American bishop for that matter, ever taken Biden and any of his Catholic Democrats to the woodshed as they have done with President Trump? Someone in the Church needs to address this blatant contradiction. Excommunication seems to be off the moral table. Do not our Church leaders realize the abject scandal they have created among millions of faithful Catholics or is that just an antiquated rule from the fifties?

Donald Trump has never been an overtly religious person or even a moral one for that matter until his near assassination, where I believe he underwent a conversion experience of his soul. (See my essay A Mission from God). In effect, President Trump has arguably become the most pro-life president in our History. His successful nominations of three conservative justices during his first term ended the 50-year fight to overturn Roe v. Wade, arguably the worst decision in the history of the United States Supreme Court.

Trump also pardoned several Catholics for their violation of the Freedom to Access Clinics, (FACE) something the pope or bishops to my knowledge, have never addressed. Trump also ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to study the safety of the home abortion pills. None of this would ever have happened under a Biden or Harris presidency.

Majorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America described President Trump’s abortion policies, as the sign of a golden age for the pro-life movement here. The president has swiftly delivered a host of additional reforms, while re-instating many government policies that have favored the unborn for generations, especially his revival of the Hyde Amendment, named after Republican House member, the late Henry Hyde. The venerable Hyde Amendment prohibited any government funds from being used to foster abortion around the world. President Biden could not wait to shelf this law and eliminate the symbol of all the pro-life efforts for over 40 years.

One of the first thing Trump did was to remove the government website from the pages of our Health and Human Services Department which facilitated getting abortions. He also revoked our membership in the World Health Organization, citing its policy of promoting abortions without restriction. Trump’s nominee for the National Institute of Health (NIH) Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has vowed to prohibit the use of fetal cells in their research.

Trump also took steps to protect the babies who survived their abortion but are literally murdered by neglect. (I have written about my experience with abortion survivor, Gianna Jessen, in my essay Gianna’s Story in 2015.) Catholic websites also cited Trump’s address to the thousands of marchers on January 22nd, the anniversary of the Roe decision in 1973. His crown jewel will be when he defunds Planned Parenthood, the most visible procurer of abortion for American women and one of the most pernicious cultural forces in our times. This has been on my wish list for several years.

I have just learned that in 2021, as one of his last acts in office, President Trump signed an Executive Order with the goal of creating a statuary park dedicated to honoring American individuals who have made important contributions to American history and culture. Although incoming-president Joe Biden stopped the initiative, President Trump recently re-instated it following his re-election, according to CATHOLICVOTE.

At the annual National Prayer Breakfast, the president said: We’re going to be honoring our heroes, honoring the greatest people from our country. This is an obvious response to the Left’s penchant for tearing down statutes of historical figures, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In contrast, Trump wants to be building up! The president hopes to have it up and working by July 24, 2026.

Catholics are well-represented on this list. At its top is the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who attracted millions of Catholics to the faith through his many publications, such as Life is Worth Living. But what most people remember most was his weekly TV Show of the same name. I remember watching it with my parents on their small black and white TV as a preteen in the fifties. (You can read my essay about him from June of 2013 on these pages, A Journey to Sainthood.)

Others, who preceded Bishop Sheen, include St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American to be canonized and founder of our Catholic School System, St. Junipero Serra, who established the California missions, St Kateri Tekawitha, the first Native American saint and Ven. Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African American priest in the United States.

Others on the list include St. John Neumann, for expanding education in the US, Katharine Drexel, who dedicated her life and fortune to helping the poor, Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the nation, and his cousin, Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration if Independence in 1776.

The diverse list goes on with John P. Washington, a Catholic priest known for his heroism in World War II, and Thomas Merton, the Trappist Monk and author whose works still inspire millions today. Trump did not forget special Americans who served in law and government, such as renowned Justice of the Supreme Court Justin Scalia and President John F. Kennedy. I also found in a personal review of the list of 250 proposed statue figures, Catholic writer, William F. Buckley. While radical Dorothy Day made the cut, to my disappointment, there was no room for celebrated Southern writer Flannery O’Connor.

The list did not exclude its Catholic athletes, such as Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Roberto Clemente who lost his life in helping the people of his native Puerto Rico, NBA great Kobe Bryant and football coach Vince Lombardi. Nellie Gray made the list for her Pro-life leadership and the disparaged explorer Christopher Columbus has been resurrected. Last but not least is Catholic film director, Frank Capra, who gave us It’s a Wonderful Life.

And finally, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined the tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians beginning the holy season of Lent– a time of spiritual anticipation of the passion, death and Resurrection of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ in a White House statement on Ash Wednesday. He added that the tradition of Ashes is a sacred reminder of our mortality and our enduring need for Christ’s infinite mercy and redeeming love. I took Trump’s concluding words to be very personal. I believe this is his direct answer to God that he truly understands the memo in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th of last year.

My solemn hope is that before Pope Francis’ papacy ends the pontiff will find it in his merciful heart to pay his respects to our 47th president whose overt actions on behalf of the Catholic Church have proven that his heart is in the right place. If Bishop Sheen were still alive, I think he would have already gotten the president to join the Catholic Church.