Denver Newsroom, Oct 30, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).-
For 26 years, Kimberly Hahn homeschooled her six children. But once her youngest reached high school, he said he did not want to be home without peers and lonely.
And so, just two weeks before the homeschool year would have started, Kimberly and her husband Scott found themselves driving their last child to a Catholic boarding school in Pennsylvania.
“When we dropped him off and got home, I said to my husband: ‘Two weeks earlier I thought I was schooling for the year…what do I do now?’”
“And all he said was, ‘Maybe it’s time for politics?’”
The Catholic faith of newly-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has been under intense scrutiny in the weeks leading up to her nomination, and even in years prior. In 2017, during her nomination hearing for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett was told by Senator Dianne Feinstein that “the dogma lives loudly” within her, “and that’s of concern.”
But devout Catholic politicians exist at all levels of government, not just at the Supreme Court or in Congress.
CNA spoke with four Catholic politicians at the state or local level about why they chose to run, and how their faith has influenced their political careers.
Politics was a long-time interest of Hahn’s, one that was first piqued when she was 12 and served as an honorary page to her grandmother, who was a state representative in the state of Washington.
“I saw my grandmother in action. It was very inspiring,” she said. Hahn, a Catholic, is now serving her fifth year and second term as Councilwoman at Large for the city of Steubenville, Ohio, which her family has called home for 30 years. Hahn is the only council member elected by the city, while the other six members are elected by their ward.
“When it comes to Steubenville, I feel like there’s only so many times you can say, ‘Well, why doesn’t somebody do something about X, Y, or Z?’ Then I realized if I ran for council, I could do something about that.”
Steubenville is a small, rustbelt city with a population of roughly 18,000, located 33 miles south of Pittsburgh on the banks of the Ohio River. The city is home to Franciscan University of Steubenville, which tends to draw many faithful Catholic students. Hahn said she is hoping her work on the city council will convince more faithful Catholic families to stay in Steubenville.
“I really want to help build up our community in very practical ways, so that more faith filled people want to move there and build up the community of faith,” she said.
And to do that, she added, “you need good housing, you need good roads, you need reasonable bills for water and sewer. You need a good police force. You need an active firefighting force, an ambulance service, good schools so that everybody has the option. Public, Catholic, Christian, homeschooling – all of those are great options in Steubenville.”
The hours a Steubenville city council member puts in during any given week vary incredibly – Hahn said she works anywhere between 10-50 hours per week, depending on what is happening in the city. She gets $100 a week as a stipend; it is not otherwise a paid position.
The flexibility suits Hahn, who is also an author, speaker, podcaster, mother to six and grandmother to 19.
As she spoke with CNA, she was on her way to help care for one of her newborn grandchildren. In a way, she said, she sees her role as a councilwoman as an extension of her motherhood.
“It’s all about public service. It is not about fame and it’s not about money,” she said.
“Really, for me, it’s an extension of my motherhood, not in the sense of coddling, not in the sense of taking people’s responsibility on myself, but in how I communicate the love of Christ in a practical way by helping people with their water bills and their sewer bills and having their streets be cleaner and that kind of thing.”
During her campaign, she knocked on 7,000 doors. She talked to everyone she could across the aisle. “And some people said ‘Well, I’m a lifelong Democrat.’ And I said, ‘That’s okay, because if I get elected, I’m still going to represent you. What are your concerns?’”
One of the primary functions of a city council is to manage the city’s finances.
“Two years ago, for the first time in probably more than 20 years, we balanced the budget in the black,” Hahn said. They balanced in the black last year as well, and seem to be on track to do so this year, “even with all the COVID stress.”
“I love it,” she said of serving on the city council. “I find all of it fascinating. I really do. Reading about cathodic systems, about how often you should paint the inside of your water towers and what it takes to clean a digester or a plant – I actually find all of it fascinating.”
Kevin Duffy is a Catholic husband, father and freelance writer running for reelection for a second four-year term as a trustee of the Williamstown Township in Williamstown, Michigan.
“We’re the legislative arm of the townships. We don’t have day-to-day responsibilities, in terms of operation of township government, but we serve as a voice for constituents and a representative of the constituents. It’s like a smaller version of state legislature or Congress,” he told CNA.
The duties of a township trustee are not too time-consuming, he said. “It’s one or two meetings a month, depending on what time of year it is,” he said. Sometimes it’s more, like during budget review. He receives a yearly stipend of about $5,000 for the position.
Before he ran for a township position, Duffy served in an appointed position on his county Parks and Recreation commission.
After an upbringing that “wasn’t great,” Duffy said he wanted to live a life of fulfillment and purpose for himself and for his family. His job pays the bills, he said, but he finds meaning and purpose in life outside of work – in spending time with his wife and children, in service to the Church, and in serving his community.
“It was…a desire to have an impact in my community. Your local government structure, like your school board or your city council, or in my case, our township board, has more of an impact on what happens in your everyday life than anything that happens beyond that,” he said.
A stark example of that in American life right now has been how each state has responded differently to the coronavirus pandemic, he noted.
“The decisions of our state government have a huge impact, at least here in Michigan, on how our everyday life is during this pandemic.”
Duffy said he is proud that as a township trustee, he helped bring back bus services to Northeast Ingham County.
“(O)ur local public transportation authority decided to cut service to those of us here (in) Northeast Ingham County,” he said.
“But there were people that did depend on it. There were folks that needed that to get downtown for jobs, or they needed that to get to their doctor’s appointments or whatever it may be,” he said.
“So, I wrote an op-ed and submitted to the Lansing State Journal and it got published.”
Within four or five months, transportation authorities had restored at least some of the bus services to the area.
“That was something I was proud of,” he said. “That was the one spot where I was able to help out a little bit.”
When it comes to Catholics being involved in civic life, Duffy said he would point them to Pope St. John Paul II’s oft-repeated phrase, “Be not afraid.”
“It can be a little scary, but we have a responsibility, and we as Catholics understand the idea of the common good, the need to serve everybody,” he said.
“We’re not called to be Republicans. We’re not called to be Democrats. We’re not called to be Libertarian. We’re called to be Christian, and we’re called to be servants of our fellow man, and to perpetuate the common good. I think that’s something that we need to get back to.”
Carlos Santamaria is a lifelong Catholic who is running for a state senate position for California’s 3rd district.
Santamaria had previously served as the vice chair for the Napa County Republican Party, but he said he felt called to do more after attending a leadership conference in Jerusalem last November.
“I spent over a week in the Holy City. And if that isn’t life changing, I don’t know what is,” he told CNA.
He decided to run for state senate, “especially when I came back and I found there were seven Democrats (in the state legislature) that were running unopposed.”
“I just wanted to represent my district. It was a calling. And I see so many anti-religious, anti-Catholic, anti-life (politicians),” he said, that he wanted to help bring about change.
One particular area of focus for Santamaria’s campaign is helping the homeless population. He plans “to use workforce development and career technical education to provide lifelong jobs and permanent housing” to people experiencing homelessness, and “to reintroduce these individuals into society before they go off the cliff into extreme, episodic homelessness, or chronic homelessness,” he said.
He also wants to bolster small businesses, particularly those that are experiencing significant losses due to coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.
“The current unnecessary Lock Down of our economy and small businesses has devastated many businesses and the lives of families in California,” Santamaria’s website says. “We need leadership that understands and supports small business rather than destroy them.”
Santamaria said he is strongly pro-life and pro-family, and that he plans on standing up for those issues, should he be elected.
“God put me here for a reason. If I can’t express my feelings about life and about the sanctity and the value of life, then I’m not using my talents and this platform the way I should,” he said.
Senator Susan Wagle has been president of the Kansas State Senate for the past eight years, and she was the first woman to hold the post. She has served in positions in both the state house and senate for the past 30 years.
A Catholic convert, Wagle joined the Catholic Church the same year she was first elected to the Kansas House – in 1991.
Wagle said she had been a teacher and a business owner who had not considered running for political office, but both her business colleagues and her husband kept telling her that she would make a great legislator.
There were important issues at the time, Wagle said, including rapidly increasing property taxes. She said she actually tried to convince other people she knew to run for office at the time, but nobody wanted to sacrifice the time.
The thing that kept Wagle up at night was not property taxes, but the late-term abortion clinic in her hometown of Wichita.
“When I’d lay my head down on that pillow at night, I could actually hear those babies cry from the Tiller clinic down the street,” she said.
“I could just hear the slaughter down the street in my mind, and I thought, ‘that has to stop.’”
George Tiller was the abortion doctor at the clinic, and it was one of the only clinics in the world at the time that was performing third trimester, post-viability abortions.
Wagle said she had unwittingly walked into the clinic years prior, earlier in her marriage when she thought she was pregnant. The clinic advertised free pregnancy tests, and these were the days before over-the-counter tests.
As she waited for her test results, she was counseled to get an abortion. Wagle said she noticed a world map on the wall that had yellow pins all over it. When she asked what the pins were for, she was told that they represented the women from all over the world that the clinic had come to the clinic.
“And as years later, I learned that the reason people were traveling here from around the world was because other countries didn’t allow third trimester abortion,” Wagle said.
Wagle was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1991. By 1997, Wagle had helped to pass the Women’s Right to Know Act, which was the first law regulating abortion in the state.
“I carried it. We had a pro-choice house and pro-choice Senate. So I was able to advocate that we need informed consent for a late term abortion, that women should be informed about fetal development, about the procedure. And so I passed the first pro-life bill in the state of Kansas,” she said.
“And since then, we’ve passed more regulations. But when I went into the legislature, the money from the abortion industry financed most of the legislators. So it was a challenge.”
Looking back on her years of service, Wagle said she believes it was a calling from God, and that she has learned much about how to get along with many different people of all backgrounds.
“I’ve learned our faith is based on our relationship with God, and then we bring it to those who surround us,” she said.
“I’ve learned how to work with people who are very different than me, who have different experiences, different perspectives. And you learn how to be very relational and very kind and very optimistic about the founding principles that we’re based on and combined with the faith that we are a people created by God,” she said.
“And there’s no better founding documents in all the world that have allowed the progress and the development of the human spirit than America,” she added.
Wagle, like Justice Barrett, is the mother of seven children – four of her own, and three of her husbands from a previous marriage. She said she sees Barrett as a woman of faith who is living up to her full potential.
“Amy is reaching her full potential. She’s a mom, she’s adopted children, she’s pursued a career, and she has made it very clear that she will interpret the law and not write new laws. And she’s the perfect advocate and voice for this moment in history,” she said, “…and we’ve seen where her faith is not a conflict, but that her faith makes her a very strong, successful woman.”
Wagle said she continuously relied on her own faith throughout her time in office. She said while she set aside specific times for prayer, she would also pray silently during meetings or legislative sessions. Prayers like “Lord, I need you right now” or “Please speak through me” or “Please help me to articulate this thought.”
“It was a constant reaching out for assistance,” she said.
Wagle encouraged Catholics who feel called to serve in public office to pursue that path, if they see changes that need to be made and if the right doors are being opened.
“Don’t hide from public office. We need people who have our values in public office as our advocates. So I would say pursue the path and listen to that still, small voice that says, ‘Go fix those problems.’”
[…]
Sure. It’s all about acceptance, compassion, inclusion and freedom from bullying. Give me a break.
Except when the “acceptance” and “inclusion” would include Catholics who want to actually be Catholic.
Mitre Dame celebrating Pride month is disgusting. They no longer a Catholic Institution.
NOTRE DAMN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS admonish critics to consult the bible regarding homosexual activity. How about this:
Noah and Ham (Genesis 9:20–27), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1–11), Levitical laws condemning same-sex relationships (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), two words in two Second Testament vice lists (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10), and Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 1:26–27).
As for research findings, apparently not mentioned in the Notre Damn website puff piece, how about this “trinity” of findings:
FIRST, one recent study in the mix is a review of two hundred peer-reviewed studies on sexual orientation and gender identity. The conclusion: scientific evidence does NOT support the popular notion that “gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex” (Mayer/McHugh, The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society, Ethics and Public Policy Center, No. 50, Fall 2016).
SECOND, more recent research into the genome itself points to some genetic markers—it does NOT find a gay gene—AND concludes that these markers do NOT account for same-sex behavior. https://news.yahoo.com/no-gay-gene-study-finds-180220669.html
From the news release:
Five of the genetic markers were “significantly” associated with same-sex behavior, the researchers said, but even these are FAR FROM being predictive of a person’s sexual preferences. “We scanned the entire human genome and found a handful – five to be precise – of locations that are clearly associated with whether a person reports in engaging in same-sex sexual behavior,” said Andrea Ganna, a biologist at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Finland who co-led the research. He said these have “a very small effect” and, combined, explain “considerably LESS THAN 1% of the variance in the self-reported same-sex sexual behavior.”
This means that non-genetic factors – such as environment, upbringing, personality, nurture – are far more significant in influencing a person’s choice [!] of sexual partner, just as with most other personality, behavioral and physical human traits, the researchers said.
THIRD, even a relatively innocuous modern addiction—overindulgence in digital and virtual reality games—is found to produce corresponding neuro-chemical and possibly cellular changes in the brain itself, e.g., dopamine which is responsible for reward-driven behavior. A recent study completed at University College London (using MRI technology) strongly implies that a habit of lying [e.g., university website puff pieces?] tends to suppress the part of the brain (the amygdala) that responds emotionally to a “slippery slope” pattern of small and then larger lies (Garrett/Ariely/ Laxxaro, Nature Neuroscience Journal, October 24, 2016; reported by Erica Goode, New York Times, October 25, 2016).
Good observations, and if they were honest and open minded about considering how ideology reinforces habituated behavior, they would consider the significance of the fact that 98 percent of homosexuals are pro-abortion. And if they do not, they would do some soul-searching as to the ideological make-up of their beliefs that coaused them to not consider the meaning of this fact.
And one more comment about genetics. The self-evident fact that homsexuals have fewer children than non-homosexuals would provide evidence that genetic factors, if they ever existed, would diminish over time form the gene pool, not increase.
Edward, and yet this hasn’t happened. The mystery of sexual orientation continues. It must be more complex than we think.
Excellent, thorough response
“…God only created this binary.”
Desperation time in trying to find Bibical support for mental illness and lifeless sodomy.
The Holy Spirit has warned us about those who “tamper with God’s word” (2 Cor 4,2) or do “abide in the teaching of Christ” (2 John 9).
Question for Notre Dame and their alumni: What is more important, fidelity to the faith or the football team?
I am sickened and saddened to see the continual moral and theological decline of Catholic institutions, including the Church and its leadership. Wolves have entered into the sheepfold and are devouring the flock. Where are the shepherds of Christ who will defend and care for the flock? False shepherds have infiltrated the Church, leading the flock astray, abusing the flock, stealing from the flock. Demons appearing as angels of light have seduced the minds of shepherds and sheep, leading them away from the Truth that sets men free, the Truth that is the only way to the Father. They twist God’s Word to conform to the passions of the flesh and the god of this age, instead of choosing to be transformed by the pure Word of God into the image and likeness of God. With words and teaching disguised as Truth, they slowly poison the hearts and minds of the flock. Those who are poisoned remain within the flock, even leading it, destroying the Church from within, for a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:18-32)
“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who case divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” (Jude 17-18)
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.'” (Jesus Christ to the Church in Sardis, Revelation 3:1-6).
“Where are the shepherds of Christ who will defend and care for the flock?” We have one here in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.
Equality for the LGBTQ group? Why doesn’t the LGBTQ group start with an in-depth study of those who are like themselves? With such tendencies who feel trapped and don’t want that condition. And then those who love their situation which is condemned by the Creator. I remember a guy who I had often seen at Mass who committed suicide because he had these tendencies and didn’t want them. I know of a young boy at this time who has rejected God and says he plans to commit suicide because he doesn’t want to be gay. I know of two females who find themselves in this situation and have become totally reclusive being filled with anger and hate. I have heard horror stories of such people who think suicide is the only way out. With equality, the LGBTQ group should make a sturdy study on this and release it to the public, what do they have to fear, they claim it’s a great life. Maybe Notre Dame University can launch this study. The bottom line, when it comes to LGBTQ there are 2 types of people. Those who don’t want these attractions and feelings and then there are those who have them and in their vileness and wickedness are proud of it. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on these poor souls.
Andrew Angelo, you are right, and the suicide rate is much higher among these people. It must be incredibly disheartening and confusing to know inside that you are conflicted with an inner struggle, but then all around you in the world people are telling you it’s a choice, or that it’s okay, and there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s a mental illness, and until the medical field classifies it as such (like they used to), there will be more unresolved depression and suicides. These people aren’t getting the necessary tools and help to deal with their disorder. Imagine knowing you have a sore toothache, but your dentist keeps telling you it doesn’t hurt, or the hurt is good, and that you chose it! Talk about gaslighting…
Andrew, thanks for witnessing the struggle of gay Christians. You do so much for gay people by sharing your persinal experiences. I can say that I thought I was royally f*ucked when I found that I was gay. I thought my life was over.
Notre Dame denigrated itself the day they awarded an honorary degree to pro-abortion Barack Obama. They continue to denigrate themselves by admitting that the Bible in the Book of Genesis claims that “God began by creating human beings of male and female sex,” then adding that, “there is nothing that indicates in Scripture that God only created this binary.” Wrong. The creation account declares binary (male and female) as the natural law without explaining it further, because natural law is what works. If Notre Dame desires to shame its name by advocating for the most deadly sin of Pride, they should include the explanation of Adam and Eve desiring to be God, which is the lack of humility in recognizing who they were made to be and wanting to be more. The alphabet people are imitating Adam and Eve in their desire to take God’s place by declaring His creation inadequate or incomplete. They attempt to make themselves above God by obliterating His natural law to “be fruitful and multiply.” That, people, defines binary.
To the point—and Notre Dame wears the crown of all the Catholic universities that
support and promote what is called “sexual reassignment” together with all the trimmings. Other institutions of higher learning(indoctrination) are more covert.
Great comment!
Why are Catholic parents still sending their kids here?
Sodom and Gomorrah Now. A take on Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Our once livable culture is becoming fast dangerous. Obscenity celebrated in virtually all commercials, social gatherings. Churchgoing reduced to live streaming. If at all. Once proudly Catholic, Notre Dame home of beloved convert Norwegian born Knute Rockne perhaps best football coach ever. Now a feminized charade of what once was. Transformation has been so rapid and plenary most seem dazed [those still with normal sensitivities] angry or join the self indulgent orgy many angry as well. Anger is commonplace a form of discontent with it all not finding Nirvana in cancel culture. In olden times back when prophets prophesied about God angels appeared here and there on our Earth. During Sodom and Gomorrah Now, an alert must be given. Angels enter at your own risk.
Absolutely sickening to see the way ND has capitulated to the zeitgeist and abdicated its role as America’s foremost Catholic university (though the problem goes back even further to the Land O’ Lakes Statement) in the last 20 years.
When I was a student in the mid ’90s, ND refused to grant the “Gays and Lesbians of ND/SMC” group (The T and Q and + blah blah, hadn’t been added yet!) any official status (which would have allowed them to receive extracurricular activity funds, usage of certain buildings, etc.) Now the University itself openly celebrates homosexuality and “trans,” and endorses renaming a month after one of the 7 deadly sins.
Will never give another dime to ND.
P.S. Will people please stop saying “Notre Dame University”? It’s University of Notre Dame. Thanks.
Oh people. Fr. Jenkins didn’t write the article a marketing director named Cidni Sanders wrote the story. She is neither a theologian, professor, nor adminstrator, I don’t think she is even Catholic. But she is the nicest person ever and she has a job to do and it is to write about diversity and inclusivity. This year she also authored articles about North Korean immigrants, refugees from Africa…and God Forbid…Muslims at UND. If you are really concerned go and visit and talk to one of the many Holy Cross priests on the University of Notre Dame campus or do like Raymond Arroyo and I did and send your kid there. My son was the only one of his High School classmates with a big smile on his face at the end of his academic year because they were they only university to trust in God and open up, (Even though my wife and I were very concerned to hear he charged the field after the Clemson game). I don’t like it either but a top notch university should be about dialogue and dialectic about everything in the seen and unseen world.
Franciscan University opened up fully last fall. And no vaccinations required. ND disclaims liability for its decision because the student can choose to reject vaccination and go somewhere else (and give up their coveted spot at ND)
My son got a full scholarship to UND. We as a family are struggling to make ends meet in order to send our 2 other sons to Catholic High School, if the Lord has blessed us with not having to pay for a college education for my oldest son I think that is a good thing – even if it has its problems.
Oh, it was written by some non-Catholic PR flack – well, that’s ok then! Sorry, the University is responsible for what it’s PR people write in its name.
And the only outrage you can muster about anything is the idea that your son may have gone onto the field during the Clemson game!? Oh my God, what a crime! Hope you never saw the 1993 FSU game! We’d have given you a heart attack – even tore down the goalposts!
Cidni Sanders…”the nicest person ever.” But, it all happens on Jenkins’ watch.
The name of the game is stealth and compartmentalization. In the Navy the slogan is that “you can delegate responsibility, but you can’t delegate accountability.” The Administration has failed, and is accountable.
There are many of us whose children are attending UND who are praying a new dawn for UND with the resignation of VP of Student Affairs Ms. Harding and installation of Fr. Gerard Olinger. I trust in the Holy Spirit.
Notre Dame is apostate, and serves as the collegial flagship of the 50-year-long project that is the now the “McCarrick Establishment.”
Notre Dame owes its status as “apostate-power-house” to its progenitor frauds McCarrick and Hesburg, co-creators and co-signers of the 1967 “Land-of-Lakes Statement,” by which the co-signing apostates and apostate-sex-abusers, including McCarrck and Hesburg, declared their universities’ “freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind….”
Read it here:
http://sycamoretrust.org/wp-content/uploads/Land-OLakes-Statement.pdf
And notice on the last 2 pages the signatory apostate frauds, including the “Right Rev. Theodore E. McCarrick, President, Catholic University of Puerto Rico.”
So there you have it, the entire superstructure of the contemporay US Church establishment is founded by the sociopath sex abusing fraud McCarrick, and his fellow fruad apostates.
The Good Shepherd made this declaration: “I spew them out of my mouth.”
True that, Chris!
It is an error to cite the Bible. The opposition does not accept it as a viable source, indeed homosexual activists want to declare it hate literature. The argument must be based on nature where the primary law is perpetuation of the species. Homosexuality does not fit into nature’s plan, and must be regarded as an aberration. This separates the person from the act — a process disapproved by the activists.
So when are devout Catholic families going to stop fawning over the school? The appeal of reputation, beautiful campus, high competitiveness, and football is too great. Raymond Arroyo sent his child(ren) there. My own youngest daughter thinks it’s THE school to attend.
Franciscan University, as well as others, needs the support of Catholic families. My oldest son attends Franciscan and said in his freshman year, “everyone should come here.”