OPINION:
Mr. President, many of us who share your Catholic faith are worried about the condition of your soul.
In the last six months, there have been attacks on nearly 100 Catholic churches and more than six dozen pregnancy centers. During this time, you — a self-described devout Catholic who carries a rosary on his person to remind you of the sacrifice of Mary, Mother of God, whose own pregnancy led to the redemption of the world — have remained silent with respect to these attacks.
Instead of speaking out as the attacks have escalated, you instead have made it clear that you intend to use the full weight of the federal government — which you command and direct — to ensure that abortion and its providers retain all of their privileges.
In addition, it has come to light that the Department of Justice, no doubt at your direction and presumably in concert with the FBI, has created a task force directed specifically at pro-life advocates, and, perhaps not coincidentally, there have been several recent high-profile arrests of such advocates.
Again, you have remained as silent as the grave as the federal government attacks pro-lifers while ignoring the fire-bombings and other attacks on our institutions (still waiting for the first arrest in any of those attacks). Moreover, in this election cycle, you have actively participated in a political campaign that has at its core the preservation of the unfettered right to abortion.
That is, of course, your prerogative. But all of this is clearly and unambiguously contrary to the teaching of our shared religion.
The Catholic Church could not be any clearer with respect to this issue. Your own church has consistently condemned abortion as the direct and purposeful taking of the life of the unborn child. Catholics are required to believe and act on the belief that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right to destroy or — and here’s the problem for an elected official who “personally” opposes abortion but supports policies that enable it — assist in the destruction of an innocent human being.
The Church could not make it any more simple or direct.
This is important. Most of what makes concord impossible between us — even though we share the same religion — is not that we have disagreements over election results or that you insist on using inflammatory rhetoric directed at your political opponents (we’re not fascists, and it seems unlikely that you really believe that) or that you’ve made a mess of the economy (that is a transitory problem).
What makes true Christian harmony impossible is that with respect to the most important moral issue of our time, you profess one thing and do the precise opposite. Your public and obvious embrace of the symbols of Catholicism and your unwillingness to do anything except help abortion grow and flourish is unconscionable. Your unwillingness to even say anything about the physical attacks on our institutions is incomprehensible.
All of it precludes the possibility of fraternal correction and the establishment of understanding between co-religionists. This is crucial. This nation cannot long endure the endless round of attacks and recriminations from left and right. If we can’t even agree on what constitutes a de minimis level of adherence to our own religious doctrine, how can we hope to bring others together?
Archbishop John Carroll, on the occasion of President George Washington’s inauguration, composed a prayer, a part of which includes: “We pray O God … through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with your Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the president of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to your people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.”
Amen.
• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated Podcast.” He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.
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