Through 2020’s disease, uncertainty, government power over religion, and attacks on saints and churches, our bishops have chosen the path of secular popularity.
. . .
Yet through it all — the campaign, the running mate, the platform — the bishops dared not utter a word of criticism. Not content with silence, many even publicly endorsed the Biden candidacy. Worse still, some actively worked to target and silence those Catholic priests who dared speak out against what has undoubtedly been the most anti-Catholic platform and ticket in modern American history. Of the entire American Catholic Church’s leadership, only Bishop Joseph Strickland spoke out on the Biden campaign’s open assault on Catholic moral teaching.
This is sadly unsurprising. For more than half a century the bishops have skirted their role in public life, leaving the faithful to fend for themselves. A deeply misunderstood moment in this slow march took place in September 1960, when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy promised a hostile audience of Protestant ministers that no man of God will advise his actions, that public funding for Catholic schools is unconstitutional, that decisions “on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, [and] any other subject” will be made “without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates,” and that “no power or threat of punishment [will] cause [him] to decide otherwise.”
It’s a major speech in civic history, credited with going a long way toward ingratiating American Catholics into elite society acceptance, but far from the examples of American Catholic heroes like founder Charles Carroll of Carrollton, or Fr. William Corby of the Irish Brigade, Kennedy achieved this not by embracing his faith, but by shedding it.
. . .
“The church is not a political power,” Pope Benedict XVI declared. “It’s not a party, but it’s a moral power.” It’s a moral power as needed as ever in public life, yet through the course of 2020’s disease, uncertainty, government power over religion, and attacks on saints and churches, our bishops have chosen the path of secular popularity, closing their doors and politely nodding along with the elites. Do our political leaders’ stations in our society mean they are beyond God’s word? The Catholic Church’s silence screams that this is the case.
Just over 50 years ago, Kennedy said he believes “in an America… where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote.” With the willing assistance of the bishops, he got his first wish. Now, through their folly, the bishops have ensured they’ll have no say against the second.
How 60 Years Of Church Silence Made The Most Anti-Catholic Party In Modern History Possible