The 2024 United States election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris, a member of the Democratic Party, is running against former President Donald Trump, the nominee for the Republican Party.
Amid an unprecedented U.S. presidential election cycle, Catholic voters should reflect on fostering key principles of Catholic social teaching — such as respect for human life, solidarity and the common good — through dialogue and civic engagement, panelists said at a discussion event Sept. 11 hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Polls show voters are concerned with other issues, such as inflation and immigration. But the environment continues to be a top concern for many voters, especially younger ones, and the issue crosses lines of faith and politics in ways that others don’t.
A group of evangelical Christians hoping to reclaim their tradition from the culture wars put out a call Monday (Sept. 9) for a broader understanding of evangelicalism urging a rejection of "political idolatry and its messengers" as well as the "false idols of power, wealth, and strength rather than the true God."
No matter who wins the U.S. presidential election, writes Steven P. Millies, when the Biden administration ends, a post-Catholic era of American life opens.
Less than two months before Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump sparred over the economy, abortion and immigration in their first presidential debate Sept. 10.
Among Catholic voters, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has a slight advantage over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a poll conducted by RealClear Opinion Research and EWTN.
The Catholic Church must bear witness to its values in the political square, with more focus on its social justice teaching and not only abortion, according to Catholic voters who gathered online to discuss the U.S. presidential election.
What I found was disturbingly out of step with the teachings I hold dear, and since all the commentaries on Project 2025 I've seen lack the perspective of nuns, I thought I'd offer a few observations.
The professors and media personalities in this network don’t all agree on everything — even on what to call themselves — but most go by “postliberal.” They share some longstanding Catholic conservative views, such as opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. But where Catholic conservatives of the past have seen big government as a problem rather than a solution, the postliberals want a muscular government — one that they control.
Network Advocates for Catholic Social Justice have issued an 18-page resource in response to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy document for a future Republican presidential administration.
A familiar face among Washington’s faith-based activists, Butler said she brings ‘a broad set of relationships that I think can help, very quickly, pull a broad coalition together’ in a foreshortened Harris campaign.
Political interviews, like the one CNN's Dana Bash conducted with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz last night, are not usually the stuff of high drama in a campaign, but these are not usual times.
Meghan J. Clark, an associate professor of moral theology at St. John's University in the Queens borough of New York and the author of "The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights," pointed to areas of convergence and divergence with Catholic social teaching in both the records of Vance and Walz on a range of issues.
The 2024 elections will be an intervention into our current divisive way of seeing. It intervenes, and whether it is successful in removing what has been blocking the clarity of our vision is still unknown.
It is an interesting question why The New York Times tends to mostly highlight conservative Catholics in its opinion pages, like the recent op-ed about the influence of conservative converts to Catholicism.
Analysis: There was religious rhetoric at the Democratic convention, but the language of values took center stage. Once the vocabulary of conservative culture warriors, moral language is now the lingua franca of liberals and progressives.
Although the Democrats' Chicago convention was full of genuine joy, "Voters will need more," writes Steven P. Millies. "They will need a good, clear idea about Kamala Harris' vision long before Nov. 5."
The Democrats helped themselves with this week's convention, appearing energized and mostly unified. They projected confidence not just about their chances in November but for the future of the country.
During an Aug. 21 panel sponsored by Catholics Vote Common Good, Catholics at the Democratic National Convention discussed both the party's pro-choice platform and the values that prompt them to vote Democratic.
While Walz has a number of other appealing — and one might think more important — qualifications, what seems to be most exciting people about him and the Harris/Walz campaign is this notion of the good neighbor.
What is absent from political conventions is often as problematic as what is present. Party conventions have become coronations, a fact that oddly fails to serve the interests of the person being crowned.
Amid concern about violence at protests during the Democratic National Convention, peace motivated people of faith who joined thousands of other protesters at the "March on the DNC" on the opening day of the convention.
When Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office, so, too, will a Catholic commander-in-chief who always carried a rosary in his pocket, and arranged his public schedule to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
"As the Democrats gather in Chicago this week for their convention, pro-life Democrats worry that there may be no room for us anymore in this party to which we are committed," Michael Sean Winters writes.
The Harris/Walz ticket has energized young voters across the country, including young Catholics. They say a candidate's overall values and character are more important than any single issue or their religious faith.
When JD Vance converted to Catholicism, he evidently missed the session on church teaching about human dignity, and the one about church history, and the one on biblical exegesis regarding welcoming the stranger.
With Donald Trump doubling down on his base by choosing an articulate ideologue like JD Vance, Kamala Harris has the opportunity to reach for the center and win big, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.
The election is no longer a referendum on President Joe Biden. That has been replaced by a new narrative about passing the torch to a new generation, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.
Dan Horan asks: "Can the church rise to the vocational task we have received to reject the interests of the powerful and comfortable and instead advocate for justice and peace?"
"As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his. It's great to have him on the team," Harris wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Minnesota's governor comes across as a real person, not a polled-out politician, and fits into Harris' desire to unite the party and be mindful of Middle America's working-class voters, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.
Frenzied speculation over who Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would tap as her vice presidential running mate came to an end Tuesday, with the current vice president choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her successor should they win in November.
When you get past the partisan lenses and the ideological lenses and the identity politics lenses, all the things that have become polarized and intransigent, we might find that which is truly human, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.
Black voters, and especially Black women, long have been the Democrats' most steadfast voting bloc and could be crucial to determining the outcome of this year's presidential election.
No other cultural entity has spent as much money and political capital fueling the war over abortion as the U.S. bishops. But, amid the endless fighting, any serious teaching, any opportunity to persuade, has been lost.
President Joe Biden's call for unity, his care for the poor, the environment and true peace in our fractured world make him an example of what public service ought to be, writes contributor Msgr. Paul Garrity.
As he explained his decision to end his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden did not mention his Catholic faith. But his Catholicism informs this man's understanding of the moment, of himself, and of our nation.
"The campaign for president is long and loud. Campaigning for pope only lasts a few weeks," Thomas Reese writes. "Despite all this, the Democratic National Convention this year is shaping up to be more like a conclave."
Environmental activists, including Catholic and other faith-based leaders, applauded President Joe Biden's "monumental" impact on climate policy and environmental protections, though some noted ways he fell short.
With Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, abortion and immigration could become pivotal issues. But not all Republicans are happy with the GOP's positions and rhetoric, NCR's Heidi Schlumpf reports.
In the next few days — not weeks but days — Vice President Kamala Harris must introduce herself to the American people. The GOP will be trying to do the same thing, albeit with different points of emphasis.
Every past U.S. president has identified as Christian, and that will not change if Harris is elected in November. But as she runs for president, her religious biography will be not only history-making but will connect her to how many Americans practice and encounter faith.
One candidate decided he was not physically fit and will be replaced by someone who may not be politically fit. The other is not morally fit. Anyone who tells you they know how this will play out is deluded.
The president's announcement brings to an end several weeks of speculation about his political future, including both his viability in the November election and his ability to serve another four years in the White House.
There had been reports that, in light of the failed assassination attempt on his life, former President Donald Trump would dial back the vitriol at the RNC and make an appeal to national unity. And Trump tried, but he couldn't help himself.
Faiths United to Save Democracy, a nonpartisan multiracial group with roots in Black church voter mobilization efforts, is expanding its outreach so participants include clergy and lay people of a variety of religions as well as people with no faith affiliation and members of secular organizations.
The Republican National Convention has been replete with religious symbolism and talk about God, but an organized Catholic presence has been lacking, reports senior correspondent Heidi Schlumpf.
Will there be an issue or a moment in which Vance's newly found Catholicism leads him to challenge his party or his running mate? NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters is skeptical.
Catholic reaction to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was split — with Catholic prelates calling for peace and unity, while partisan groups blamed Democratic rhetoric for the shooting.
Donald Trump's selection of J.D. Vance as his running mate was greeted with enthusiasm at the Republican National Convention, although many delegates did not know he converted to Catholicism as an adult.
Although the GOP's platform will not include support for a nationwide limit on abortion, "No one should expect the pro-life movement to abandon the GOP," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.
The Vatican on July 14 expressed "concern" over the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and said the attack "wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death."
Bishop David A. Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, which includes Butler, said in a statement, "Let us join together in prayer for the health and safety of all, for healing and peace, and for an end to this climate of violence in our world."
The alignment of certain U.S. bishops with Christian nationalist political figures whose actions are at odds with Catholic values is contributing to the growing divide within the church.
A number of high-profile Catholics have ties to, and influence on, Donald Trump. Here is a brief overview of some key Catholic advisers and supporters who are expected at the GOP convention in Milwaukee next week.
Religion and politics frequently overlap in Reading, an old industrial city in one of the most pivotal swing states of this year’s presidential election.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a Catholic and potential running mate for Trump, called for the deportation of "every single person who invaded our country illegally" in a campaign fundraising message.
It's not about fatigue or danger or age and endurance, writes Sr. Joan Chittister. It's about doing what we each need to do to help one another profit the whole country, the whole globe.
Thousands of clergy, union members and activists rallied on behalf of the poor near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday (June 29), with faith leaders calling for lawmakers to embrace a slate of policies and for low-wealth Americans to make their voices heard in November as the nation’s "largest potential swing vote."
MAGA evangelicals grab all the headlines. But it's swing state faith voters — Catholics, mainliners and Black Protestants — who will likely decide the election.
It is one of the saddest things about our democracy that the election will be decided by low-information voters who probably did not watch the entire debate last night, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.
Catholic numbers in battleground states make them a good weathervane, and indeed they tend to vote for the winner in presidential elections. If you win Catholics, you probably win the country.
