What Role Does the Catholic Church Play in Dividing America?
The story of Israel is our story!
Jesus was an astute Jew who knew his religion’s scriptures and history well enough to realize that the people of his nation were once unified under the laws of Israel but divided itself into two opposing sides.
Differences in politics and religion divided the nation into the northern Kingdom and the southern kingdom. The capital of the north was Samaria and Jerusalem was the capital of the south. Things were so bad and contentious in the political and religious arenas that each kingdom hated the other much like Americans are now divided by political parties and are coming to hate one another. It got so bad that the people of the southern kingdom referred to the northerners or Samaritans as “dogs”.
The prophets in those biblical times spoke out on behalf of God (Yahweh), and tried to have the peoples of both the north and south reconcile their differences but this was to no avail. By the end of the Old Testament era, things were so bad that the prophet Zechariah reminded the people of both sides what Yahweh said would happen if they both only followed the Commandments and loved one another and their neighbors as themselves.
‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” Zechariah 3:10
The modern prophet, Thomas Merton wrote in The Seeds of Destruction:“rational collaboration is manifestly impossible without mutual trust and this in turn is out of the question where there is no basis for sure communication. Not only is communication lacking: it is blocked. It is fiercely resisted by groups and nations which close themselves and refuse to communicate with one another except by ultimatums and threats of destruction…”
Obviously, Jesus knew that the tension between his fellow Jews still existed under the Roman domination of his time and he felt the need to tell his disciples that if they wanted to follow him they better grasp what Yahweh said, so he told the following story.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply, Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Israel’s story is America’s story. In the 19th century, America came to be divided into the North and the South and fought a terrible war that resulted in many casualties and resentment despite the good fact that slavery was ended.
Today, we have two political parties at war with one another based not only on differences of conservative and liberal ideas but more so on lies and truth. The propaganda of conspiracies and misinformation is causing people to mistrust and even hate one another. Like the tribes of Israel, America is becoming tribes of BLUE and RED states.
The irony of all this consternation is that “Christian” America is at war with itself. The phrase “In God We Trust” which is all over our currency is no longer a motto by which Americans are living. And to further the obvious hypocrisy of all, especially the religious segments of the population, people are not living by the very pledge that they recite at various times: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Can we be any more blasphemous than that? If America is to survive this period of divisiveness, we must all take a step back, pause, and rekindle our allegiance to the Constitution and more so, our allegiance to our God.
Here’s some exhortations from the Word of God upon which all Christians and Catholics should reflect!
“The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” (Psalms 5:5–6 ESV)
“The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalms 11:5 ESV).
“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” 1John 1-6
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1John 2:9-17
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Eph 4:31
“Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” Prov 10:12
“In their own eyes, they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.” Ps 32:6
Catholicism’s increasingly powerful political right reflects fringe America, fueled by paranoia, conspiracy, racism, and the threat of apocalypse.
In her Vanity Fair article, DEEP STATE, DEEP CHURCH: HOW QANON AND TRUMPISM HAVE INFECTED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Kathryn Joyce writes how “Catholicism’s internal convulsions spilled over into America’s election, as right-wing Catholics, including those at the center of Trump’s campaign, cast the contest as a choice between true defenders of the faith and Joe Biden’s apostate “Pope Francis Catholics.” Marshall, whose book presents Francis as the culmination of a 150-year Freemason plot to overthrow the church from within, joined the campaign. Viganò wrote Trump a letter, describing himself and the president as allies in a Manichean struggle against a united deep state/deep church front. Trump declared the letter “beautiful” and tweeted it out.
She also writes: “Catholics, Ralph Reed once said, are “the jump ball of American politics.” Conservatives can’t win without them, but they can go either way, the consummate swinger, sometimes determining elections, often reflecting them. Comprising about 23% of voters, Catholics have sided with the winner in most presidential contests over the last 50 years.”
Well, it’s no surprise how the Catholic Church fell in line with the wealthy Catholic contributors and even the Evangelicals, both of whom were campaigning against abortion, climate change theory, and the restrictions placed upon the use of fossil fuels to name a few on their agendas. Big money became their saving hope!
For instance, the wealthy Catholic “Napa Institute is a private philanthropic organization dedicated to promoting excellence in education and service of community. With their belief in the Sanctity of all Human life and the defense of Marriage, their core values are congruent with the Magisterium of the Holy Catholic Church.” Mission Statement
Timothy and Steph Busch are the billionaire CEOs of this conservative group whose objective, some believe, is to make America a Catholic country. The likes of Arch. Charlie Chaput, a Franciscan and George Weigel, conservative author have lent their voices to the Institute to give it some clout among normal everyday conservative Catholic faithful who are aging and therefore about to leave a void in the coffers of the Catholic Church. That, along with the settlements for the hundreds of abuse victims is running the well dry and increasing the need to replenish it at all costs.
Another ploy that the conservatives of the Catholic Church use is to blame the demise of the Church in America and around the world on secularism and its immorality that pervades most Western nations, so say they. What they, like the key players, the Busches, Chaput and other big wigs fail to admit, is the role the Church plays in its own expiration. Their own role in covering up the the abuse of children and their failure to hold accountable the abusing priests and the bishops who looked the other way has driven most younger Catholics away. Add to that, the opposition to Vatican II and to Pope Francis, and you have the perfect scenario to start a crusade to persecute liberals, pro-choicers, LGBTQ persons, and Democrats. The attendance at Church functions is at an all time low as a result.
It is rather puzzling to me that the Napa Institute’s mission, in conjunction with all the other holdings of the Busches including the Catholic University of America (to which they are major donors therefore, in my opinion, hidden CEOs) is to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ in accordance with the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. You are reading that correctly! Shouldn’t the Magisterium’s teachings be promoting the teachings of Jesus? Not the other way around?
“There’s this whole Catholic-right media landscape that functions like a Catholic Fox News,” says John Gehring, Catholic program director for the liberal advocacy organization Faith in Public Life. He notes that EWTN’s lead anchor, Raymond Arroyo, has a regular gig co hosting Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox. Just as that network radicalized Republicans, right-wing Catholic media did the same. “It’s this echo chamber where you hear a lot less about what Pope Francis is talking about in terms of economic inequality, racism, and environmental justice,” says Gehring, “and a whole lot about Viganò,” writes Kathryn Joyce.
SO, the hidden agenda of the Catholic Church to divide America into Red and Blue states, or conservative and liberal states took shape with their support for DJT who became their president and savior in 2016. Clergy had endorsed DJT from the pulpit and condemned Hillary Clinton and any Catholic who dared to vote for her- you read that correctly as well. Many priests exclaimed in churches throughout the land that it was a mortal sin to vote for someone who is Pro-Choice! Hence you now have the Catholic Hierarchy’s attempt to ban President Biden from receiving Communion. That would apply to me as well but I haven’t received the Sacred Species since the Church endorsed DJT in 2015 along with the previous reports of 65 + priests from the Philadelphia Archdiocese who abused children while the bishops reassigned them to other parishes. I knew many of those priests and a few of their victims and families, so this was an issue that was close to my heart. What really was the scandal for me however was that the Church violated its own moral principle stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church below.
II. GOOD ACTS AND EVIL ACTS
1755 A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting “in order to be seen by men”).
The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts – such as fornication – that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
1756 It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.
1757 The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three “sources” of the morality of human acts.
1758 The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil.
1759 “An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means.
Therefore: The End or intention(outlawing abortion and overcoming an immoral secularism) doesn’t justify the means (DJT a proven immoral businessman, adulterer, liar, crook, and racist.) Go figure!!!
Conclusion: In brief: The crisis in America that we face today is in part due to the violation of the Catholic Church’s own moral principle stated above and due to the powerful influence of Catholic money and media to use any means possible to honor the desires of traditionalist Catholics to oppose abortion by electing DJT, and to restore the Roman Catholic Church in America to its previous status as the bulwark of American morality and conservatism. This was accompanied by continuing to block most of the implementations started by Vatican Council II and to slow or eliminate any movement by any Catholic factions to lobby for the ordination of single women or married men and women as priests, and to censure the Roman Pontiff for giving subtle approval for LGBTQ behavior and divorced Catholics receiving Communion by his comments of compassion and a non-judgmental attitude toward both those groups. Such comments or statements were seen as a betrayal of the Church which actually in the Pope’s mind, was failing to follow the teachings of Jesus. But we can’t expect anything different from a Church that accepts millions from the Napa Institute whose mission is to: “promote the teachings of Jesus Christ in accordance with the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church” The 23rd chapter of Matthew is a reality in the world of Catholicism today.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/how-qanon-and-trumpism-have-infected-the-catholic-church
Faith Seeking Understanding 