Welcome to Tuesday. Catholics, for the most part, accept election results, but disagree whether Trump's refusal to concede is problematic. Columnist Rebecca Collins Jordan urges us to remember the uncovering of justice issues that we collectively witnessed this year. And the Vatican gives the green light for Catholics to take vaccines against the novel coronavirus.
When thousands rallied in the nation's capital Dec. 12 with a conviction that the Nov. 3 election had been stolen from President Donald Trump, among those headlining the event were a Texas Catholic bishop, a former papal nuncio to the U.S., several priests and a prominent Catholic pro-life leader.
Some conservative Catholics are joining evangelicals in casting doubt on the 2020 election results, but their suspicions are not widely shared with a number of leading Catholic scholars, public intellectuals and leaders.
During the week of Dec. 14, NCR reached out to more than 40 well-known Catholics across a range of political affiliations, backgrounds and professions. Among those who responded, all concurred that Biden is the president-elect, and on inauguration day on Jan. 20, will become the nation's 46th president.
More background:
- Throughout the presidential campaign, Biden was subject to criticism about his faith, with some church figures suggesting he is not a real Catholic. Yet some church observers are warning that such hostility could backfire.
- According to data from AP Votecast, more than half of white Catholics (57%) voted for Trump, compared to 67% of Latino Catholics who supported Biden. Catholic institutions must do some soul-searching about the persistence of racism in our church, political formation and cultural assumptions, says John Gehring of Faith in Public Life.
Young Voices column contributor Rebecca Collins Jordan writes, “In the large-scale tragedy, unrest and anxiety of this year, many, including myself, have likened it to an apocalypse moment. There are the jokes — the murder hornets, the monolith — and then the real tragedies.”
After most of us have been vaccinated and the COVID-19 deaths subside, the “crisis” of racial injustice and “the centuries-long legacy of enslavement, genocide, displacement and exclusion on this continent will remain,” says Collins Jordan.
“How do we birth a kinder, gentler, more just world this year? Advent offers a moment each year to be midwives to new visions of justice, visions revealed in the traumas of the waning year.”
More headlines
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Vatican correspondent Joshua J. McElwee reports that the Vatican's doctrinal office says it is "morally acceptable" for Catholics to take vaccines against the coronavirus and that the "grave danger" of spreading the coronavirus outweighs concerns about the vaccines’ cell lines connected to tissue obtained from two abortions decades ago.
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In his annual pre-Christmas meeting with church leaders,
Pope Francis urged the bishops and cardinals who lead the Vatican's bureaucracy not to be in conflict with one another, warning that the Catholic Church can become polarized if the prelates appear always at odds.
Final thoughts
Each year, Global Sisters Report puts together an e-book compilation of articles to celebrate the Advent season. This year’s e-book,
Moments of Grace, offers a collection of sisters’ reflections of finding the good amid a pandemic. You can receive regular spiritual reflections from sisters when you
sign up for emails from Global Sisters Report.
Until Wednesday,
Brittany Wilmes
Engagement Editor
