REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Thomas More Society and Catholic Resistance to the 2020 Election

But some Catholics I spoke with saw that statement as disingenuous, and called out the Thomas More Society for what they saw as blatant partisanship.

“I’m intrigued because the mission of the TMS is to restore respect for law, life, family, and religious liberty. Challenging election results is directly related to none of those,” said Stephen P. Millies, the director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Millies told me he was “baffled” by the Thomas More Society’s rationale for getting involved in the elections issue.

“Unless you construe the mission of the TMS so broadly that anything that defeats an administration who sees law, life, family, and religious liberty in their way must be challenged to achieve those ends,” Millies said. “If so, then this is a very honest admission that it always was partisanship, anyway.

“The most important thing about these litigious efforts to discredit the election outcome is what they have said about the limits and the extent of partisanship in Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Millies added. We’ve seen encouraging limits in state Republican officials in Georgia and Arizona who have fulfilled the mandates of their offices despite pressure from the President. We’ve also seen the discouraging extent others–like, seemingly, the Thomas More Society–will go to in order to keep their White House influence at (literally) any cost.”

Stephen Schneck, a retired Catholic University of America professor who supported Biden’s campaign, told me he was “baffled” by the Thomas More Society’s “entirely partisan approach” to election-related litigation.

“I think it’s kind of a scandal that a branded Catholic organization, whose real focus is supposed to be litigation to protect the unborn and religious liberty, is essentially acting as a proxy for the Trump campaign. It’s really hard to understand,” Schneck said.

Also critical was Robert Christian, the editor of Millennial, an online publication for young Catholics that skews progressive in its political commentary. Christian told me that “any group that wants to contribute to the pro-life cause should be working to strengthen American democracy, rather than undermining and attacking vital democratic norms and institutions.”

Said Christian, “Freedom, democracy, and the rule of law are necessary components of a true culture of life, where conflict is resolved peacefully rather than through force and other authoritarian tactics. This group’s shameless, brazen attempt to steal an election and overturn the will of the voters is unethical and badly damaging to the pro-life cause. The pro-life movement needs to operate with honesty and integrity if we want to win people over to our cause. Pushing conspiracy theories and undermining democracy will have the opposite effect.”

I remembered that last comment in viewing Catholic participation this past weekend in something called “The Jericho March,” which was really nothing more than a political rally where participants espoused debunked conspiracy theories and called on God to somehow overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 presidential election and keep Trump in the Oval Office.

Among those high-profile Catholics listed as speaking or attending the event were: Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas; Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, our former nuncio who has taken to conspiratorial screeds from an undisclosed location in hiding; YouTube personality Taylor Marshall; pro-life advocate and culture warrior Abby Johnson; and Father Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life.

A video circulated on Twitter showed a priest leading a group praying the rosary while participants holding “Christian” flags marched behind them. What this all means for the longterm health of our democratic republic remains to be seen, but there is reason to be worried.