The Colorado Catholic Conference has moved to distance the Church from state Representative Manny Rutinel after the Democratic congressional candidate incorporated Pope Leo XIV’s image and remarks into campaign materials — an appropriation church leaders say misrepresents where the Church stands.
Rutinel, a 31-year-old Yale Law graduate and former environmental attorney who joined the Colorado House in 2023, is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District, a competitive seat spanning parts of Adams and Weld counties north of Denver. The primary takes place June 30.
Church Leaders Issue a Correction
The controversy stems from Rutinel’s campaign drawing on the words and likeness of Pope Leo XIV, who on June 8 addressed Spain’s parliament and called for respect for “every human life … from conception to its natural end.” The Colorado Catholic Conference responded with a direct public statement: “The Catholic Church in Colorado and the Vatican do not endorse @MannyRutinel or any political candidate.”
The rebuke underscores the Church’s longstanding prohibition against allowing its authority or symbols to be enlisted in partisan electoral efforts — a concern that becomes especially acute when a candidate’s legislative record runs counter to Catholic teaching.
Rutinel’s Legislative Record
Rutinel co-sponsored HB26-1335, a measure enacted in May that directs colleges and universities operating student health centers to stock abortion medications — mifepristone and misoprostol — and make them available to enrolled students. The law reaches both public and private institutions, offering only narrow religious and medical exemptions.
He also supported SB25-129, signed into law in April, which shields Colorado abortion providers from civil actions brought by plaintiffs in other states. The measure protects providers involved in procedures legal in Colorado up to birth, including cases where patients traveled across state lines specifically to obtain those procedures. Additionally, Rutinel backed SB25-014, which addressed state marriage law in light of the Obergefell ruling, and he has publicly celebrated Pride Month.
His campaign website frames his position as one of government restraint, stating that decisions about abortion belong to families, free from outside interference. That framing of personal autonomy sits in direct tension with Catholic social teaching, which grounds the regulation of human conduct in the dignity of every person and the demands of the common good — not merely in individual preference.
What the Church Teaches
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes direct abortion as gravely contrary to moral law, and the Church has consistently held that human life warrants protection at every stage, from conception through natural death. Pope Leo XIV’s June 8 address to Spanish parliamentarians reaffirmed that same continuity of teaching. Canon law further bars Catholic institutions from endorsing candidates, and Church guidance warns against any conflation of Catholic social doctrine with partisan platforms.
The Colorado Catholic Conference’s prompt and specific response suggests that Church leaders are prepared to correct the public record whenever religious authority is invoked in ways the Church itself does not sanction.
Rutinel faces voters in the 8th District Democratic primary on June 30.