We, the undersigned Catholic scholars, express our gratitude to, and our solidarity with, the Church of God in Christ and Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake. We deeply admire your profound commitment and bold witness to the sanctity of human life in all stages and conditions and to the protection of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable from womb to tomb. We applaud your work to uphold marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife and to rebuild the marriage-based family as the fundamental unit of society and the original and best department of health, education, and welfare. We acknowledge with gratitude your devotion to the cause of religious freedom at home as well as abroad and your labors to protect the conscience rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor and people of all faiths and shades of belief.
We pledge to stand with you, our Christian brothers and sisters of the historic Black church, and to work arm in arm with you in Christ-like self-sacrificial love to build in America a true culture of life and of family life. To the cultured despisers of religion and Biblical morality, we say we love you, but we will oppose you—and with our COGIC friends we will strive not so much to defeat you in a cultural and political struggle as to open your hearts and minds to the life-preserving and love-affirming truths of the Gospel that reason knows and faith confirms.
The historic Black church and the Catholic Church in America, though allies in many struggles, have been too much like strangers to each other for too long. It should not have taken the unprecedented moral challenges we now face, or the abject failures of our political elites, to bring us closer together. For this we apologize to God. But with His help and by His truly amazing grace, we pledge to be strangers no longer. Let us unite as “soldiers of the cross” to bring revival, healing, and righteousness to our people.
Sincerely,
Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil., D.C.L.
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence
Princeton University
Mary Ann Glendon, J.D., LL.M.
Learned Hand Professor of Law
Harvard Law School
Michael Novak
Catholic University of America
Gerard V. Bradley, J.D.
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame
Hadley Arkes, Ph.D.
Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions emeritus
Amherst College
George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Adrian Vermeule, J.D.
Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law
Harvard Law School
John C. Cavadini, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame
Dermot A. Quinn, D.Phil.
Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies
Seton Hall University
Matthew Franck, Ph.D.
Director, Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution
Witherspoon Institute
Michael Reynolds, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Princeton University
Edward Whelan, J.D.
President
Ethics and Public Policy Center
R.R. Reno, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief
First Things
Teresa Collett, J.D.
Professor of Law
University of St. Thomas
Robert Koons, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
University of Texas at Austin
Mark Bauerlein, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Emory University
Senior Editor, First Things
Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D.
Professor of Biology and of Theology
Providence College
Francis J. Beckwith, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies
Co-Director, Program in Philosophical Studies of Religion (Institute for Studies of Religion)
Baylor University
Melissa Moschella, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
The Catholic University of America
J. Budziszewski, Ph.D.
Professor of Government and Philosophy
University of Texas at Austin
Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Loyola Marymount University
Rev. Thomas Petri, O.P., S.T.D.
Vice President and Academic Dean
Assistant Professor of Moral Theology
Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception
Dominican House of Studies
R. J. Snell, Ph.D.
Director, Center on the University and Intellectual Life
Witherspoon Institute
Senior Fellow, Agora Institute for Civic Virtue and Common Good
O. Carter Snead, J.D.
William P. and Hazel B. White Director, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame
Alexander Pruss, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Baylor University
Mark Regnerus, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Senior Fellow, Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture
Rev. Prof. Stephen L. Brock, Ph.D.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
Aaron Kheriaty, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of California, Irvine
Rev. Joseph Koterski S.J., Ph.D.
Fordham University
Robert A. Destro, J.D.
Professor of Law and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion
Columbus School of Law
The Catholic University of America
Carson Holloway, Ph.D.
Political Scientist
Patrick Lee, Ph.D.
John N. and Jamie D. McAleer Professor of Bioethics
Director, Institute of Bioethics
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
University of South Carolina
John M. Haas, Ph.D., S.T.L., M.Div.
President
The National Catholic Bioethics Center
Christopher Wolfe, Ph.D.
Professor of Politics
University of Dallas
Ralph Martin, S.T.D.
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Archdiocese of Detroit
Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Madonna University
Eduardo Echeverria, Ph.D., S.T.L.
Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Archdiocese of Detroit
Matthew Levering, Ph.D.
James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr. Chair of Theology
University of St. Mary of the Lake
Rev. Thomas Berg, Ph.D.
Professor of Moral Theology
St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie)
Maggie Gallagher
Senior Fellow
American Principles Project
John Grabowski, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director of Moral Theology/Ethics
School of Theology and Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America
Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D.
William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow
The Heritage Foundation
Mark Latkovic, S.T.D.
Professor of Moral Theology
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Archdiocese of Detroit
Christian Brugger, D.Phil.
J. Francis Cardinal Stafford Professor of Moral Theology
Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary
C.C. Pecknold, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
School of Theology and Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America
Rev. Kevin L. Flannery, S.J., Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana
Rome
Lee J. Strang, J.D.
John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values
University of Toledo College of Law
Michael A. Scaperlanda. Ph.D.
President
St. Gregory’s University
Stephen M. Krason, J.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies
Franciscan University of Steubenville
President, Society of Catholic Social Scientists
Prof. Ronald J. Rychlak, J.D.
Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government
The University of Mississippi School of Law
Kevin Govern, J.D., LL.M.
Professor of Law
Ave Maria School of Law
John M. Breen, J.D.
Professor of Law
Loyola University Chicago
Mary Rice Hasson
Director, Catholic Women's Forum
Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Bill Piatt
Professor of Law
Former Dean (1998-2007)
St. Mary's University School of Law
[Affiliations for identification purposes]
