HEROES
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-TX, for leading on school choice
Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott, R-TX, secured a major legislative victory with the passage of a $1 billion school choice bill—set to become the largest program of its kind. Championed by Catholic leaders, parental rights activists, and CatholicVote, the bill allows families to use taxpayer funds for private and homeschooling options.
“For the first time in Texas history, our state has passed a universal school choice bill,” Abbott said. “This is an extraordinary victory for the thousands of parents who have advocated for more choices when it comes to the education of their children.”
He vowed to sign it swiftly into law early May.
“Governor Greg Abbott is showing strong leadership by calling for school choice for so many families in Texas,” said CatholicVote Vice President Josh Mercer.
“Governor Abbott, who is a Catholic, deserves a lot of credit for putting his political muscle and willpower behind this bill to ensure Texas families can choose what to do with their tax dollars,” added CatholicVote’s Tommy Valentine.
Rep. Riley Moore, R-WV, for advocating for persecuted Christians and standing up for the unborn
In April, Rep. Riley Moore, R-WV, publicly advocated for persecuted Christians and the sanctity of life, calling attention to brutal violence against Christians worldwide in his first speech on the House floor.
“Today, I rise to address a grave and urgent crisis: the rampant persecution of Christians in Africa and the Middle East,” he said in his first speech on the House floor. “Across these regions, our brothers and sisters in faith experience violence, displacement, and death for their belief in our Lord Jesus Christ. No person or community should ever face such brutal conditions for acknowledging the name of Jesus.”
He highlighted the destruction of over 2,000 Christian schools, the deaths of more than 50,000 Christians, and the displacement of millions in Nigeria alone.
Moore announced plans to introduce a resolution condemning the violence and urged his colleagues to speak out boldly for religious freedom.
“I urge this body to take up that resolution and pass it overwhelmingly,” he said.
Notre Dame students who are fighting to get porn off their campus
Students at the University of Notre Dame renewed efforts in April to block access to pornography on campus Wi-Fi, a campaign nearly a decade in the making.
A student group, Students for Child-Oriented Policy (SCOP), launched a petition urging University President Fr. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., to enforce an existing policy that prohibits obscene material on campus networks.
“The University has refused to take any steps to enforce this policy prohibiting porn,” the petition states. “We ask that the University rectify this so that their policy may actually affect what it dictates.”
“My hope and prayer is that there will be no need for further labor in this end, that President Dowd will push this change through the admin and porn will be removed from access on University internet,” SCOP co-president Theo Austin said.
ZEROES
Melinda Gates, for explicitly rejecting Church teaching on contraception
Melinda French Gates, a self-professed Catholic, publicly dismissed the Church’s teaching on contraception in an April interview, calling it a “man-made rule” and promoting birth control as a moral good.
Gates described her decision to break with Catholic doctrine as the result of a personal “crisis of faith.” Instead of deepening her understanding of the teaching, she turned to a “very liberal priest” and ultimately concluded, “I need to actually unlearn some of these things because I can’t square the circle.”
Despite professing belief in the dignity of life, Gates now advocates for contraception as a necessary “tool” for women.
“I started to realize, I believe in life. I believe in these children’s lives. The worthiness of them, the inherent beauty on the day they’re born,” she said. “But because of a man-made rule in the church that I am in — the Catholic church — we’re not allowing women to have access to contraceptives. And so talk about an incongruency, right? And I had to really then reckon with my faith.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, who announced in April that he is leaving office
Durbin, a self-identified Catholic, announced that he is leaving his office after 44 years in Congress.
Durbin has become a prominent example of the tragic arc of Catholic Democrats who shed moral convictions to ascend in their party.
Once a pro-life advocate in the early 1980s, Durbin abandoned those views shortly into his political career and has since consistently opposed legislation defending unborn children, religious liberty, and family values.
He voted against the 2021 Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would have required medical care for infants who survive attempted abortions. He rejected multiple amendments aimed at strengthening religious freedom and voted repeatedly against the Hyde Amendment to promote taxpayer-funded abortion. Durbin also supported the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” in 2022, which established gay marriage under federal law for the first time.
In 2018, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield publicly stated that Durbin should be denied Holy Communion for his “obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin,” citing his persistent support for abortion.
