In a national conference call rolling out the Biden campaign's outreach to Catholics, speaker after speaker cited Vice President Biden's kindness and Catholic faith as reasons that Catholics would find in him a kindred spirit. A thousand people participated in the call, including hundreds of supporters from Catholic Democrats.

Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois spoke about Biden's character. "When the cameras are turned off, Joe Biden is still there paying attention to people's needs. He is one of the finest people I know." Citing President Lincoln's second inaugural address, Durbin said that Biden personified the phrase, "With malice toward none," and added, "If there's one candidate who can bind up the wounds of this nation, it's Joe Biden."

Sr. Simone Campbell, the long crusading leader of Network, an issue-based social justice lobby for American sisters, talked about how essential Catholic voters are to Democratic success: "Catholics are a critical percentage of the voting public. We Catholics have got to make sure that we get it right. Care for the unborn is critically important....but it starts with making sure mothers get the care they need." She talked about the history of Republican Catholic outreach, and how "Our faith got high jacked and politicized." She joked that she was "trying to atone for my sins now by speaking up," suggesting that she wished she had spent more of her life as an activist. She made reference to a "Pope Francis scorecard" comparing the positions of different candidates with regard to the Catholic Social Justice tradition.

Several young Catholic leaders spoke on the call, including Felice Gorordo -- who heads eMerge Americas, and who served as an advisor in both the Bush and Obama administrations. He had worked with Vice President Biden on the administration's cancer initiative. Mara Smith, a graduate of the Jesuit Volunteer Core, talked about her Scranton connection with the Bidens and the ways that the Biden Campaign embodies Jesuit ideals.

Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, also talked about JVC and the chance it gave him to meet people across the country. He said that Catholic outreach for the campaign would involve bringing in thousands of young people and fighting the "narrative that Catholics are old, and that young people are leaving the church."

Rep Thomas Suozzi, Democrat of New York, recalled the time conservative Harvard scholar Arthur Brooks spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast about our shared religious values and about the consensus we have about "loving your enemies." (He is the author of a book, "Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt.") Mr. Trump prefaced his subsequent remarks by saying, "Arthur, I do't know if I agree with you." He added, "Donald Trump's' America has no plan for the environment, for gun violence, for Covid-19."

All the speakers called on Catholics to bring their ideals to their friends and to the polls in November, and to turn back the destructive policies of the Trump years. The call ended in prayer, with a sense of determination to get out the word (and the Word).