The Catholic Democrats of Massachusetts had a gala event to celebrate Mardi Gras and the Super Tuesday primaries on February 5, featuring a Dixieland band, Cajun cuisine, and election watching with two large-screen TVs that kept the discussion going in the ballroom until nearly 11pm. We talked in particular about a "Born Catholic" campaign, focused on ways we can reach out to all those people who were raised Catholic but have eschewed participation in recent years. Several members emphasized the need to listen to "the people in the pews" in addition to our drawing on the words of the bishops and the Vatican.

One Catholic priest spoke about Senator McCain's weakness among religiously-minded voters, and was laughing about the stage being set for a potential reversal of perceptions about which party was the 'moral values' party. We discussed the early Republican efforts to smear the Democratic candidates. The political T-shirt world is packed with hateful slogans directed at Senator Clinton, and the conservative Catholic blogosphere is alive with vituperation directed at Senator Obama. But there was a new energy directed at finding creative ways to renew our Catholic faith through greater participation in the great moral debates of the coming months.