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Washington D.C., Nov 11, 2016 / 02:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of Hillary Clinton's electoral defeat in Tuesday's presidential election, pro-life Democrats and faith voters criticized the party's pro-abortion support and lack of religious outreach.

“Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party decisively lost Tuesday’s election, thanks in large part to the party’s extreme abortion position, which alienated would-be Clinton voters,” the group Democrats for Life of America stated in a press release on Wednesday.

“We cautioned in our DNC Report – Make Room for Pro-Life Democrats & Achieve Party Goals Nationwide – that the party is slowly dying and on the way to being irrelevant if it does not start a dialogue with its pro-life members,” Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, stated.

On Nov. 8 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, earning a majority of electors to become the next president although Clinton narrowly won the popular vote.

Trump, who in 1999 had supported partial-birth abortion, campaigned on a pro-life platform that included promises like a late-term abortion ban and the appointing of pro-life Supreme Court justices.

Clinton, meanwhile, championed access to abortions for women and supported the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, a 40 year-old policy that prohibits federal tax dollars from funding abortions.

Democrats lost many potential voters because of their party’s extreme pro-abortion platform, Day insisted.

She said that in key traditionally-Democratic states that Trump picked up like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Clinton lost many voters like “soft Republicans; anti-abortion Independents, and millions of pro-life voters in her own party” who might have listened to her had she not supported abortion so staunchly.

“One of the reasons she lost these groups is that she championed an extremist abortion platform,” Day said.

The abortion plank of the platform – criticized even by President Obama’s 2012 campaign director of faith outreach Michael Wear as “morally reprehensible” – supported late-term abortions, the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and also the repeal of the Helms Amendment which prohibited the funding of abortions in foreign aid.

Abortion was mentioned 19 times in the party’s platform, Dr. Matthew Bunson, EWTN senior contributor, told EWTN News Nightly during the Democratic National Convention in July, adding “that itself gives us an idea of the seriousness of this issue for them.”

Many voters – especially those in traditionally-Democratic Rust Belt states that surprisingly fell for Trump – were turned off by this “extremist abortion platform,” Day said.

“Americans want to see wages rise, and they want to see more people protected with health insurance, and they want to protect the environment, but they absolutely do not support abortion-on-demand,” she said. “The Democratic Party is going to be the party of coastal, urban elites if it does not change course and respect the social conscience of pro-life voters.”

One young voter agreed that the pro-abortion platform and rhetoric from Democratic circles was toxic to many Democrats and Republicans.

“The abortion plank of the platform was a figurative middle finger, not only to the 21 million plus pro-life Democrats, but also to those who vote Republican purely because of abortion and the tens of millions of other Democrats who favor some restrictions on abortion,” Robert Christian, editor of Millennial journal, told CNA/EWTN News.

“In a tight election, a lot of things would have pushed Hillary over the top, but we can be certain that abortion absolutism was one that cost her the election,” he added.

Christian said that he heard “from dozens upon dozens of fellow pro-life Democrats and progressives” and “young Catholics who sincerely believe in Catholic moral and social teaching” who could not vote for Hillary due to her pro-abortion policies and rhetoric.

Others complained that the Clinton campaign had overlooked certain religious voters. For example, Clinton lost White Catholics to Trump by 23 points, the largest margin of defeat for that voting bloc for a major presidential candidate since at least the 2000 election. Clinton lost Catholics overall by seven percent.

Michael Wear tweeted on Thursday that “The most basic understanding of religious demographics in America suggested Trump’s only path to victory was Rust Belt White Catholics.”

Wear also implied that the Democrats’ support for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment hurt their standing with Evangelical voters.

“I believe there was an absolute failure to reach out to people of faith by the Clinton campaign,” Christian said, noting that Clinton “rarely talked” about her faith.

“It is tough to overstate how foolish this decision was,” he added.

“Bourgeois liberalism, rooted in enlightened self-interest, social libertarianism, and technocratic pragmatism, is not the right answer to populist nationalism.”

“Democrats need to recommit to solidarity, human dignity, and genuine human equality and rebuild the party around a shared vision of social, economic, and global justice; this can only be done by working with religious humanists of all faith traditions to rebuild the party from the ground up.”  

Christopher Hale, executive director of the group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, tweeted that last year, “one Dem official told me that they were going to pursue a ‘post-Christian’ outreach strategy.”

“That worked well,” he tweeted sarcastically.

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London, England, Nov 11, 2016 / 04:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Those who are homeless, both those who live on the streets and those who move from place to place, need active charity from Christians, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster has said.

“A walk through these streets at night, or early morning will show what a problem this is,” the cardinal said, linking the response to homelessness to the Gospel imperative to show attention to those most in need.

He spoke Nov. 2 to the Caritas Social Action Network parliamentary reception.

The cardinal cited sustained increases in homelessness in the last six years, where at least 3,500 people in England and Wales sleep on the streets on the average night. Spending cutbacks on homelessness prevention and human services have strained charities.

In addition, there is the “hidden homelessness” of people who may have a job, but sleep on couches, spare rooms or bed and breakfasts because they have no home of their own. Some spend nights at different friends’ houses, or go to all-night parties to avoid sleeping on the street.

“We will be sitting next to such people on the tube and in our churches,” Cardinal Nichols said.

Preventing homelessness is a priority because it is difficult to stop its “vicious cycle.” For single men, family breakdown is a leading contributor to homelessness, and such a breakdown’s leading cause is financial difficulty.

“Then there is the scourge of drug and alcohol addiction,” the cardinal continued. “And of course, those without suitable accommodation upon release from prison are the most likely to find themselves on the streets, back in this vicious cycle.”

He praised the work of Catholic charities in aiding prisoners, providing shelters and improving family relationships. Diocese of Westminster volunteers work over 4 million hours each year.

“All over England and Wales, parishes and charities offer a range of support to people who are homeless: from extensive skills training, counselling, hostels and move-on accommodation, to simply offering a hot meal and clothing to those with nowhere else to turn,” the cardinal said.

“This is love in action, the corporal works of mercy, sharing the goods of one of the wealthiest societies on earth with those at its peripheries, the victims of economic and social systems which remain heartless unless enlivened by a sense of moral purpose and generosity.”

Such work is rooted in faith in God and in God’s grace to “raise our fallen nature to this steady and determined desire to create here a better society, one which reflects more closely God's compassion and mercy, which we all so clearly need!”

Cardinal Nichols praised government focus on the homeless, efforts to secure affordable housing, and local funding for new approaches to homelessness.

He noted the importance of prison reform, given the link between homelessness and imprisonment. The cardinal also announced the release of a document on prison reform, “The Right Road,” which draws on expertise from Catholic charities, chaplains, and other relevant experts.

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Vatican City, Nov 11, 2016 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After hearing testimonies from two homeless men Friday, Pope Francis spoke off-the-cuff about the dignity and solidarity that can be found in poverty, but which is often lacking in situations of wealth.

“We must always look for those poorer than I” and seek to increase solidarity by “giving the hand to the one suffering more than me,” the Pope said.

“The ability to have solidarity is one of the fruits that poverty gives us. When there is a lot of richness, one forgets this solidarity,” he said, thanking the homeless for being “the example of this hand a sign of solidarity for the world.”

Pope Francis spoke to a group of around 3,600 people in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall Nov. 11. Of those present, most were from precarious situations such as extreme poverty and homelessness who traveled to Rome as part of the European Festival of Joy and Mercy being held Nov. 11-13 in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy.

Organized by the French organization Fratello, the event brought in groups of pilgrims from 22 different countries, including a large number from France, Poland, and Rome itself. It was conceived as a way to help the homeless participate more fully in the Church and in the Jubilee of Mercy.

The weekend’s schedule includes a mix of both sightseeing and religious activities, including Morning Prayer, Mass, and walking through the Holy Doors of Rome’s four papal basilicas. It will conclude with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 13.

Responding to the testimony of one of the men at the audience, Pope Francis said that what struck him most was the man’s words about not being different, about having the same hopes, dreams, and passions as everyone else.
 
“Poverty is in the heart of the Gospel,” he said, noting that people followed Christ “because they dreamed, because he healed them, he served them and in the end he liberated them.”

“With your dreams you teach us to dream of the Gospel where you are, in the heart of the Gospel,” he said, explaining that while they might be poor, “you are not overcome … poor, yes; defeated, no.”

Because of the Christian belief in the dignity “of every man and woman,” we can be assured of seeing that life is beautiful, no matter how difficult it may be or how much suffering it may involve, he said.
 
The Pope, moved by the second man’s testimony, said what impressed him most about it was his “insistence on the word peace.”

“He spoke of interior peace,” Francis noted, saying it is a peace that destroyed by war, and “the greatest poverty is war. The poverty that destroys.”

“To listen to this from the lips of a man who suffered material poverty, physical poverty” is a call for everyone “to work for peace,” he said.

This is the peace “that God wants for each one of your children, and you,” he added. A peace which began with the Holy Family, who were also “marginalized.”

“Make peace, create peace, be the example of peace. We need peace in the world. We need peace in the Church,” he said, adding that “all churches need peace, all religions need to grow in peace because all religions are messengers.”

Francis finished his speech by asking everyone present to please forgive him if he has ever caused offense or not done something that he should have done to help.

He also asked forgiveness for all Christians who do not think the poor are at the center of the Gospel, or who have looked the other way instead of helping those in need.

Concluding with a prayer, the Pope asked God the Father to give them each strength and joy, asking that he teach them “to dream, to look forward.”

Francis prayed that God would “teach us to show solidarity because we are brothers,” and “that you teach us to defend our dignity. You are the Father of each one of us. Bless us, Father. Amen.”

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Rome, Italy, Nov 11, 2016 / 10:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For his last “Mercy Friday” during the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis spent the afternoon visiting seven young men who have left the priesthood, as a sign of closeness and affection after the difficult decision they made.

Francis left his residence at 3:30 p.m. and traveled to the Ponte di Nona neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Rome, where he met with seven families formed by young men who have left the priesthood in recent years.

According to a Nov. 11 communique from the Vatican, the Pope wanted “to offer a sign of closeness and affection to these young men who have made a choice not often shared by their brother priests and families.”

After several years dedicated to carrying out priestly ministry in the parish, eventually “loneliness, misunderstanding and fatigue due to the great effort of pastoral responsibility put their initial choice of the priesthood in crisis.”

Thrown into feelings of uncertainty and doubt that led them to question whether they made the wrong choice with their decision to enter the priesthood, the young men eventually chose to leave and start a family.

Of the seven young men present, four were from the Diocese of Rome; the others were from Sicily, Madrid, and Latin America.

According to the Vatican, when the Pope entered the apartment he was met with “great enthusiasm” both on the part of the children, who gathered around his legs to give him a hug, as well as the parents.

The young men felt the Pope's “closeness, and the affection of his presence.”

Francis listened attentively to each of their stories, paying particular attention to the development of the legal proceedings in each of the individual cases. When a man leaves the priesthood, he must undergo a process called “laicization,” in which his priestly faculties for administering the sacraments are removed.

The Pope conveyed to everyone his friendship and personal interest, the communique noted.

By visiting the young men and their families, Pope Francis “wanted to give a sign of mercy to those who live in a situation of spiritual and material hardship, highlighting the need that no one feel deprived of the love and solidarity of the pastors.”

Francis kicked off his monthly works of mercy in January by visiting a retirement home for the elderly, sick, and those in a vegetative state, and a month later traveled to a center for those recovering from drug addiction in Castel Gandolfo.

The Pope’s act of mercy in March took place on Holy Thursday, when he traveled to the CARA welcoming center for refugees at Castelnuovo di Porto, washing the feet of 12 of the guests.

Migrants were also the center of Francis’ act of mercy in April, when he visited refugees and migrants during a daytrip to the Greek island of Lesbos. In May, he traveled to the “Chicco” community for people with serious mental disabilities at Ciampino.

In June, Pope Francis visited two communities of priests – the “Monte Tabor” community, which consists of eight priests suffering from various forms of hardship, and the Diocese of Rome’s “Casa San Gaetano” community which houses 21 elderly priests, some of whom are sick.

The following month Francis’ work of mercy took place while he was in Krakow for World Youth Day when he offered silent prayer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and visited sick children at the pediatric hospital of Krakow.

In August he visited a special community for women freed from prostitution, while in September he melted hearts around the world by visiting the neonatal unity of Rome’s San Giovanni hospital before stopping by a hospice for the terminally ill.

Last month Francis spent his “Mercy Friday” with children, when he visited the “SOS Village” in Rome, a community made up of homes for children who are in positions of family or social hardship, as recommended by social services.

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