CNA Newsroom, Feb 24, 2024 / 21:58 pm (CNA).
Faith-based convictions were highlighted by numerous Catholic and other Christian participants at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held just outside Washington, D.C. this past week.
An annual gathering of some of the most prominent conservatives in the United States and around the world, this year’s edition of CPAC took place from Feb. 21 through Feb. 24.
The conference’s agenda included opportunities for both Mass and Protestant services, a screening of the film “Cabrini” — about the life of St. Frances Cabrini, the first Catholic saint from the United States — as well as panels on a biblical understanding of gender and how to respond to efforts to push Christianity out of the public square.
“The question is what moral code are we going to live by,” former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, a Catholic, said during a panel titled “The Bible Uncancelled” on Saturday.
“The left has their own woke code that they change depending on what power dynamics are in place to help them control people,” Santorum added. “Whereas conservatives historically have said, no, … the moral code by which our country is going to live will be a biblically based one.”
Santorum warned that many in our society have “replaced the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [with] the God of Self,” noting that this breakdown has caused “all of this depravity and confusion and depression and anxiety” among young people in the country.
During an earlier panel titled “Genesis 1:27”, pushing back on gender ideology, Terry Schilling, a Catholic father of six who serves as president of the American Principles Project, warned against the growing threat to parental rights and religious freedom for parents who refuse to go along with or facilitate the “gender transition” of their minor children.
Parents, he warned, are being punished “for protecting their children from this [transgender] industry that will quite literally chew them up and spit them out with destroyed bodies.”
The faith was also directly referenced by speakers on panels that were not explicitly religious in nature.
Eduardo Verástegui, a Catholic actor who starred in the anti-child sex trafficking film “Sound of Freedom,” discussed the faith component in his activism.
“I’m asking God and Our Lady of Guadalupe to help me,” Verástegui told the crowd to resounding cheers.
This expression of faith comes at a time when church affiliation in the United States has fallen and hostility toward traditional Christian views on controversial subjects has been on the rise.
Santorum, in his panel discussion, noted that he has faced hostility for his faith-based views for a long time.
“It’s OK,” he said. “God did not say ‘pick up your box of candies and follow me.’ He said ‘pick up your cross daily and follow me’ and we all need to do that.”
Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from his post as Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas last year, did not speak at the conference’s main event, but did give remarks at the Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday night.
Other Catholics who spoke at the conference included Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance and political activist Jack Posobiec, along with Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the husband and wife duo who lead the American Conservative Union, the parent organization of CPAC.
Former president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump also spoke at CPAC. The former president focused his remarks on other domestic and foreign policy issues, including the economy and immigration.
Trump’s speech at CPAC took place on the same day he trounced his sole remaining rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in the South Carolina primary.
The Associated Press called the election for Trump shortly after the polls closed on Saturday evening, with the former president projected to defeat former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in her home state by more than 20 percentage points.
With over three quarters of the results in from the Palmetto State at 9:45 p.m. ET on Saturday evening, the AP projection was holding up, with Trump at 60% and Haley at 39%.
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Although intellectually moderate Catholics abhor Trumpism the many who actively support Cpac might be termed fundamentalists who see no alternative to Trump. The problem with that assumption is that there really isn’t. That whatever our brand of Catholic Christianity may be there’s no one out there who measures up to the absolute requirement to correct the damage Biden has done to our nation. DeSantis was the only viable option and failed to overcome Trump’s lock on Republican voters.
Whatever candidate dynamics we may hold, the need for restoration of justice in the nation overcomes our differences. Our Church is under increasing pressure to submit to atheistic secularism. Transgender a major instrument for subversion of the family, destruction of Christian principles. The supreme court is a hope, but the secular Left with finances, placement of allied justices, and moral ownership of the justice system can bypass the Court. If they succeed in November they can pack the court by congressional enactment. Despite this pontificate packing the cardinalate, Catholics must hear from our bishops that voting for homosexual, abortion committed candidates is a serious sin.
CPAC welcomes Neo Nazis and other right wing kooks, no thanks. So, if you don’t vote for Trump, then you are a sinner? Nonsense. I voted against Trump in 2016 and 2029 and will do so again, the man is a liar and a menace to Democracy.
Will. What I said is that it’s sinful to vote for a candidate who supports abortion, samesex behavior. Both Cpac and the Dems have their moral issues. However, we vote for a party’s platform. You are free to vote for whoever you wish, if Catholic with knowledge of what the Church teaches.
Yawn. Nice talking points. How about trying to think for yourself.
Can you define what a NeoNazi or right wing kook looks like? I may disagree but I’d like to know who fits that billing. Thank you.
The same year that corporate America flooded the U.S. Supreme Court with 400 amicus briefs in support of gay “marriage” (2015), at the World Meeting on Families held in Archbishop Chaput’s Philadelphia, Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, got it right:
“In today’s society, materialism is idolized, immorality is glamorized, truth is minimized, sin is normalized, divorce is rationalized, and abortion is legalized. In TV and movies, crime is legitimized, drug use is minimized, comedy is vulgarized, and sex is trivialized. In movies, the Bible is fictionalized, churches are satirized, God is marginalized, and Christians are demonized. The elderly are dehumanized, the sick are euthanized, the poor are victimized, the mentally ill are ostracized, immigrants are stigmatized, and children are tranquilized. In families around the world, our manners are uncivilized, speech is vulgarized, faith is secularized, and everything is commercialized.”
So Trump is our savior? Perhaps he can walk across the Potomac to entertain the religious right?
Perhaps Trump is too busy walking around in your head to make it to the Potomac?
I agree with you. During the 2016 election, I held my nose as I voted for Pres. Trump, but it turned out to be the right vote (Secretary of State Clinton and her extreme liberal policies simply was not an option!). I voted for Pres. Trump in 2020, and although I do not rise to the fanatical level of some of the Trump activists, I do suspect that something went awry with that election that made it possible for Joseph Biden to win–and his Presidency has been a disaster for our country and the world. Do I wish that both candidates were a little younger? Definitely. Do I wish that Pres. Trump would think before he speaks? Yes! But in the end, it’s the policies that matter, and I believe that Pres. Trump, even with his very rough presentation, will be a better leader for the U.S. at this time in history. And I hope that after this election cycle, there will be a movement to create an upper age limit for running for the Presidency!! I’m 66, by the way, so I know all about what it’s like to be getting older!
CPAC was long ago co-opted by the neo-cons. Occasionally it rolls out Christian speakers to appease a conservative base that foolishly continues to support it.
But their leaders will make sure that any mode of conservatism that is Christian, organic, traditionalist, decentralist, and peace-seeking will fail.
But they don’t mind using these paleo-cons to pad their numbers and give them an electoral victory, a victory they will use to reaffirm the status of America as Israel’s chief golem.
Trump, in his own words, believes that Israeli control of congress is “a good thing.” He also greenlights Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and supports the theft of Syrian and Venezuelan oil. No true patriot or Catholic can support him–or Biden.
Well this Catholic will be voting for Mr. Trump unless we have another GOP nominee by then. You never know. But at the moment we only seem to have two choices & Biden’s not the one I’m picking.
I’m very glad we support Israel, not just because they’re an ally but because I take scripture seriously as far as blessings & curses. From what I can see, Pres. Trump set in motion mid East peace negotiations that Israel & its neighbors supported. Iran on the other hand has attempted to sabotage peace through the Oct. 11th pogrom. I could be wrong but I doubt what we’ve seen in the Ukraine & Mid East would have happened under a Trump administration. Or at least not to the degree it’s occurred.
Donald Trump isn’t perfect but I don’t expect perfection from public servants. If they mostly do the job they’re sent to DC or the state capital to do, I’m satisfied.
Sorry, but there is no genocide in Gaza. That is an antisemitic lie. The Isreali government is exercising its sovereign prerogative to retaliate against acts of unspeakable terrorism. You reap what you sow.
I am a conservative catholic who loves ou Lord and will vote my conscience according to my principles dictated by my faith…I am also a registered independent…I will not b e voting for trump but definitely not voting for biden…my ballot will have a blank spot….
I forgot to add that if you can.t vote for trump either you sure better not vote for biden let alone the platform of the democratic party or your conscience has been seared and you need to get on your knees in prayer…I would rather gave no say that to have a corrupted say…God help us all…