Fr. P. N. Powell said:
04 FEBRUARY 2012
Anti-Catholic Bigtory: A Rant
Excellent article on the contemporary resurgence of American anti-Catholicism:
“. . .the new anti-Catholicism does not adopt the posture of a humble and teachable critic seeking to engage the Church on matters over which reasonable citizens from differing theological and secular moral traditions disagree. Rather, it seeks to employ the coercive power of the state to force the Church’s institutions to violate the Church’s own moral theology, and thus compromise, and make less accessible, the Church’s mission of charity and hope.”
Anti-Catholic bigotry is un-American. Hell itself will not prevail against the Church, so I’m little worried that the mewlings and machinations of pampered academics and other assorted leftist bigots will hurt the Church in the long run.
However, anti-Catholic bigotry can cause permanent damage to our liberty as American citizens, permanent damage to our republican form of self-government and the divinely gifted rights of individuals to worship and believe as they choose.
Recent attacks on the Church by the B.O. administration are not accidental nor are they coincidental. B.O. and his allies are going right to the core of our religious freedom by taking on the only institution left in this country that stalwartly stands against their statist agenda of radical secularism.
Having chipped away at the foundations of liberty through dependency on the largesse of the welfare state and created a generation or two of state wards, secularists (with B.O.'s generous help) are now reaching into the conscience of individuals and coercing compliance to rules and regulations that are diametrically opposed to the basic truths of the Christian faith.
It is one thing for secularists to expect Catholics to respect the rule of law and tolerate the easy availability of contraception, abortion, and sterilization. It is quite another to order us to pay for the privilege of helping others to commit mortal sin.
B.O.'s spurious claim that his Big Government grasp at power is somehow akin to “what Jesus would do” is truly beyond ridicule. Does he think that Jesus would also expect us to surgically and chemically render women infertile? Or use scissors and vacuum pumps to remove unborn children from their mother’s womb? Where in scripture does Jesus order his followers to surrender their charitable responsibilities to Caesar’s bureaucrats and tax collectors?
Jesus expects his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and heal the sick (Matt 25). And that is exactly what billions of Catholic dollars and thousands of Catholics do in this country every year through Catholic Charities, Catholic hospitals and hospices, and hundreds of other service organizations operated by the Church. Why is this a problem for statists? Competition. The Church provides free health care to millions but it also operates without the preferred ideological/sexual agenda of the secular Left. With the Church out of the way, those millions join millions more as dependent wards of the state, their liberty as citizens defined and regulated by their Enlightened Betters.
Keep in mind that B.O. and his allies cut funding to the bishops’ efforts to stop human trafficking. Why? The bishops were having UnGood Thoughts. . .about issues that have nothing to do with their work against slavery.
Keep in mind that this administration sued a Lutheran Church for firing one its ministers, claiming that the 1st Amendment does not exempt religious institutions from equal opportunity employment laws. In other words, the gov’t should be able to tell churches who can and can’t be ministers.
Keep in mind that this administration is charging pro-life activists all over the country with civil rights violations for exercising their 1st Amendment rights to speak freely about the evils of abortion.
Keep in mind that this administration consistently refuses to use the phrase “freedom of religion” in its domestic and foreign policy statements, preferring instead “freedom of worship.” This is an aggressive attempt to shrink the religious liberty of believers down to the sanctuary.
Keep in mind, political power is given not taken.
