Black Catholics laud Harris pick; others scrutinize past record
By: Mark Pattison Date: August 12, 2020
"WASHINGTON (CNS) — Joe Biden’s choice of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, as his vice presidential running mate elicited broad smiles from key black Catholics. Others, though, started criticizing her record nearly as soon as the pick was publicized Aug. 11.
“This is headline news. It’s the first of its kind,” said Dominican Father Aniedi Okure, executive director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, about the choice of Harris, the first Black vice presidential nominee of a major political party.
A native of Nigeria, Father Okure has lived in the United States since the late 1980s and called himself “a voting card-carrying citizen” of the United States.
“Given what the country has been going through lately, with the fallout from (the killing of) George Floyd,” Father Okure told Catholic News Service, “it is something that’s pointing in the right direction, if I may use the word. The United States is an inclusive community. All of this is happening, and things are getting better in that sense. So I think really it’s something to look forward to,” he added, noting, “They haven’t won yet.”
“I was so elated. We, the community, need good news, and this was just wonderful,” said Donna Toliver Grimes, associate director of African American affairs in the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church. “She wasn’t my top candidate in the primaries, and she wasn’t my top pick for vice president,” she added, but after considering the announcement, “she’s really deserving and brings a lot to the table.”
Black Catholics should look at Biden and Harris for “policy that is favorable to people on the margins. If I say ‘for African Americans,’ it benefits other people on the margins as well,” Grimes said. “That’s a concern to deal with this voting-rights, voter-suppression issue. “I would expect he (Biden) would put good people in his Cabinet, who would not damage the agencies, or ignore the mission,” Grimes said.
“I’m really hoping that he can do something about health care reform. It’s not A vs. B, single payer vs. whatever. Whatever the Affordable Care Act was intended to do, let’s correct that, let’s improve that, and let’s get people the health care that they need. See what happens with that coverage and how it can be improved, not what it’s like to lose your health care, or to have the restrictions people have now.”
Critics of Harris pointed to her support for legalized abortion."
more here:
https://www.catholicnews.com/black-catholics-laud-harris-pick-others-scrutinize-past-record/