(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump wrote “Happy Birthday Mary” along with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Sunday via his social media accounts.
The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas and the unborn.
“On the American continent, Marian devotion is frequently centered around the figure of our Blessed Mother as she appeared in December of 1531 to the native American Saint Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill in the area of modern-day Mexico City,” the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin explains.
Happy Birthday Mary! pic.twitter.com/d1nwHWTk2b
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2024
The social media post comes as President Trump hopes to win over Catholic voters ahead of the November elections. While Trump has faced scrutiny for opposing federal limits on abortions, saying he supports “reproductive rights,” and supporting mandatory insurance coverage of embryo-destroying in-vitro fertilization, he has been supportive of certain Christian concerns such as “family values,” earning the backing of the group Catholics for Trump.
Trump has also criticized Kamala Harris for her questioning of a Catholic judicial nominee, Brian Buescher, for his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
“As a senator, she viciously attacked highly-qualified judicial nominees simply because they were members of the Knights of Columbus, suggesting that their Catholic faith disqualified them from serving on the federal bench,” Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in July.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, Harris, along with Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, questioned Buescher over his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
She called the group’s opposition to homosexual “marriage” an “extreme” position and questioned Buescher for being part of the abortion-opposing Catholic group, as LifeSiteNews has previously reported.
“I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for the Democrats because they’re after the Catholics, almost as much as they’re after me,” Trump also said at the Turning Point event. “I would say I top you, I’m proud to admit, but they’re really after the Catholics.”
The former president also reached out to the group Catholics for Catholics to thank them for their support.
“Melania and I are grateful for your continued support and encouragement,” he wrote, as reported by LifeSiteNews. “Your love of God and Country is evident in everything you do. We admire your dedication to preserving America’s founding principles through your faith. You have realized God’s grace and righteousness by continuing to seek and share His wisdom.”
While Trump has raised concerns for his stances on social issues, well-respected theologians have said Catholics should vote for him as the lesser of two evils.
“It is a pity that the Republican Party has failed to produce any candidate better than Donald Trump, but Kamala Harris certainly represents the greatest evil to be avoided,” Professor Roberto de Mattei wrote. “Trump deserves to be criticized on many points, but it is not fair to gift victory to Harris by voting for her or abstaining from voting.”
Catholics can “tolerate a lesser evil,” by voting for Trump, Professor Mattei explained.
“In light of this principle, a Catholic can never vote for or approve an abortion law, even a minimal one, but he or she can vote for a candidate who is not an integral anti-abortionist,” he wrote. “That is why it is permissible for an American Catholic to vote for Donald Trump, whose positions on abortion, as Edward Feser notes, leave much to be desired.”
Fr. Chad Ripperger has made similar comments about voting for the lesser of two evils.