About Catholic Democrats

Catholic Democrats is a not-for-profit national organization representing a Catholic voice within the Democratic Party, and a voice for the Democratic Party in the Catholic community. To the Democratic Party, we bring the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching and its potential to help solve the broad range of problems confronting all Americans. To the Catholic community, we present the Democratic way of working for justice and peace in the political world. As a national organization and through local supporters, we work with the media and other organizations in advocating the ideals of Catholic Social Teaching and the Democratic Party.

We have been working to widen the debate about the role of faith in public life in support of President Joe Biden, and the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024. Catholic Democrats is bringing the animating spirit of Pope Francis to the public debate over how to honor the preferential option for the poor and to dispel the animosity between political parties that continues to bedevil common sense solutions to the broad range of issues–including unintended pregnancy, the global warming crisis, and efforts to expand the availability of health insurance to all Americans at a time when so many people have lost their health insurance.

During the 2008 and 2012 presidential election campaigns, Catholic Democrats sponsored vigorous media campaigns showing how voting for Barack Obama was consistent with Catholic Social Teaching. It launched CatholicsforObama.org and collected thousands of signatures on a petition supporting Barack Obama for president. Its state chapters worked with fellow Democrats to elect Obama and other Democratic candidates. In 2016 we worked aggressively to elect Hillary Clinton, a devoted Methodist, to the presidency. In 2020 we launched a national campaign in support of only the fourth Catholic candidate for president, and Joe Biden not surprisingly won the confident votes of a majority of Catholics.

We continue working with Democratic elected representatives and senators from across the country to represent Catholic views on a whole range of issues, particularly to advance the inspiration of Catholic Social Justice.