CatholicVote.org

CatholicVote
Founded 2008
Type 501(c)(4) non-profit
Focus Roman Catholic political advocacy
Location
  • Chicago, Illinois
Area served
 United States
Key people
 Brian Burch (President)
Website www.CatholicVote.org

CatholicVote.org is a conservative,[1][2][3][4] non-profit political advocacy group based in the United States. While the organization acknowledges the authority of the Magisterium, it is independent of the Catholic Church.[5] It has stated a goal of "electing new pro-life and pro-family candidates to Congress and, of course, electing a pro-life candidate to the Presidency in 2012." [6]

Structure

CatholicVote.org is divided into three organizations:

CatholicVote.org, a project of Fidelis, a Catholic organization.[7][8][9][10][11]

CatholicVote.org Political Action Committee is an affiliated non-partisan political action committee which assists selected candidates in their election campaigns. CatholicVote PAC is the group's connected political action committee; its goal is to "provide qualified candidates with direct financial support while working independently to mobilize voters to elect candidates whom we believe will be faithful stewards of Catholic social teaching and the common good."[5] In 2010, it made campaign contributions to six Republicans and one Democrat.[12]

CatholicVote.org Education Fund is a 501(c)3 tax-deductible program which comprises two units: the CatholicVote.org Education Fund and the CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund.

History

Domain name

The CatholicVote.org domain name was first used by the Catholic Alliance in early 2000.[13] The Catholic Alliance was a grassroots group of Americans who agreed with the platform of the fundamental evangelical Protestant Christian Coalition but wished to widen the Coalition's scope to include Catholics.[14] The Catholic Alliance, formed in 1995, held the website until mid-2002. The next owner of the domain name was Larry Cirignano, founder of Catholic Vote, later called Catholic Citizenship. He used the domain for six years until mid-2008.[15][16] The Fidelis Center began operating the domain in October 2008, initially redirecting it to CatholicVote.com. The first published articles linked on the site included ones by co-founders Brian Burch and Joshua Mercer.[17]

Fidelis

CatholicVote.org is run under the umbrella of the Fidelis Center, a Catholic non-profit group. "Imagine Spot 1" was the first release of the national media campaign "Life: Imagine the Potential" in 2009. In ten days it recorded over 700,000 hits.[18] The commercial centers around the story of President Barack Obama, showing an ultrasound image and saying that despite a hard childhood, the unborn child will grow up to be President of the United States.[19] The advert was rejected by both NBC for airing during the Super Bowl[18] and CNN for airing during coverage of President Obama's first State of the Union Address.[20]

The second commercial was also released in 2009, "Imagine Spot 2". This commercial featured Nelson Mandela. It was aired in selected markets during the American Idol season 8 finale.[7]

In 2010 CatholicVote.org organized a petition urging the United States Postal Service to move forward with issuing a Mother Teresa commemorative stamp despite opposition by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and similar groups.[21] The petition gained over 146,000 signatures.[22][23][24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Politics Daily: Donald Trump, Family Values Conservative -- Believe It or Not
  2. ↑ Conservative Catholics rally against contraception mandate
  3. ↑ Boston Globe op-ed: Faith reduced to caricature
  4. ↑ Chicago Tribune: After Vatican rebuke, nuns celebrated
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 CatholicVote About
  6. ↑ CatholicVote.org Endorsements page 7/23/2012
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Anti-Abortion Ad Scores with 'American Idol'
  8. ↑ NY Observer: Anti-Rudy Catholics Plan Their Assault
  9. ↑ National Journal: Conservative Catholics' New Advocates
  10. ↑ BeliefNet: New Fidelis Anti-Abortion, Anti-Gay Marriage Video
  11. ↑ NYT: A Fight Among Catholics Over Which Party Best Reflects Church Teachings
  12. ↑ Donation Recipients
  13. ↑ "CatholicVote.org Homepage – a project of Catholic Alliance". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on March 4, 2000. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  14. ↑ Djupe, Paul A.; Olson, Laura R. (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics. Infobase Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 1438130201.
  15. ↑ "CatholicVote.org – an association of Catholic voters in America". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on September 21, 2002. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Catholic Vote – Catholic Citizenship". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on June 9, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  17. ↑ "CatholicVote.com". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 NBC rejects pro-life ad using Obama
  19. ↑ Facing Tough Washington Climate, Abortion Foes Move Debate Online
  20. ↑ McFeely, Tom (2009-02-20). "CNN Punts Pro-Life Obama Ad". National Catholic Register (Circle Media Inc). Retrieved 2010-10-16.
  21. ↑ US Issues Mother Teresa Postal Stamp
  22. ↑ Petition supporting Mother Teresa stamp reaches over 70,000 signatures
  23. ↑ Mother Teresa stamp criticized, praised
  24. ↑ Postal Service Thanked for Mother Teresa Stamp, Ceremony Remembers Her

External links