Major Pro-Catholic Leaders Oppose Trump

A group of Catholic leaders has signed a letter urging members of the faith "and all people of good will" to vote against Donald Trump in the Republican primaries.

In the letter, titled "An Appeal to Our Fellow Catholics," Princeton professor Robert P. George and George Weigel of the Ethics and Public Policy Center argue that Trump is "manifestly unfit to be president of the United States."

They cite his call for waterboarding terrorists and killing their families, and say that nothing in his record shows they can believe he will defend the rights of the unborn, religious freedom or limited government.

They admit Trump raises legitimate concerns about immigration, "political correctness," wage stagnation and other issues, but say another candidate would better serve those needs without resulting to what they term Trump's "vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and — we do not hesitate to use the word — demagoguery."

They do not endorse a candidate.

Other signatories include Mary Ellen Bork of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Kate O’Beirne, former Washington editor for National Review; and Robert Royal, of the Faith and Reason Institute.

Read the full text below.

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I am proud to be a co-signatory to the following letter authored by George Weigel and Professor Robert George that was released moments ago. The letter is an appeal to our fellow Catholics to reject the candidacy of Donald Trump and choose one of the qualified alternatives. The letter does not dismiss or deny many of the genuine concerns that have animated Trump supporters. Rather, it affirms that their frustrations are real and legitimate. Please share our message today with your family and friends, especially those living in key primary states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Florida. -Brian An Open Letter to Catholics, and all People of Good Will  In recent decades, the Republican party has been a vehicle — imperfect, like all human institutions, but serviceable — for promoting causes at the center of Catholic social concern in the United States: (1) providing legal protection for unborn children, the physically disabled and cognitively handicapped, the frail elderly, and other victims of what Saint John Paul II branded “the culture of death”; (2) defending religious freedom in the face of unprecedented assaults by officials at every level of government who have made themselves the enemies of conscience; (3) rebuilding our marriage culture, based on a sound understanding of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife; and (4) re-establishing constitutional and limited government, according to the core Catholic social-ethical principle of subsidiarity. There have been frustrations along the way, to be sure; no political party perfectly embodies Catholic social doctrine. But there have also been successes, and at the beginning of the current presidential electoral cycle, it seemed possible that further progress in defending and advancing these noble causes was possible through the instrument of the Republican party. That possibility is now in grave danger. And so are those causes. Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to be president of the United States. His campaign has already driven our politics down to new levels of vulgarity. His appeals to racial and ethnic fears and prejudice are offensive to any genuinely Catholic sensibility. He promised to order U.S. military personnel to torture terrorist suspects and to kill terrorists’ families — actions condemned by the Church and policies that would bring shame upon our country. And there is nothing in his campaign or his previous record that gives us grounds for confidence that he genuinely shares our commitments to the right to life, to religious freedom and the rights of conscience, to rebuilding the marriage culture, or to subsidiarity and the principle of limited constitutional government. We understand that many good people, including Catholics, have been attracted to the Trump campaign because the candidate speaks to issues of legitimate and genuine concern: wage stagnation, grossly incompetent governance, profligate governmental spending, the breakdown of immigration law, inept foreign policy, stifling “political correctness” — for starters. There are indeed many reasons to be concerned about the future of our country, and to be angry at political leaders and other elites. We urge our fellow Catholics and all our fellow citizens to consider, however, that there are candidates for the Republican nomination who are far more likely than Mr. Trump to address these concerns, and who do not exhibit his vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and — we do not hesitate to use the word — demagoguery. Mr. Trump’s record and his campaign show us no promise of greatness; they promise only the further degradation of our politics and our culture. We urge our fellow Catholics and all our fellow citizens to reject his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination by supporting a genuinely reformist candidate. Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Princeton University George Weigel Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies Ethics and Public Policy Center and Ryan T. Anderson William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow The Heritage Foundation Stephen M. Barr University of Delaware Francis J. Beckwith Professor of Philosophy and Church–State Studies Baylor University Mary Ellen Bork Ethics and Public Policy Center Board Gerard V. Bradley Professor of Law University of Notre Dame Don J. Briel John Henry Newman Chair of Liberal Arts University of Mary Brian Burch President CatholicVote.org James C. Capretta Senior Fellow Ethics and Public Policy Center Joseph Cella Founder National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D. The Catholic Association Ann Corkery Founder Catholic Voices USA Neil Corkery Sudan Relief Fund David Paul Deavel Interim Editor Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture Mary Eberstadt Senior Fellow Ethics and Public Policy Center Eduardo Echeverria Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology Sacred Heart Major Seminary Thomas F. Farr Director Religious Freedom Project Georgetown University Matthew J. Franck Director William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution Witherspoon Institute Anna Halpine Founder World Youth Alliance Mary Rice Hasson Director Catholic Women’s Forum Ethics and Public Policy Center Stephen J. Heaney Associate Professor of Philosophy University of St. Thomas John P. Hittinger Pope John Paul II Forum Center for Thomistic Studies University of St. Thomas Elizabeth M. Kelly Managing Editor Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture Rachel Lu Senior Contributor The Federalist Bruce D. Marshall Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University Robert T. Miller Professor of Law and F. Arnold Daum Fellow in Corporate Law University of Iowa College of Law Kate O’Beirne Former Washington Editor National Review C. C. Pecknold The Catholic University of America Robert Royal Faith and Reason Institute Deborah Savage Professor of Philosophy and Theology University of St. Thomas Timothy Samuel Shah Religious Freedom Project Georgetown University Nina Shea Director Center for Religious Freedom Hudson Institute Hilary Towers Developmental psychologist and author David R. Upham Associate Professor of Politics University of Dallas Edward Whelan Ethics and Public Policy Center Stephen P. White Fellow Ethics and Public Policy Center Titles and affiliations of each individual are provided for identification purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individual signatories and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization or entity.