(I mean no exclusion in my title, only respect for other people’s roads of faith. Please do join us if you feel so inspired).

I have yet to see a single Catholic priest come out in open antagonism toward voting in the coming election. All the priests I have seen have preached on our moral duty as Catholics to vote, and more, all but one have indicated both directly and through the simple fact that they are addressing it at all that Donald Trump is the clear choice in 2024.

Francis, of course, is another matter altogether. He was wholly ambivalent and gray on the issue.

In my opinion, as I stand on the shoulders of giants, our vote in the election is a work and prayer of supplication to God, an ever-so tiny one, to help us in our time of need when America so clearly does not deserve it. Four of those giants are Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Vigano, Bishop Strickland, and Fr Ripperger. Below, after the Ripperger prayer, you can find pulls from the Vigano, Strickland, and Ripperger articles.

Here is a crucial pull from the Burke article concerning the border, a hot-button political issue obviously on everyone’s minds, one that responds to some ridiculous philosophies more and more recent “Catholic” clergy have espoused and preached to their unsuspecting listeners:

Debates among social conservatives as to whether they should vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “the lesser of two evils” have intensified this election season in comparison to previous ones. Those who argue for withholding their support primarily point to Trump’s left-ward drift on social issues, including abortion and in-vitro fertilization. Those who are more right-wing argue Trump will not secure the border and that he has not surrounded himself with his most longtime, loyal supporters.

But Cardinal Burke told Arroyo that to not vote is against the 4th Commandment — honor your mother and father — which includes procuring the common good of your country or “fatherland.”

If there is “some good reason to think we can advance the cause of life, and the family, and religious freedom, that’s the kind of candidate we need to support,” he said.

Arroyo asked the cardinal for his reaction to comments made by Pope Francis aboard the papal airplane earlier this year when he was asked about voting in the U.S. presidential election. Francis too said Catholics should vote but added he “didn’t know” if Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or Trump is the lesser of two evils because Harris supports abortion and Trump opposes mass illegal immigration.

“Is turning away a migrant at the border equal to killing an unborn child morally?” Arroyo asked.

“No, clearly not,” replied Cardinal Burke. “To take an innocent and defenseless human life is intrinsically evil. The question about migration is one of prudential judgement.”

“Open immigration,” he added, pointing to European counties that have experienced radical changes, “can change the character of a whole nation.”

He additionally noted that there are preeminent issues that “have the priority” over others and that the “fundamental” three are human life, marriage and the family, and the practice of religion.

“We must give our first attention to those,” he explained, swatting down arguments made by liberal clergy, like Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, that abortion should not be a “preeminent” voting issue.

This is just a short post today, more of a reminder than a call because your minds are already made up, but the point of spotlighting the border issue is to say one thing in the grandest of understatements–this is an important election and we need to make sure we actually vote and not just talk about it.

That doesn’t mean at all that they won’t try to rig it or that we don’t need to be ready for weeks and months of test and turmoil, but we have to do our part. We have to offer our own measly loaves and fish to Christ, and then pray he does the rest.

Here is one prayer, penned by Fr Ripperger, a well-known exorcist and master of human psychology: