‘Alarming New Agenda’: Catholic Group Warns Harris Is Not The ‘Lesser Evil’

CatholicVote warned in a Wednesday letter to church leadership and voters that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ blatantly “anti-Catholic” agenda presents “clear and present danger.”

Pope Francis said on Sept. 13 that both Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are “against life” due to Harris’ support of abortion and Trump “failing to care for migrants,” and said voters must decide which candidate is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming presidential election. CatholicVote warned that Harris’ pro-abortion stance and rhetoric constitute “real harm” to Americans, according to the memo obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“We write to warn you – our shepherds, priests, religious, Catholic brothers and sisters, and all people of good will – that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz represent a ‘clear and present danger’ to practicing Catholics and to all Church-sponsored institutions that are, and seek to remain, faithful to the Church’s teachings,” the letter reads.

Trump’s immigration policy is not on par with Harris’ stance on abortion, Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote and author of the 19-page memo, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“[I] don’t think it’s fair to compare President Trump’s desire to bring order and stability to the border to Kamala Harris’s position on abortion, which would result in millions of lives being destroyed,” Burch said. “The moral substance of those two policy positions are significantly different. Donald Trump is not calling for immigration laws that would destroy the lives of millions of immigrants. Kamala Harris is calling for that type of policy when it comes to unborn children.”

CatholicVote’s memo asserts that Harris “consistently goes beyond mere abortion advocacy,” noting her opposition to two bills, one of which would prohibit abortion when babies can feel pain and another that would ensure babies born alive after an attempted abortion were provided medical care. Harris also “made history” as the first sitting vice president to campaign at an abortion facility in March as part of her “Reproductive Freedom Tour.”

“There’s a significant policy agenda that Harris-Walz support that poses an existential threat to Catholics and all people of goodwill for that matter,” Burch said.

The memo also calls out Harris’ apparent anti-Catholic rhetoric, claiming that she harshly questioned Catholic federal judicial nominees over their religious beliefs. Harris, in 2018, demanded Brian Buescher defend his membership in the Knights of Columbus and its pro-life stance, and she “suggested that his belief – required by Catholic teaching – that marriage is between a man and a woman disqualified him from serving on the federal bench,” according to the letter.

“This is a candidate who doesn’t merely disagree with Catholics, but has a deep animus towards Catholics,” Burch warned. Harris has proven to have “broad hostility to Catholic institutions, Catholic moral beliefs, religious freedom and policies that would undermine the common good of the entire country.”

CatholicVote documented nearly 300 acts of violence and vandalism against Catholics reported since the leak of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, most of which went virtually unpunished under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the memo. The administration has, however, repeatedly prosecuted pro-life protesters for peacefully protesting at abortion clinics, claiming they were interfering with services.

“The church does not take a formal position on candidates specifically, and so it asks Catholics to properly form their consciences in light of facts and in light of moral principles, and our memo seeks to help Catholics connect those dots,” Burch said. “It seems to us that the Pope’s phrasing around lesser of two evils begs the question, what candidate truly does represent a greater threat and evil to both Catholics and to the common good? And the answer, based on this memo, is clearly Harris-Walz.”

Burch also said that opposition to Harris is not merely a matter of religion.

“Catholic moral beliefs are not unique to Catholics,” he said. “In fact, they’re accessible by common human reason, and they apply to all human persons. This is not some sectarian, isolated perspective for Catholics. These are moral truths that apply to everybody. And the threat she poses to Catholics are not are not limited to us. They are threats to every American of decency and goodwill.”