It was not surprising to hear the day after mainstream media proclaimed Joe Biden President-elect that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops officially congratulated him, hailing his declared victory as that of the “second Catholic President” in U.S. history. (We’ll not get into it here that in order to pave his way to the White House, the first, John Kennedy, famously promised never to be influenced by the teachings of the Faith in his actions as President.)
Why was it not surprising that the bishops congratulated Biden? Because, at no time in the Republic’s history, have our Bishops corporately sought to evangelize the nation. On the contrary. In the 19th century, thinking it would insulate the faithful from the influence of America’s Protestant majority if they kept them under their thumb in big-city Catholic ghettoes, they adopted a policy of discouraging Catholics from fanning out across the country (where, as Orestes Brownson contended, they would serve as a Catholicizing leaven of U.S. society). There were some wonderful episcopal exceptions as individuals who sought to evangelize in their own dioceses, but sadly such American bishops were just that: exceptions. It is not a giant step from not caring enough about the Faith and its teachings to seek to share such good news, and not caring about them, period. At least not enough to uphold them, which you are not doing when you congratulate a career politician whose hands drip with the blood of millions of preborn babies. It could not have been more fitting that Planned Parenthood congratulated Biden on the same day as the bishops.
That there was no surprise in the bishops congratulating him doesn’t mean one felt nothing else. One did. It was disgust. It deepened on November 11 with the news that Pope Francis had telephoned the declared President-elect to offer his personal congratulations. And what did they talk about as long as they were on the phone? According to a press release from the so-called Office of the President-Elect, it was not about the murder of millions of preborn babies. No. In the words of the release, it was about “important issues,” namely climate change and migration.
Well, they are important issues, only not the way those two would talk about them. It is important that the issue of climate change (like the hysteria over Covid-19) is being weaponized to justify extending ever-greater government control over our lives. It is also important that the principal result of the incursion of millions of Muslim and other non-Christian alien migrants inevitably further dilutes what little still remains of the Christian character of the West.
The incursion of millions of aliens and championing abortion as does Biden are not unrelated. That is, if someone deliberately sought the disappearance of a Christian people, or its replacement by another, what better way, besides promoting the incursion, could there be to achieve the result than by having that people self-destruct? This can be put succinctly: A people killing its offspring will end by drowning in its own blood.
Some number of the 74 million who voted on November 3 against the pro-abortion, same-sex marriage advocate and pseudo-Catholic Joe Biden hope that the declared election outcome will be overturned on January 6 when the results of electoral college proceedings are presented to a joint session of Congress for certification. I don’t think it will happen. There aren’t enough members of Congress who are more patriotic than self-serving. Most probably don’t even understand that the purpose of government is to defend rights with which the Creator has endowed all men. Ignorant of the Lord being the true Ruler of society, they imagine it is for them – government – to define whatever rights we may enjoy.
There will soon be fewer of them. That is supposing, as is likely, that the Left becomes ensconced in the seats of executive political power on January 20, this in addition to the control it already exercises over opinion-shaping institutions: media, academe, Hollywood, Big Tech and corporation boardrooms. That being so, the question arises: Where do Catholics still clinging to the undiluted Faith go from here?
There are things that can be done. First, for those who haven’t already, it’s time to get out of the big cities. They aren’t for us anymore. They have become cesspools of sin – the sin of liberalism. Consider how their abortion mills have been kept open as “essential” during Covid while mayors, in tandem with acquiescent bishops, keep churches closed or dictate limited attendance.
If members of a family or formerly close friends have become estranged, we should take steps to close the breach. We are all going to need the help and support of people we can count on during times likely more difficult than even was 2020. When it is your help and support that is needed, give it.
Read books. Collect them. If you have it in you, write one. Knowledge and wisdom, already in short supply, are about to become scarcer. Books are their repository, along with our memory of the ones we read. Once upon a time it was monks copying ancient manuscripts who preserved the past. Now it’s up to us.
Most importantly, keep as Close to Christ as possible. The affairs of this world are secondary. The only reason for us to concern ourselves with politics and the social doctrine is because we know there is no way to get to Heaven except by living according to the will of God, and that becomes easier when the ideas and laws that govern the life of society are meant to help us do that. As things are, too many risk damning themselves simply because they live in a society already neglectful of His will if only by exalting that of the majority (called the “will of the people”). The risk can become near certain when the life of society is dominated by persons who may call themselves Christian or even Catholic but ignore His will even to the degree of acting absolutely contrary to it, as by upholding legal abortion and approving same-sex marriage.
Finally, copy Jeremiah 6:16 on a slip of paper and tape it to the refrigerator door, hallway mirror or anyplace else where you will see it every day: “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”
