CatholicVote.org is a conservative,

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

political

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

based in the United States. While the organization acknowledges the authority of the

Magisterium The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition". According to the 1992 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ...

, it is independent of the Catholic Church.CatholicVote About
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Structure

CatholicVote.org is divided into three organizations: *CatholicVote.org, a project of Fidelis, a Catholic organization. *CatholicVote.org Political Action Committee (CatholicVote PAC) is the group's connected

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

; its goal is to financially support political candidates who "will be faithful stewards of Catholic social teaching and the common good". In 2010, it made campaign contributions to six

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

and one Democrat. *CatholicVote.org Education Fund is a 501(c)3 tax-deductible program which comprises two units: the CatholicVote.org Education Fund and the CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund.

History

Domain name

The CatholicVote.org

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

was first used by the Catholic Alliance in early 2000. The Catholic Alliance was a grassroots group of Americans who agreed with the platform of the fundamental evangelical Protestant Christian Coalition but wished to widen the Coalition's scope to include Catholics. The Catholic Alliance, formed in 1995, held the website until mid-2002. The next owner of the domain name was Larry Cirignano, founder of Catholic Vote, later called Catholic Citizenship. He used the domain for six years until mid-2008. The Fidelis Center began operating the domain in October 2008, initially redirecting it to CatholicVote.com. The first published articles linked on the site included ones by co-founders Brian Burch and Joshua Mercer. The Fidelis Center subsequently sold the domain to Fidelis, a related, but independent 501(c)4 organization which operates the domain today.

Activism

Marriage and sexuality

On June 25, 2015, one day before same-sex marriage became legal everywhere in the United States, CatholicVote.org uploaded a video onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

called "Not Alone". The video features Catholic people who oppose same-sex marriage defending this belief, saying that people should not hate or dislike those who oppose same-sex marriage. It quickly received a minimum of a million views on YouTube, where it received a massive backlash due to the video's message. On YouTube, "Not Alone" both received many more dislikes than likes. Parodies of the video appeared very quickly. According to

Catholic News Agency The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is a news service owned by Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) that provides news related to the Catholic Church to a global Anglophone audience. It was founded in 2004 in Denver, Colorado, United States as the ...

, many websites condemned the video, calling the participants "bigots" or "anti-gay". CatholicVote.org president Brian Burch said "literally tens of thousands of people are emailing, saying: 'thank you for speaking up for me. I don't agree with the Supreme Court decision, but I don't hate anyone.'" In June 2022, CatholicVote.org urged parents to check out any LGBT-themed books from their local libraries so that no children would be able to see them.

Anti-abortion

"Imagine Spot 1" was the first release of the national media campaign "Life: Imagine the Potential" in 2009. In ten days it recorded over 700,000 hits. The commercial centers around the story of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

, showing an ultrasound image and saying that despite a hard childhood, the unborn child will grow up to be

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

.Facing Tough Washington Climate, Abortion Foes Move Debate Online
/ref> The advert was rejected by both

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

for airing during the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

NBC rejects pro-life ad using Obama
/ref> and

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

for airing during coverage of President Obama's first

State of the Union Address The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of most calendar years on the current condit ...

. A second commercial was also released in 2009, "Imagine Spot 2". This commercial featured

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

. It aired in selected markets during the ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

'' season 8 finale.Anti-Abortion Ad Scores with 'American Idol'
/ref>

Other activism

In 2010, CatholicVote.org organized a petition urging the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

to issue a

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

commemorative stamp despite opposition by the

Freedom From Religion Foundation The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheism, atheists, agnosticism, agnostics, and nontheism, nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and ch ...

and similar groups.

References

External links

Official website"Imagine Spot 1"
from the campaign "Life: Imagine the Potential" * {{DEFAULTSORT:Catholicvote.Org Organizations based in Madison, Wisconsin Catholicism and politics Organizations established in 2008 Anti-abortion organizations in the United States American Christian political organizations Catholic Church and abortion 2015 controversies in the United States 2015 in LGBTQ history 2015 in American politics Political controversies in the United States Religious controversies in the United States Opposition to same-sex marriage in the United States Conservative organizations in the United States