WASHINGTON (CNS) — In what could also be an all-time excessive, President Joe Biden has nominated 9 Catholics to serve in his Cabinet.
One of them, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, has already been confirmed as secretary of protection.
The others nominated up to now and the departments they’d head, if confirmed, are Deb Haaland, Interior; Tom Vilsack, Agriculture; Gina Raimondo, Commerce; Marty Walsh, Labor; Denis McDonough, Veterans Affairs; Jennifer Granholm, Energy; Xavier Becerra, Health and Human Services; and John Kerry, presidential envoy for local weather.
Kerry was the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2004. During his marketing campaign, then-Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis stated that if Kerry had been to current himself to obtain the Eucharist to the prelate, he wouldn’t give Communion to the previous U.S. senator due to Kerry’s place on abortion. Now a cardinal, the prelate had made an identical declaration on two Wisconsin politicians earlier than leaving the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, for St. Louis.
The comment set off an extended dialogue and debate inside U.S. circles, together with among the many U.S. bishops themselves, as to what constituted suitability to obtain the Eucharist. Kerry later served as secretary of state underneath President Barack Obama.
Becerra served 12 phrases in Congress earlier than successful election as California’s lawyer normal 4 years in the past. As lawyer normal, he argued earlier than the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the Little Sisters of the Poor needs to be required to present contraception companies underneath the Affordable Care Act.
On Dec. 21, two weeks after Becerra was nominated by Biden for the HHS publish, 40 pro-life and pro-family organizations signed on to a letter calling on the Senate to reject Becerra’s nomination as a result of “as a lawyer, he has used the law against everyone from nuns to pregnancy care centers to the FDA to advance a radical abortion agenda,” in accordance to a press launch issued that day.
The Canadian-born Granholm, a former two-term governor of Michigan, spent a 12 months in France serving to smuggle garments and medication to Jews in the Soviet Union. While learning at Harvard College, she met and married Daniel Mulhern, a theology scholar at Yale University.
Haaland, who can be the primary American Indian to serve in a Cabinet publish, served two phrases in the House prior to her nomination as Interior secretary. She raised a daughter as a single mom, and began a salsa firm to assist pay the payments. Haaland has described herself as “a 35th-generation American.”
McDonough, whose grandparents emigrated from Ireland, obtained a bachelor’s diploma from St. John’s College in Collegeville, Minnesota. While a scholar, he performed defensive again for the Johnnies underneath legendary coach John Gagliardi. McDonough later graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and served as Obama’s chief of workers throughout his second time period.
Raimondo, Rhode Island’s governor since 2015, graduated from LaSalle Academy in Providence, as one of many first ladies allowed to attend what had been an all-boys Catholic college, and was class valedictorian. Raimondo later served on the LaSalle Academy board.
Last March, in the primary days of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, she sparred with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over her order requiring New Yorkers to self-quarantine for 14 days upon coming into Rhode Island. Cuomo’s threatened lawsuit was dropped when Raimondo expanded the order to all vacationers to Rhode Island.
Vilsack, 70, was born in a Catholic orphanage in Pittsburgh. He served as Obama’s agriculture secretary for each phrases of his presidency. He served two phrases as Iowa governor earlier than serving in the Obama cupboard as agriculture secretary for eight years.
Walsh, the son of Irish immigrants who met in the United States, has been the mayor of Boston since 2014. He holds a bachelor’s diploma from Boston College. He served as president of a Laborers Union native in Boston till he made his first mayoral bid.
After former President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funds to any metropolis declaring itself a sanctuary metropolis for unauthorized immigrants, Walsh reaffirmed Boston’s standing as a sanctuary metropolis, saying in a 2017 speech, “If people want to live here, they’ll live here. They can use my office. They can use any office in this building.”
