Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2012, Day 19. Faithful Voters Form Powerful Coalition in Ohio

By Deal W Hudson and Keith A Fournier
10/18/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

This year the activists at Franciscan have become part of a statewide, ecumenical effort of faithful voters.

Students, and the entire FUS community, feel as if their faith is directly under attack by the Obama administration and its HHS mandate. Under Obamacare taxpayers are forced to fund abortion on top of the hundreds of millions in tax dollars Obama has funneled to Planned Parenthood. On the first day of his presidency, Obama reversed the Mexico City policy, which banned the use of federal funds for abortion overseas.

Franciscan University of Steubenville

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STEUBENVILLE, OH (Catholic Online) - In 2004 the outcome of the presidential election was decided by Ohio's 18 electoral votes. Within Ohio the decisive epicenter of the 2004 campaign converged around the influence of activists from Franciscan University of Steubenville on swing Catholic voters.

This year's election has triggered even greater activism among Franciscan University of Steubenville students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Because of Obamacare, Franciscan made national news when it was forced to drop health care insurance for students because they refused to comply with the HHS mandate. FUS has also joined 42 other Catholic institutions in suing the federal government over the mandate.

Obama has even failed to support a ban on sex-selection abortion and would not endorse a ban on late-term abortion when an unborn child is unquestionably capable of feeling intense pain.

Obama's aggressive pro-abortion advocacy, combined with his attack on the moral integrity of Catholic institutions, has galvanized the Franciscan community. This effort is headed by Michael Hernon, former RNC Catholic Outreach director; Kimberly Hahn, popular Catholic author and wife of Dr. Scott Hahn; and Joe Loizzo, longtime local activist who runs the health center at Franciscan.

But, this year the activists at Franciscan have become part of a statewide, ecumenical effort of faithful voters. They've been joined by two national organizations, the Susan B. Anthony-List, led by Marjorie Dannenfelser, and American Majority Action!, led by Ned Ryun, son of former Congressman Jim Ryan of Kansas.

SBA employs three graduates of Franciscan. One of them, Billy Valentine (FUS '09), directs the Ohio effort, while a Boston College graduate staffer, Billy Cody, runs the effort on the ground. American Majority Action! has established three Ohio offices overseen by Martin Gillespie who ran RNC Catholic Outreach in 2004.

Working together, this coalition has already completed over 54,000 phones calls and nearly 1,000 door knocks in Steubenville itself. As Martin Gillespie summarized, "We are using socially and fiscally conservative issues in a targeted way both locally and statewide, through the call and door knock program, to make a maximum impact on Nov. 6."

Social and fiscal conservatism in eastern Ohio includes not only the issues of life, marriage, religious liberty, subsidiarity, and budgetary constraint, but also energy and coal issues, which are very important to the economic future of that region.

What we see happening in Ohio, the emerging coalition between local and national organizations and Catholics and Evangelicals, is happening in other battleground states like Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and Florida. A great playwright once wrote, "Readiness is all" -- whether it is "all" might be debatable, but there will be no victory without it, and Ohio will be ready.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Franciscan Universiyt, Steubenville, evangelicals and catholics, campaign 2012, Ohio, Romney, Ryan, Obama, Biden, pro-Life, pro-Marriage, faithful citizenship, Deal W Hudson, Keith A Fournier

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1 - 10 of 10 Comments

Judy Claar
7 months ago
I Hope that this article and all of its responders, are indeed America's new wave. And I Hope that it gathers energy and momentum fast. Especially, as the saying goes, "In Ohio".
I thank God people who did not favor Romney, have come full circle with logic and reason and prayer, to realize within themselves, that Life over Death, wins the victory and the vote every time, even if we do not agree with that Life party 80%. God is on the side of Life. Not Death.
Enjoyed All posts! Blessings...
Janusz
7 months ago
Sixteen trillion dollars plus national debt, not counting other financial obligations! I am doubtfull if even God Himself knows how to clean up this mess...Democrats should be praying that Mitt gets elected and be blamed for all the hardships that we all will have to endure to fix financial problems!
mike robertson
7 months ago
God bless all of you who are voting for Romney even if he was not your preferred candidate. True, we may get an anti-life justice from him (like Souter) but we may also get another several Thomases, Aliotos and Scalias. With the evil man in the White House now, there is zero chance of anyone who ever whispered anything against any abortion being nominated for a position on any court. With Romney we can have executive orders favoring life (he is not a dictator and cannot issue directives making abortion illegal) and appointments of pro-lifers to various positions. We will also see an end to the war against Catholics and other Christians and religious people. We will see a reversal of the slide to a Greek-style econmic collpase.

I heard a Protestant on a Protestant station saying he had to vote for the candidate who will do a better job of advancing moral righteousness. That candidate is clearly Romnay.
Bill Sr.
7 months ago
We need to ask ourselves what do you Catholics believe when you proclaim, I believe in one God the Father almighty.......and in all that is seen and unseen (or visible and invisible as it is now)? These are not and must not be just words to a devout and conscientious follower of Christ and faithful Catholic. Hopefully you are saying we are aware of the forces of Evil constantly surrounding us trying in any way to tug, tease, or tempt us from accomplishing our mission to do God's will among men. We realize we live in an imperfect world as the result of sin which dwells in those Evil forces attempting to steal as much of mankind as possible from the shelter of Christ's sacrifice of Love within the Fathers house. Understanding this allows us to look beyond what is obvious for the unseen within what men propose as solutions to our problems or methods to improve conditions or in vain attempts to tamper with the very physical elements of life itself. These are the areas where the powerful forces of Evil can disguise themselves as benevolent benefits or evolving enlightenment for a society too eager to advance to an earthly man made Utopia without pain or consequence and privilege without price.
Our Lord came seen as a humble but faithful servant of our Father in heaven teaching the ways of the Father of Love but also clearly acknowledging the ever invisible presence of the devious deception of Evil opposed to His Will, promising us that whoever would believe in Him shall be worthy of the unseen Glory of God awaiting redeemed mankind.
We may consider what we have seen in recent years as our modern western society's height of human achievement and marvel at our technological accomplishments but at the same time are we not also witnessing the unforeseen but now obvious collapsing of it both morally and economically?
Far too often in recent history we have witnessed how leaders have avoided the moral challenges in the light of truth and chosen do their work in the cool comfort of demagogy darkness where their deeds are less visible and the sleepy eyed gatekeepers have often been unwilling to sound the alarm for fear of disturbing the peace and complacency. As a result decisions have been made, choices are in place, and worst of all we have changed our language and vocabulary to fit an agenda contrary to our conscience. An unborn child is no longer a human being. Killing it is not a crime it is a right. Pregnancy is a disease or at the very least, as our own president has declared, it is a punishment for poor hygiene practice. Preventing pregnancy is praised and to be rewarded by a benevolent Federal government with free contraception for women and young school aged girls. All the while the same government disallows any mention of God in all its public schools and buildings. Religious liberty is no longer constitutionally protected but subject to the interpretation of bureaucrats in Washington. Free speech is soon to be a thing of the past as power hungry elitists and legislators have assumed the role of judges of vocabulary allowed to determine what can be publicly permissible speech. Every Christian value which helped build the shinning city on the hill is being challenged or cast aside to establish the Utopia of fools and it is time for us to unmask and reveal the Evil presence in the public policies proposed by the blind or misguided individuals perpetuating the corruption of our culture. The most potent weapon of Evil is our unwillingness to recognize its existence among us.
What we see and hear here and on other websites and its many articles connected to the election is the clergy and the majority of the faithful are doing their best to truthfully without bias illustrate the differences between the party platforms and the character of the candidates and give guidance to practicing Catholic voters. However, there has come to be, and not altogether surprising as history and human behavior have revealed to us, a very vocal and rowdy few who seem unable to grasp the true essences of the stituation and desperately echo the shallow words we are familiar with at times like this, Give us Barabbas!
JoAnn
7 months ago
Vance: From your lips to God's ears but I wouldn't count on it. I talked to 3 other Catholics? at Eucharistic adoration this week and they are voting for Obama. Can you imagine that? They are sitting before the Blessed Sacrament every week and they are voting for Obama. I couldn't believe it. I gave them each a booklet entitled "Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution." 2 of them accepted the booklet, one refused it. Let's hope that booklet opens their eyes. The priest at my parish Sunday before last (Pro-Life Sunday) gave an excellent sermon on the importance of voting against abortion, etc. They were there because we go to the same Mass too. If Obama gets back in, it will be the "hypocrites" again, that will give him 4 more yrs. God bless.
Carole
7 months ago
I am an independent voter, but I am not an undecided voter. You see, I think it says something when Obama is scrambling for votes but still doesn't want to do anything to resolve the HHS issue with the Church. Through his actions, he is clearly stating his negative opinion of Catholics and Catholicism. In short, he is demonstrating bigotry.

I am sure that Romney is a good man; however, I can't claim to be a big fan of his policies. That being said, I have decided that Romney has my vote. I simply can't vote for Obama given that he has trampled the Constitution's protection of religious freedom. I descend from French- and Irish-Catholics who helped build this country despite overwhelming prejudice against them. I can't betray my ancestors or my Church by casting a vote for Obama.
Joe
7 months ago
God Bless you FUS community. Thank you,
vance
7 months ago
This is a movement that is catching on around the country. The Democrat Party hates God and the Catholic Church and it's time that all Catholics unite and Vote Out Obama and the Democrat Party.
abey
7 months ago
Can this be called as "The Awakening" in the Truth, to the saying Better late than Never.
Terri
7 months ago
My state is projected to go to Romney. I'm not thrilled about Romney, but I'm horrified by Obama. Romney will get my vote. It's good to see evidence of strong efforts to educate and motivate in a swing state. I feel kind of helpless where I am. I'll be praying for these brave, selfless souls.

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