Who is the most anti-Catholic Democratic candidate?

[Alben Barkley]

...Why is Beto an option when he is literally a member of the Catholic Church?

Seriously, literally none of the Democratic candidates could possibly be construed as "anti-Catholic" no matter how hard you stretch it. This isn't 1860 or some s--t. Hell, the Democrats have been going after the Catholic vote since even long before that! Active anti-Catholicisism in the year 2019 would be both totally out of left field and electoral suicide for any candidate in either party, especially the Democratic Party. Catholics are a swing vote group (voted for Obama twice then Trump, narrowly each time) who absolutely no one wants to alienate. Religion in general maters less than in the past for elections, but at the margins the Catholic vote (in particular its relation to the Latino vote) can potentially make a difference, so no Democratic candidate would ever dream of alienating them. Indeed many of the candidates (including the frontrunner, Biden) ARE Catholic. Why would any Democrat want to upend that?

On a historical note, though, I can't resist the irony of pointing out that Harry S. Truman, a freemason (and therefore in a state of mortal sin according to the pope!), managed to set a record for the Catholic vote in 1948!

[Mr. Illini]

It's hilarious how much Atlas doesn't know about the KoC to be labelling Kamala as anti-catholic for being concerned about the group. It's old, it's white, it's conservative, and super religious (duh) I would be concerned about it as well because it may affect their votes on abortion and other social issues. Oh btw, I'm catholic.

To answer this stupid and pointless question: none of them.

#AtlasGreatestHits

I know plenty about the KoC, thanks. Like the Church it is aligned with, the national KoC organization holds conservative views on abortion and some other issues.

However, individual chapters and members of those chapters serve primarily as charitable and community betterment organizations for older men of the parishes. Going after someone for being a member is ignorant, petty, and anti-Catholic.

I hope we would hold up the same standard if, say, a Republican judge were to go after a Muslim judge on this basis.

[VPH]

Gillibrand and it's not even close. Nobody else had the audacity to compare being pro-life to being racist.

[Kingpoleon]

None of them are anti-Catholic, and Beto is literally a Catholic lol.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2019/03/tbt-that-time-beto-orourke-berated-a-catholic-priest/

Pretty pathetic of that article not to give the name of that "priest" so that readers can't Google him and learn that he was disciplined by his own Catholic diocese (!) for his outrageous anti-gay bigotry (!). No Democratic Catholic is going to disagree with the Beto/official Catholic position on this creep, and no Republican Catholic should either.

And pretty pathetic of you to post something that's been widely discussed and debunked on this forum before.

Look at Beto's words. He was attacking the Catholic church as a whole ("the church you represent"), and even criticized the Pope.  Don't pretend Beto was following some official Catholic position here.

Pointing out that the Church has moral failings is not anti-Catholic, and if criticizing the Pope were (ipso facto) anti-Catholic then we'd have to say that several prominent conservative cardinals today are anti-Catholic.

Anyway, the answer is almost certainly Harris. Gillibrand has said some things that evidence a profound cluelessness about how Catholic doctrine works that's astonishing in someone who was raised Catholic and still nominally identifies as Catholic, but I don't think she's hostile to Catholicism as such.

What argument is there that Buttigieg is anti-Catholic? Is it just that he used to be Catholic and no longer is? The same is true of John Kasich and for that matter Mike Pence; that doesn't in and of itself make them anti-Catholic any more than I'm anti-Anglican.

I heard about him getting into some dispute with South Bend's diocese's bishop. And he strongly fought to keep a women's health clinic that performed abortions in South Bend open, something the Catholic Church really gunned for closing.

He's going against most all Christian denominations doing that though, including his own -- it's not like it was a particularly anti-Catholic action.

The Episcopal church wasn't trying to close the clinic.

The Episcopal Church opposes elective abortion (like the Catholic Church it allows it to save the mother's life, and unlike the Catholic Church in the case of rape/incest), so it's pretty clear that Buttigieg was going against his denomination, even if they weren't leading the charge.

That's not a knock on him, of course. I'm proud of all 20 candidates in the Democratic field standing up for abortion rights, even though all 20 of them (actually I'm not 100% sure about Gabbard or Yang, but probably them too) belong to religious groups that disagree with their opinion.

The Methodist Church, until very recently, was a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and, to this day, does not officially oppose abortion. ELCA and the Episcopalian Church are not pro-life churches, by any stretch of the imagination.

[Illiniwek]

It's hilarious how much Atlas doesn't know about the KoC to be labelling Kamala as anti-catholic for being concerned about the group. It's old, it's white, it's conservative, and super religious (duh) I would be concerned about it as well because it may affect their votes on abortion and other social issues. Oh btw, I'm catholic.

To answer this stupid and pointless question: none of them.

#AtlasGreatestHits

I know plenty about the KoC, thanks. Like the Church it is aligned with, the national KoC organization holds conservative views on abortion and some other issues.

However, individual chapters and members of those chapters serve primarily as charitable and community betterment organizations for older men of the parishes. Going after someone for being a member is ignorant, petty, and anti-Catholic.

I hope we would hold up the same standard if, say, a Republican judge were to go after a Muslim judge on this basis.

I'm a Knight. I have plenty of problems with the people running the national efforts in New Haven, and that is a pretty common sentiment. The one major event I look back on and regret is that the Knights spent a lot of money campaigning for Prop 8.

However, nobody, not a single person, joins the Knights of Columbus because they want to be told how to live their lives by Supreme Council. The Knights of Columbus were founded to take care of the needs of parish widows and orphans. Today that has evolved into supporting the needs of the parish and community; that if any project or drive needs manpower, its the Knights who step in. They run the fish frys. They hold the intellectual disabilities drive. They raise money for and volunteer at the Special Olympics. That is what happens at the local level.

Not every practicing Catholic male chooses to be a Knight. But if you are an actively practicing Catholic, and you want to volunteer and help out around your parish, joining the Knights is something that just happens and don't think twice about.

So when two prominent Democratic senators argue that this nominee should be disqualified for his position based on his membership, not even what he has said or done in the context of being a Knight, that looks really bad to practicing Catholics who know and see what being a Knight means in their parish and community. I see no difference to that and saying JFK shouldn't be president because he would be a pawn to the Pope. Thinking that the judge would be bound to the Knights' influence when ruling in his courtroom would be laughable if it weren't so sad.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I will now accept my accolades on Beto.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

[RI]

I will now accept my accolades on Beto.

Beto has ceased being a candidate and devolved into an internet troll.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I will now accept my accolades on Beto.

You might be right. I went to a different church last weekend, and the entire homily was spent discussing strategies for resistance in the Beto or Beto-like presidency that is inevitably coming perhaps not now but certainly in the future. Only the fourth or fifth time in my life where the homily received a standing ovation. The man directly in front of me was clapping so long and hard that his wife and son struggled to make him stop. NEVER BETO!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

People were skeptical of my claiming Beto isn't a real Catholic. Well since then he's called for eliminating the tax exemption for churches that oppose same-sex marriage. Yeah that's totally someone I can see as a Catholic.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

People were skeptical of my claiming Beto isn't a real Catholic. Well since then he's called for eliminating the tax exemption for churches that oppose same-sex marriage. Yeah that's totally someone I can see as a Catholic.

Ah, yes. That. Yes, I see what you mean.

I hope you don't think this is a good idea, though. Not only is imposing a state orthodoxy in theology of sexuality a violation of the Establishment Clause, doing so would give carte blanche for the next Republican administration to punish your church the same way if it saw fit.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

People were skeptical of my claiming Beto isn't a real Catholic. Well since then he's called for eliminating the tax exemption for churches that oppose same-sex marriage. Yeah that's totally someone I can see as a Catholic.

Ah, yes. That. Yes, I see what you mean.

I hope you don't think this is a good idea, though. Not only is imposing a state orthodoxy in theology of sexuality a violation of the Establishment Clause, doing so would give carte blanche for the next Republican administration to punish your church the same way if it saw fit.

I'm not disputing it's blatantly unconstitutional. I'm just saying it's kind of comical to suggest someone could propose that and be a Catholic. That goes well beyond disagreeing with the church's position on abortion or homosexuality.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

A political party is attacking an important American minority.

[7,052,770]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

People were skeptical of my claiming Beto isn't a real Catholic. Well since then he's called for eliminating the tax exemption for churches that oppose same-sex marriage. Yeah that's totally someone I can see as a Catholic.

Ah, yes. That. Yes, I see what you mean.

I hope you don't think this is a good idea, though. Not only is imposing a state orthodoxy in theology of sexuality a violation of the Establishment Clause, doing so would give carte blanche for the next Republican administration to punish your church the same way if it saw fit.

I'm not disputing it's blatantly unconstitutional. I'm just saying it's kind of comical to suggest someone could propose that and be a Catholic. That goes well beyond disagreeing with the church's position on abortion or homosexuality.

"And yet it moves."

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What's the point of bumping a thread like this?

People were skeptical of my claiming Beto isn't a real Catholic. Well since then he's called for eliminating the tax exemption for churches that oppose same-sex marriage. Yeah that's totally someone I can see as a Catholic.

Ah, yes. That. Yes, I see what you mean.

I hope you don't think this is a good idea, though. Not only is imposing a state orthodoxy in theology of sexuality a violation of the Establishment Clause, doing so would give carte blanche for the next Republican administration to punish your church the same way if it saw fit.

I'm not disputing it's blatantly unconstitutional. I'm just saying it's kind of comical to suggest someone could propose that and be a Catholic. That goes well beyond disagreeing with the church's position on abortion or homosexuality.

"And yet it moves."

Oh brother.