A Catholic Candidate
Listen to Joe talk about being
a Catholic candidate.
For the article on the left: This article ran in the Diocese of Las Cruces (NM) Agua Viva newspaper. It gives a good cross section of some of what we did from state to state, when it came to moving in “Catholic circles” and standing up for our faith beliefs in general. --Joe
I'm a Catholic.
As I've traveled, there have been a number of articles in Catholic Diocesan newspapers about my campaign. What's more in a lot of secular articles, there has been a good deal of information about my personal faith as well. As the audio on this page explains, that faith drives what I do as a husband, a father, a community member, a politician... That simple. And it's not rhetoric. I, and my family, try to live the faith -- as dynamically as possible.
I'm not interested in being "politically correct," as you will see. I'm much more interested in being "spiritually correct."
The following will give you some insight into all that for me...
Matt Swaim, former co-anchor for EWTN's "Son Rise Morning Show," wrote the following article about my run during the 2016 Campaign.
“This is the most consistent Catholic campaign I’ve ever seen, at least in the United States.” --Moral Theology Professor Mark Ginter, St. Meinrad Seminary, St. Meinrad, Indiana. (Quote appeared in The Herald newspaper, Jasper, Indiana.)
“Joe and Liz Schriner gave a guest lecture in my upper level senior seminar called ‘Christian Values in a Global Community.’ They came to the lecture superbly prepared and had the students spellbound for over an hour.” --Professor Perry Bush, Bluffton College
A reporter from the Cheyenne (WY) Eagle newspaper to Joe, after hearing his stances: “This sounds like a platform a Jesuit priest would run on.”
Unlike many candidates who seem to prevaricate when asked their stances on issues, Mr. Schriner is specific. He expects U.S. citizens to “cut back dramatically on lifestyle. We ask people to cut back the thermostat, to adopt house sharing to share expenses, to cut back on the amount of food we eat… There are 24,000 people who die each day of hunger in the world. As Christians, we have to help them.” --Catholic Chronicle newspaper, Toledo, Ohio Diocese.
“Mr. Schriner seems to be living out his challenging platform. And Mr. Schriner’s message was one that students, or for that matter the public in general, rarely hear… All of the students seemed to agree Mr. Schriner’s voice is one that needs to be heard in our country and our world.” --John Cooper, Theology instructor, Xavier University.
“Bluffton College Environmental Science Professor Bob Antibus told me if every person on earth lived like the average American, it would require three earths to provide all the material and energy we’d need. This is called the sin of: ‘gluttony.’ That simple.” --Joe, in an article he wrote for Inherit the Earth, a newspaper of the Cleveland Catholic Workers.
“I experience Joe Schriner as a fervent pro-life candidate willing to make great sacrifices for the moral betterment of our nation and the transformation of our society. He was an inspiration to our students.” --Fr. Michael Scanlan, former president of Franciscan University.
Independent presidential candidate Joe Schriner said our nation has become it’s “own worst terrorist” with the legalization of abortion… --The Courier newspaper, Savannah, Tennessee.
In numerous talks and media interviews, I explain that, according to the tenets of the Catholic Church, abortion is always, and unequivocally, wrong. It is also my belief that abortion won’t end in America until there is a sustained and prolific grassroots protest that mirrors the mass protests that grew across our land to end Segregation.
To that end, as we’ve traveled, our family has protested on street corners, in neighborhoods, and in front of abortion clinics. For instance, we have stood in solidarity with people of all faiths in front of abortion clinics in Bakersfield, California, Cleveland, Ohio, Fargo, North Dakota, Beaumont, Texas, Ocala, Florida… just to name a few. --Joe
In a column for the News Democrat newspaper in Brown County, Ohio, I wrote that it’s not enough just to say no to abortion. We have to create a much wider safety net for women in crisis pregnancy. As we need to significantly impact societal factors that lead to abortion, whether relaxed sexual mores, poverty, family dysfunction… --Joe
And as for “Catholic candidates” who say they personally don’t believe in abortion, but also believe it’s each person’s “right to choose”… Wouldn’t this be akin to a German saying during the Holocaust: “I personally don’t believe in killing Jewish people, but each person – including Hitler – has a “right to choose.”
And speaking to the Holocaust…
Some six million Jews were killed during the Nazi Holocaust. In America, we have now killed 55 million babies in their mothers’ wombs, and counting. During a “State of the Union” talk at the University of Notre Dame, I said we are living in “a modern day Holocaust unparalleled in the history of mankind.”
And speaking of the Notre Dame talk…
I was asked to give a talk at the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame. They billed it as: “A Catholic President?” They also asked for a PR photo. I sent them several pictures of me in tie talking into a microphone. They went to our website and said they wanted the boxing picture. I smiled. My wife Liz, well not so much.
During the talk, I noted that the University of Notre Dame had just hired a new head football coach – and let the other coach go, with three years left on his contract. I noted this meant the university was going to be paying someone more than 10 million dollars in the next three years – and he wouldn’t even be coaching. (Not to mention, they were paying the new guy $15 million.)
I then showed families living in meager grass huts in Uganda and explained those millions and millions of extra dollars being spent in the Notre Dame football program could go toward adequately housing thousands and thousands of people in the Third World. And where did any of this exorbitant coaches salary stuff line up with Catholic Church teaching on making the poor a top priority?
As you can see, well, we try not to pander to anyone. –Joe
And speaking of wasting money…
During the talk, I said NASA is spending billions and billions of dollars flying to places like the moon and Mars – where there is no air, no water (to speak of), no food… Wouldn’t it make more sense, common sense, to spend the money helping clean up our air, our water and developing more sustainable agriculture, and such, for all those going hungry around the world.
Recently I've been writing some freelance pieces for Franciscan magazine, a Franciscan University alumnus magazine that goes out all over the country. The following is an alumni profile piece on a pretty phenomenal football coach, how he found God, and what he's doing now to lead his players in the same way. --Joe
