The convergence of several stories I've been reading over the past few days is triggering a reaction in me which I find singularly unpleasant.
First, we have Nancy Pelosi - a Catholic - pushing for massive spending on contraception as part of the Democratic stimulus plan.
This morning, Deal wrote about the 18 Catholic Senators who did not support the restoration of the Mexico City Policy.
Also today, the story emerges that Cardinal Mahony is under investigation for fraud regarding his handling of the sex abuse crisis in his diocese. (Whatever the outcome of this, one could argue that he should be under ecclesial investigation for spiritual fraud as regards the representation of Catholicism that is par for the course under his watch in Los Angeles.)
Finally, I read the moving piece by Marc Thiessen, A Tale of Two Bishops, which relates the situation of the Catholic Church in China, divided as it is between the official Patriotic church, and the underground Church.
It was the Thiessen piece that wove the other threads together. He relates that in China
The vicious Chinese regime not only arrests underground clergy, it systematically searches out and destroys underground churches. Since 1999, in one eastern province alone, Chinese authorities have torn down at least 1,200 churches. On October 25, 2001, they demolished one church in that province for the third time in just 18 months; each time they tore it down, the faithful came back and rebuilt it from the rubble.
Bishop Fan and his compatriots could easily avoid this harassment and brutality -- all they need to do is renounce the pope and join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. A parallel schismatic church set up by the Chinese Communists in 1957, the Patriotic Association's constitution declares autonomy from Rome, rejecting the supreme administrative, legislative, and judicial authority of the pope.
It makes me wonder if, in some less formal and perhaps not entirely conscious way, the American Catholic Church has begun to split into camps not unlike those in China. There is the "Patriotic"church - the one which seeks to "eschew politicization of the Eucharist", seemingly ignores the directives of Rome while pretending to be faithful, fears reprisals over a failure to be politically correct and is willing to support the socialist policies of the increasingly barbarous left in America, including their cult-like leader; and there is the "underground" Church, the seeming minority of Catholics in this nation who stand for orthodoxy, no matter how unpopular, search far and wide to find worship that is spiritually nourishing and reverent, and fear the coming difficulties they may face for their obedience to the Magisterium, to Christ, and to the truth.
I do not mean by this analogy to make light of the situation in China, which is far more severe than anything we face here. In fact, I think that the situation in China highlights the weakness of American Catholics. Chinese "underground" Catholics are willing to face persecution, torture, even death, to remain faithful - and yet they constitute the majority of Catholics in that country. Here, faithful Catholicism risks only the possibility of unpopularity, diminished social status, and an uphill political battle.
Why are we so unwilling to fight? I am astonished - literally astonished - that the bishops of some of these so-called "Catholic" politicans refuse to discipline these prominent members of their flock who give scandal to the rest of us. If what they are doing is no big deal in the eyes of their shepherds - regardless of the fact that it constitutes a grave violation of moral law - then why should any of the rest of us follow any of the dictates of our faith that inconvenience us? To be blunt about it, what does a Catholic have to do to get excommunicated these days? Apparently, it's virtually impossible.
I don't want to believe that we need to be actively persecuted before we wake up. I don't want to believe that we need to be beaten, imprisoned, or thrown out of windows before we decide our Faith is worth fighting for.
Allow me to be blunt about it - how is voting for Obama, for example, any different than joining the "patriotic" church in China? How is supporting pro-abortion, pro-contraception policies anything other than a total betrayal of the Catholic Faith? How is it acceptable for Bishops to ignore their duty to correct those under their watch, when the things that need correcting have gone so far beyond the pale that we're talking quite literally about things like the publicly sanctioned murder of innocent children?
This is unconscienable. Men like Bishop Kung and Bishop Fan put us to shame. Where is our conviction? Where is our fidelity? Where is our courage?
