CV NEWS FEED // CatholicVote this week launched a $1,000,000 ad campaign confronting President Joe Biden over a rash of attacks on churches by pro-abortion groups protesting the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe vs. Wade.
The ads will air in Wisconsin and Arizona as well as a number of key districts in other states across the country. It will also run in Washington, D.C., so that political figures and the Justice Department will see it, CatholicVote Communications Director Joshua Mercer said Tuesday.
“In the 1960s, when churches were burned, President Kennedy stepped up, condemned it,” the video’s narration states. The voice of President John F. Kennedy can be heard next: “To burn churches I consider both cowardly as well as outrageous.”
The ad points out that Kennedy “pledged justice” in response to attacks on churches, saying: “As soon as we are able to find out who did it, we’ll arrest them.”
“Now churches are being burned again, because they protect unborn babies and women in need,” the ad points out. Next it shows a clip of “our second Catholic president” responding to pro-abortion groups’ attacks against Catholics. “Keep protesting, because keep making your point,” Biden said.
As CatholicVote has reported, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has found itself in numerous confrontations with President Biden since he took office, many of them over the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life, which the president rejects.
In addition, CatholicVote has tracked nearly 70 attacks on Catholic churches since early May, when radical abortion groups first threatened a “summer of rage” in response to reports that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court – including a number of Catholic justices – planned to rule Roe vs. Wade unconstitutional.
CatholicVote’s violence trackers, which include a tracker of pro-abortion attacks on crisis pregnancy centers (64 since May) and a tracker of attacks on Catholic churches, have been cited by lawmakers and journalists who are challenging the Biden administration to address the violence.
CatholicVote President Brian Burch has also repeatedly appealed to the Biden Justice Department to enforce the law against the ongoing attacks.
In June CatholicVote was joined by a number of other leading organizations in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding action.
“We, the undersigned representing millions of Americans, are writing to voice our concerns over the increased attacks against churches, pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations in the aftermath of the leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” the letter stated:
In December of last year, the Department of Justice was asked how it was investigating the repeated attacks on churches in the United States. The Attorney General was also asked to investigate those complaints and take appropriate action as is your duty. Since that request there has been public silence.
“The American people are disgusted by the inaction of our Justice Department,” said CatholicVote’s Joshua Mercer on Tuesday. “This ad sends an important message, calling on our lawmakers to demand action against this vicious campaign of targeted violence against Catholics.”
Readers can watch the CatholicVote ad by clicking here.