Dr Patrick Whelan, president of the Catholic Democrats of Massachusetts and of the national organization, was one of four Catholic speakers at the first-ever Interfaith Prayer Service that opened the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Sunday, August 24. Invoking the early Catholic instruction to which a young Barack Obama was exposed in his early elementary school years at the St Francis of Assisi School in Jakarta, Dr Whelan wrote a responsive reflexion on the Prayer of St Francis to help open the gathering.
Two other Catholic speakers were also on the program. Sr Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" gave an electrifying talk about how the death penalty in America corrupts all Americans. Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado, also a Catholic, welcomed the crowd to Denver. Subsequently, Msgr Ray East, pastor of St Teresa Church in Washington DC and head of the DC Archdiocesan Office of Black Catholics, sang a passage from Isaiah to the delight of the hundreds of delegates and guests who attended.