March 27, 2001
The state of things in our civil government is
pretty grim. Babies continue to be
killed under cover of law in their mothers’ womb at the same rate now as they
were being killed during the Clinton administration. Inspired by the fact that
pro-abortion Catholics in the Democratic Party have not been excommunicated,
a whole generation of Republican Catholic pro-aborts has arisen
— New York Governor George Pataki, New York City Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, former U.S. Representatives Rick Lazio and Susan Molinari, Maine Senator Susan
Collins, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, Los Angeles Mayor Richard
Riordan. They, too, have largely gone unchallenged by ecclesiastical authorities.
(Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., has barred Ridge from speaking in any
diocesan facilities. However, Archbishop Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of
Philadelphia has not issued any such edict. Indeed, in recent years Ridge has
spoken in at least one Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.) The
net effect upon the average Catholic is quite clear: support for the mystical
destruction of our Lord in the persons of unborn babies is no impediment to
being considered a Catholic in good standing. And support for such killing by
Catholics in public life of either major political party is no impediment to being
treated with warmth by the very princes of Holy Mother Church.
Enter Edward Cardinal Egan. The
Archbishop of New York has had two good
opportunities recently to admonish the pro-abortion Governor Pataki and the
pro-abortion Mayor Giuliani. He dropped the ball on both occasions, thereby
distinguishing himself from the early days of his predecessor, the late John
Cardinal O’Connor, who picked some very public fights in 1984 with Governor
Mario Cuomo and Rep. Geraldine Ferraro. (Yes, Cardinal O’Connor did
apologize to Ferraro, saying that he did not mean to criticize his “good
friend.” Well, she wasn’t his friend, good or otherwise. And he was
absolutely right to criticize her. The late cardinal had a penchant for a
Hamlet-like angst over his public comments about elected officials. And he himself gave
Pataki and Giuliani a free pass on their pro-abortion stands.) Recently Cardinal
Egan met privately with Pataki in Albany and came out saying that he had not
discussed the issue of abortion with the governor. His Eminence said he looked
forward to the “happy day” when Pataki would review his
pro-abortion position. However, he stressed that Pataki was exercising his right as
an American to be “pro-choice.” Only a few days later, Cardinal
Egan warmly embraced Giuliani at New York’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day
Parade, whose grand marshal was a pro-abortion Catholic politician from Staten
Island.
“His right as an
American?” The heresy of Americanism
thus continues to influence the minds of highly intelligent princes of the Church.
No one has the right to do evil. Human beings have the free will to choose
between good and evil. However, we are only morally free to choose the
good. No one has the “right” to choose to do that which is wrong.
There is a distinction between having the authority to do something
and having the ability to do it.
As I noted in “Get a Grip on
Reality” in January, words have
meaning. A Catholic — especially one who is a cardinal and is known to be
a serious man of the mind — has the obligation to make all of the necessary
distinctions required by Catholic moral theology. It is a grave dereliction of
duty to speak in sloppy, Americanist terms that reaffirm the belief of ignorant
people (Catholic and non-Catholic alike) that one really does have a
“right” to support abortion. No one has the right to sin. And
abortion is one of the four crimes that cry out to Heaven for vengeance. (The
other three are the sin of Sodom, defrauding a widow, and withholding the
wages from a day laborer.)
Words and actions speak very
loudly. The average Catholic sees the warm
reception accorded Giuliani, who doesn’t even make a pretense of opposing
partial-birth abortion, and the affirmation that Pataki has a “right”
to support baby-killing. Why should a pro-abortion Catholic in the pew reassess
his uncritical acceptance of our culture of death when a Cardinal Archbishop of
a major metropolitan see fails to communicate the fact that abortion is a grave
crime against both the Church and the State? Why should a woman who is
suffering the effects of post-abortion syndrome consider reconciling herself to
the Father through the Son in Spirit and in Truth in the Sacrament of Penance
when a Cardinal Archbishop speaks of support for abortion as being an
exercise of an American “right”? Does not Cardinal Egan see that a
woman can easily come to the conclusion that she was (or is) justified in seeking
an abortion, if it is a matter of American rights? How can it not be a
“right” for a woman to choose to have an abortion if Pataki has the
“right” to choose to support it?
Recently Cardinal Egan rightly stated,
from his pulpit at Saint Patrick’s
Cathedral, that the Brooklyn Museum deliberately displays blasphemous,
anti-Catholic “works of art” that either are created by minorities or
feature minorities as a subject. His Eminence courageously declared that the
curators of the Brooklyn Museum were trying to immunize themselves from
criticism by creating a “race card” that they could play if Catholics
took offense to elephant dung on an alleged painting of the Blessed Mother or
to a naked black woman posing as our Lord in a photograph attempting to
recreate the Last Supper. Cardinal Egan was very right to point all of that out.
Indeed, his remarks were masterly.
As horrible as blasphemous works
of art are, however, abortion is a far greater
crime. There are hierarchies of evil. Thus, while it is nice to support the sanctity
of innocent human babies in abstract terms in one’s preaching, it is also
necessary to communicate the seriousness of supporting the death of such
babies by withholding handshakes and photo opportunities from Catholics of
any political party who seek to capitalize on their Catholic identity while
betraying the Fifth Commandment. Is it too much to hope and pray that the
day will soon come when the bishops of the United States will excommunicate
Catholics in public life who support the mystical destruction under cover of law
of Jesus Christ in the person of unborn children in their mothers’ womb?
There was a lot of fuss recently
over Ted Turner’s referring to employees
wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday as “Jesus freaks.” Once more
Turner put his bigotry on display for all to see. However, Turner is what he is:
an ignorant bigot who feels safe in shooting off his mouth because of his
enormous fortune. And after all, it is his “American right” to do so,
isn’t it?
It is a teaching of the Church
that no one has the right to blaspheme. No one
has the “right” to use our Lord’s Holy Name in vain. No one has
the “right” to produce blasphemous or pornographic works of
“art” or motion pictures or magazines or books or TV programs or
music or sex-instruction programs. But if Ted Turner is denounced for his
anti-Catholicism, what of those Catholics considered officially to be in good standing
within the Church who are not denounced for their anti-Catholic, anti-Theistic
embrace of abortion?
In 1907 Pope Saint Pius X said in
Pascendi that Modernism sought
to divorce the Church from the State and the Catholic from the citizen.
Americanism (which exalts all things American: religious indifferentism, cultural
pluralism, the secular Republic, separation of Church and State, absolute
freedom of speech and press) is but one of the many expressions of
Modernism. Affirming a politician in the fallacious belief that Americans have a
“right” to choose to support or do evil just feeds the Modernist
notions decried so eloquently by Pope Saint Pius X (and by Popes Blessed Pius
IX, Leo XIII, and Pius XI). Although it gets one good press and avoids a
short-term controversy, feeding the Americanist notion of “rights”
ultimately helps to perpetuate the culture of death, especially in our own
co-religionists.
Our Lady, Mother of the Church,
pray for the bishops of your Son’s Church.
Pray that they might see the world clearly through the eyes of the true Faith,
speak the Truth boldly in love, and never be hesitant about confronting the
mighty with their obligations to be true to the Cross of your Divine Son to the
point of their dying breath, no matter what it might cost them in this passing
world. Pray, dearest Mother of Life Himself, that the princes of the Church will
remind pro-abortion Catholics in public life what your Son wants each of us to
remember: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but suffer
the loss of his soul?”
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