For example, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, who likes to call himself a Catholic, and his Democrat allies in the state legislature have just enacted a law allowing abortion at any time -- in other words, they have agreed to legalize infanticide in the great state of New York. In the governor's words, we should "celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow." Yes, indeed, what an achievement! And note how he uses the Gospel metaphor of a bright "light" when in truth the law is only a continued descent into darkness. New York's bishops have strongly criticized the new law, but has the governor been excommunicated?
Did you notice how many in the media attacked Vice President Pence's wife, Karen Pence, because she teaches art at a Christian school that upholds traditional Christian teaching on these same social issues? To the elites such beliefs are anathema. The hatred expressed by commentators and news anchors was visceral and over the top. CNN anchor, John King, suggested Mrs Pence should be deprived of Secret Service protection. Why? So someone could more easily kill her? Why else would he say such a thing? The culture of death is no longer in hiding but is declared openly.
In the U.S. Senate, two Democrat senators, Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) and Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), are apparently ignorant of the Constitution's prohibition of religious tests for public office holders. (See Article 6, Clause 3.) Both senators attacked Brian Buescher, one of President Trump's judicial nominees, for his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal and charitable organization that adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church. (And, yes, I am also a member of the Knights.) These Church teachings really upset the senators who demanded that Buescher quit the Knights. They also want him to agree to recuse himself from any case that involved an issue on which the Knights have taken a position. Of course, the senators' motives are nothing but blatant anti-Catholicism. Both senators charged that Buescher's Catholic beliefs would keep him from being an effective judge. The senators are either grossly ignorant of or simply don't care about the Constitution which they are sworn to uphold. It seems we will elect just about anyone to high office these days, a bad omen of things to come.
In the same way, our new House of Representatives, now led by the Democrats, asserted its pro-death convictions from the start. Nancy Pelosi, the once again Speaker of the House, charged ahead with her pro-abortion agenda. What did she do? In her very first act as speaker, Pelosi offered the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019, which includes a repeal of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, as well as huge increases in taxpayer funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The UNFPA also contributes heavily to China's deadly policies of forced sterilization and abortion. Pelosi not only wants to overturn President Trump's entire pro-life agenda but also force Americans to finance the international abortion industry. The culture of death is alive and well, thanks to Nancy Pelosi and those who bow to her wishes. And she, too, calls herself a Catholic.
As for true socialism, even though many Democrats may talk it, very few really want it. The smart ones know it doesn't work and never has worked. What they really want is a form of fascism in which big business partners with big government and bows to the latter's wishes to ensure increased control over the population. It's all about power. Big business, like big government, despises competition and tends either to destroy or to absorb small, creative, and innovative companies. And big government's policies aid in this effort by crippling small, entrepreneurial businesses with burdensome legislation and regulations. One of the most under-reported stories is the fact that far more large corporations support Democrats than Republicans. If you really want to experience true socialism, and the raw power of a government that tolerates no opposition, just go to Venezuela and starve to death.
Sadly, too many people who should know better are silenced by simple fear. For example, just consider how hard it must be for bishops who are so motivated by fear of the mainstream media and the political left that they are unable to recognize and proclaim the truth.
A perfect example of this occurred at the recent March for Life in Washington, D.C. After taking part in the March, students from Covington Catholic High School (Kentucky) were waiting for their bus when they were approached by a group of Native Americans intent on harassing them. Leading the harassment was a known hate group, the Black Israelites. One Native American, a Nathan Phillips, singled out a specific student and got in his face while incessantly beating a drum. The student did nothing and said nothing. He simply stood there patiently and smiled at his harasser.
The result? An avalanche of vicious anti-Catholic reports and tweets from the mainstream media, accusing the student and his schoolmates of racism and worse. For doing what? Absolutely nothing. The attacks were so horrendous that the students and their families were subjected to dozens of death threats and their school actually had to close for a day. (And Nathan Phillips? He lied again and again about the confrontation and his own personal history.)
Finally, the truth came out and some reports were corrected, tweets were deleted, and even a few rare apologies were offered. But after those initial false reports were spread by the mainstream (anti-Catholic) media, a number of bishops joined in the attacks on the completely innocent students. Their own bishop of Covington, Kentucky, Bishop Roger Foys, condemned the students and threatened them with expulsion. Amazingly, even after those errant reports were completely debunked, the bishop has yet to retract his comments. He was joined in his attacks and his subsequent silence by Baltimore Archbishop William Lori and St. Louis Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, among others. I suggests the bishops read their own Catechism of the Catholic Church and what is has to say about the sins of rash judgment and calumny:
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2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
- of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
- of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them;
- of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:
- Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another's statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.
2479 Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.
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Isn't it interesting that some of our bishops, who readily attacked these young people based on erroneous reports, have been so hesitant to protect other young people from clergy, including bishops, who subjected them to horrendous abuse?
A few months ago the former Papal Nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, released a bombshell document addressing ex-Cardinal McCarrick's homosexual abuse of youths and seminarians. The archbishop's testimony focused largely on the massive cover-up of McCarrick's depravity and mentioned a few dozen members of the Church's hierarchy both in Rome and the U.S. He accused these bishops of sins of commission and omission through which they, in varying ways, protected McCarrick from public exposure and even abetted the continuation of his perversions. Archbishop Vigano went on to decry the presence in the Church of a homosexual subculture that he believes is at the heart of the Church's problems.
What I find confusing are the responses of so many of the bishops named in the report. Since the report's publication some have spoken publicly about the report, while most have been strangely silent. This silence I find perplexing. Had I been wrongfully accused of complicity, no matter how slight or indirect, in covering up such acts, I would shout my innocence from the rooftops and offer whatever exculpatory evidence I had. Those few who have commented sounded very lawyer-like in their well-spun denials, hoping perhaps that a left-leaning media would not dig too deeply into their involvement.
Even Pope Francis, when questioned by reporters after the release of the document, replied that he would "not say a word" about the matter. For those of us who don't hang out at the Vatican, this seems an odd response. And then, a few days later, the pope told the faithful that the proper response to the division and scandal resulting from this horrendous ugliness in the Church should be "silence and prayer." I agree that prayer is needed as perhaps never before, but silence? Isn't the silence of the bishops, decades of silence, the reason the Church finds itself wallowing in this moral cesspool?
The generally leftist media also has a problem with all this. They despise the Church and happily publicize all the sordid details. But it seems that those most responsible for the cover-up are the more progressive among the episcopate, the same bishops who work so hard to placate the media. Don't get me wrong, though. These high-level sins do not respect the lines separating so-called liberals and conservatives. And making their reporting even more challenging, the media must deflect any focus on the homosexual subculture and place the blame solely on pedophiles even though the vast majority of clerical abuse is purely homosexual; that is, with post-pubescent young males.
One hardly knows what to make of it all. And so we just listen to Jesus, as He tells us again and again: "Be not afraid." These are good words for us today because I expect we face some difficult and challenging times.
