Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine. (AP)

(CNSNews.com) – Given the anti-Catholic and anti-Evangelical emails exchanged a few years ago among officials at the Center for American Progress (CAP) -- with two officials who now work in the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign -- and leaked this week by Wikileaks, the Catholic Association wants to know what Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, a Catholic, thinks of the revelations.

Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia and former governor of the state, often touts his Catholic faith and it has been a noted topic in his selection as vice president.

In the Oct. 4 vice presidential debate with Republican Mike Pence, Kaine said he “grew up in a wonderful household with great Irish Catholic parents…. And I worked with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras, now nearly 35 years ago, and they were the heroes of my life. I try to practice my religion in a very devout way, and follow the teachings of the church in my own personal life.”

On Oct. 13, Catholic Association Ashley McGuire asked, "Tim Kaine has made his Catholic faith an integral part of this campaign. What does he have to say now that the curtain has been pulled back and the blatant anti-Catholicism of his ticket revealed?”

“Catholics deserve a response to the mockery of their faith seen in the leaked emails from the Clinton-Kaine ticket from the candidate who has used his Catholicism when convenient to push a radical agenda,” said McGuire.

Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Hillary/Kaine presidential campaign. (AP)

Some of the emails McGuire is referring to were exchanged in 2011 among officials at the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), including John Podesta, Jennifer Palmieri and John Halpin.

Today, Podesta is the chairman of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Palmieri is the communications director of the Clinton campaign. Halpin is a senior fellow at CAP.

In the emails (posted below), Halpin complains to Podesta and Palmieri that [media tycoon] Rupert Murdoch and [the Wall Street Journal’s] Robert Thompson “are raising their kids Catholic. Friggin’ Murdoch baptized his kids in Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.”

Halpin also claims that the “most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic,” and adds, “It’s an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.”

Palmieri, now Clinton’s communications director, responded to Halpin, “I imagine they [Catholics] think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Halpin emailed back, “Excellent point. They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”

In a February 11, 2012 email to Podesta from Sandy Newman, president of Voices for Progress, Newman says, “There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church.”

John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton/ Kaine presidential campaign. (AP)

Podesta responded, “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up. I'll discuss with Tara. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the other person to consult.”

The Catholic Association’s Ashley McGuire further said, "The blatant disdain for and mockery of Catholics and Evangelicals in leaked emails from the highest levels of the Clinton campaign is sadly unsurprising. Let's not forget that Hillary Clinton has said that religious beliefs ‘have to be changed’ and conform to the Left's radical agenda.”

“She has made her disdain for religious liberty and faith-based voters clear, and promises an administration that would only perpetuate the attacks on conscience rights of the last eight years,” said McGuire. “Catholic voters notice her campaign's harsh words for their faith and should consider themselves lucky to have seen a preview of how a Clinton presidency would treat them."

Commenting on the email revelations, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said, “What Podesta admits to doing is far more serious than any disparaging comments made by the Clinton team about Catholicism. Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary's communications director, has been incredibly insulting, but Podesta's role is downright pernicious: He is seeking to foment a ‘revolution’ within the Catholic Church.”



“If conservative Christians were plotting to sow divisions within the ranks of Judaism or Islam -- setting up faux Jewish and Muslim organizations -- there would be holy hell to pay,” said Donohue. “But when left-wing secularists seek to crash the Catholic Church, the media yawn.”