The Top 10 reasons for hope are . . . and none of them have to do with social justice.

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God of Life,

We rejoice in the promise of your coming.

You have sent your Son, born in Bethlehem.

He is the Prince of Peace, and

The one in whose name all oppression shall cease.

May we welcome his coming each day

And prepare for his coming at the end of time.

May we build a culture that welcomes him

By welcoming every child, born and unborn.

We pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

You, me, our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, friends and people from all walks of life: We are the Catholic vote. Together, we can protect life at all stages from the culture of death.

Not the change you expected? Don’t gamble away your vote Tuesday.

Dear Catholic Voter:

Our radio ads are running everywhere.

In Nevada, Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois . . . voters are hearing from you.

In the race to replace retiring Rep. Bart Stupak with pro-life doctor Dan Benishek, Michigan voters are hearing from us.

In the hotly contested Nevada Senate race to defeat Harry Reid, voters are hearing from CatholicVote.org;

In Virginia, where pro-life candidate Robert Hurt is running to defeat the founder of the left-wing group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good — voters are hearing from us;

In Illinois and Wisconsin, we are running more ads to help elect pro-life candidates Sean Duffy (WI) and Bobby Schilling (IL) in two of the most watched races in the country.

Together we made the decision to get involved in supporting specific candidates. Helping educate our fellow Catholics is important, but we chose to go further. We want to elect the candidates best positioned to help us renew our country and our culture.

That’s why we’re on the air all week urging voters to make the difference on Election Day.

Click here to see the rest of the update. An observation: CatholicVote.org’s endorsement page (see here) doesn’t mention Robert Hurt, even though the Virginian rated a mention in Mr. Burch’s letter. However, it does endorse another Virginian, Keith Fimian, in Virginia’s 11th Congressional district. Perhaps CV runs ads against pro-abortion incumbents while running ads in favor of candidates it endorses?

In any event, CatholicVote.org is working hard to “uphold the rightful duty and responsibility as Catholic laity to apply the teachings of the Church in public life.” One way it does this is producing widely acclaimed videos. The following posts will feature two of its latest. Catholic voters have a duty to exercise their citizenship responsibility (see John Mallon at CV’s blog). According to a new New York Times/CBS poll, they are, indeed, beginning to do exactly that (see Joshua Mercer at CV’s blog and Thomas Peters at American Papist).

I am deeply humbled and honored by the announcement that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI intends to name me to the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church at the Consistory which he has convoked for this coming November 20th. Having received the news of the Holy Father’s intention, I express my deepest gratitude to His Holiness for the great confidence which he has placed in me, and I renew my commitment to serve Him, as Shepherd of the universal Church, in total fidelity and with all my being.

Pope Benedict appointed 24 cardinals in all, 20 of whom are under 80 years of age. Only those under 80 can participate in a papal conclave. The other American is Archbishop Donald Wuerl, of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Extensive comments by both Americans can be found at the Catholic News Agency.

Here’s his invitation:

Friends,

The October Freedom Ride will call for freedom from the oppression of unjust laws and policies. Taking place just a few weeks before our national elections, the Freedom Ride will call in a non-partisan way for citizens to take an active and informed part in the elections and advance the culture of life in the voting booth. On these upcoming webcasts, you will receive ideas and inspiration to do that.

Click here to hear the replay of our first webcast that took place on September 7 with our special guests, Deal Hudson, Dr. Alveda King and David Bereit.

Priests for Life has formed a “Vote Pro-life” Coalition of national ministries. These groups work together to advance non-partisan activities to help the People of Life to engage the electoral process in an informed and responsible way.

The Coalition sponsors these webcasts that can be followed online or by phone, and that offer training for effective political action. …

I hope you will plan to join me and my expert panelists.

Thank you,

Fr. Frank Pavone

Catholic Vote, recognized for its creative, well produced and thought-provoking ads, promises more of the same, especially as election time draws near, and Catholics are called to make informed decisions as to who should represent us in government. While this ad doesn’t strike me as up to the standards of its past work, that is a pretty high standard. I look forward to seeing its next releases.

CatholicVote.org celebrates its two-year anniversary with a new Web site and another glossy, attention-grabbing ad.

Now, let’s go out and buy as many as we can (see American Papist)! What better way to prove we were right, to show America how dear this woman was to all the world and to honor this saintly nun (CatholicVoteAction.org Blog). What better way to show our country the strength and grace of The Catholic Church and to spread the good message of The Church as exemplified by the life of Mother Teresa? As far as a simple, conventional method that’s every bit as powerful as anything in this Internet driven, social media crazed culture . . . nothing!

Worth every cent . . . and then some! The Mother Teresa stamp now is available from the U.S. Postal Service. Time to buy them up!

Lesson learned: Senator Murkowski is, sadly, another Catholic in public office who flaunts The Faith and The Truth with her steadfast pro-abortion views. As bishop after bishop  have proclaimed, Catholics in public office cannot stand in good conscience in The Church while enabling the killing of the innocent unborn, just as they cannot tolerate the killing of a person on the street or in a robbery.

Although Catholic Democrats come under most public criticism for this by the faithful (because most Democrats are pro-abortion), there are CINO (Catholics In Name Only) RINOs as well (Republicans In Name Only), and both gladly trade on their Catholicism for votes while refusing to uphold the principle of Life. 

It was very telling that Alaksa Right To Life, other pro-life organizations and media (see Defend Us In Battle), as well as prominent pro-life individuals, endorsed Mr. Miller over an incumbent Catholic (see Gun Lovin’ Alaska Catholic Club blog), while the WISH List a women’s “pro-choice” political action committee endorsed Senator Murkowski. I tried to find Mr. Miller’s religious affiliation to no avail (he doesn’t list it on his campaign bio and a Google search came up empty). But I will take anyone of any faith any day who is unapologetically pro-life over someone who trades on his or her faith assuming people will step in line.