A Beacon Of Light… A Mob Of False Truths
By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON JR.
(Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn. He received his BA in religious studies and his MA in dogmatic theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.)
- + + “Then Pilate said to Jesus, ‘So you are a king, are you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’ After saying this, he went back out to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him’” (John 18:37-38).
When Pilate heard Jesus speak of “truth,” he asked, “What is truth?” It wasn’t an enquiry. He said it to justify himself. He went out to the mob, pronounced Jesus innocent, then had Him flogged and handed over for crucifixion. Pilate apparently went along with the idea that truth is relative. For him it was “truth” that Jesus was innocent, but for the Jews it was “truth” that Jesus was guilty.
So Pilate in all “fairness” washed his hands and let the Jews follow their truth. So much for relative truth! A good man was crucified because in a mob’s version of “truth” — He was a criminal, and their truth was considered as valid as Pilate’s. Jesus was not the first victim of relative truth, nor the last.
In Plato’s Protagoras, Protagoras says to Socrates, “What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” This pagan notion, that truth is always personal and relative to self, is widespread today. The pagan idea that truth is relative was clearly portrayed recently.
On January 18, 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized pro-life voters who voted for President Donald Trump on the abortion issue, saying their votes cause her “great grief as a Catholic” and accusing them of “being willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Sadly, Speaker Pelosi is very much confused and has lost her way. As a so-called “faithful Catholic” she should be praising voters who allowed their informed conscience to guide them in the truths of the faith as they entered the ballot box.
In response to the false truth spoken by Speaker Pelosi, His Excellency Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco challenged Pelosi’s remarks when he issued the following statement on January 21: “To begin with the obvious: Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church. She speaks as a high-level important government leader, and as a private citizen.
“And on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years.
“Christians have always understood that the Commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ applies to all life, including life in the womb. Around the end of the first century the Letter of Barnabas states: ‘You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born’ (n. 19). One thousand, eight hundred and sixty-five years later, the Second Vatican Council affirmed: ‘Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes’ (Gaudium et Spes, n. 51).”
And on January 20, 2021, Archbishop José Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, reiterated the declaration of the U.S. bishops that abortion is for Catholics the “pre-eminent priority.” His declaration carried the heading:
“Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as 46th President of the United States of America from Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”
In issuing this declaration, Archbishop Gomez acted rightly and collaboratively in his role as USCCB president, and I am grateful to him for doing so.
Archbishop Cordileone further told Nancy Pelosi in his January 21statement: “But one thing is clear: No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion. ‘Right to choose’ is a smokescreen for perpetuating an entire industry that profits from one of the most heinous evils imaginable. Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop. That is why, as Catholics, we will continue to speak out on behalf of those who have no voice to speak for themselves and reach out to, comfort, and support those who are suffering the scars of the abortion experience. We will do so, until our land is finally rid of this despicable evil.”
Today we are experiencing what I would call “a mob of false truths.” Society has become entrenched in the idea that truth is whatever we want it to be. This is wrong because truth must conform to the reality that exists around us.
In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans we read: “They suppress the truth in unrighteousness . . . they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…who exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1:18-32).
This is happening all around us! Society voided itself of truth and now lives in a fantasy world. We need to be heralds of the truth and be witnesses to it in our lives.
The Baby Came Home
In 2005 there was a young woman who experienced firsthand the intrinsic evils of false truth. It was like any other Saturday night, but suddenly everything changed. The young woman was pregnant at 25 weeks gestation and went into labor.
She was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room. It just so happened that I was the chaplain on call that night. I was called to the emergency room to offer counsel. Arriving at her bedside I found a scared and emotionally distraught girl in shock by the news she had just been told.
The doctors had told her that the baby would not survive the birth and it would be delivered as s stillborn. She delivered the baby, and to everyone’s surprise, the baby was alive although very critical. I baptized little baby José, immediately making sure he was now in God’s hands.
What was astonishing is that the doctors deemed it not worth trying to help the baby because it would probably die anyway. The Neonatal Intensive Care doctor didn’t even want to bring the child upstairs but said the child would die in his mother’s arms. This infuriated me! Soon I began to take the necessary steps to fight the ill treatment of this struggling newborn.
I called the hospital administrator and pushed for ethics consult. Soon the fight was over, and the ethics committee sided with the family and me, allowing the baby to be taken in the Neonatal Intensive Care. You can imagine just how angry the NICU doctor was at me. He was so mad that I had the audacity to question his authority! He was obliged to care for this little José, and he didn’t like it.
Four months later, I had the joy of watching little José leave the hospital to go home with his parents.
That same day I met the NICU doctor in the elevator and he asked me why I fought so hard for that little baby. I told him the answer was very simple: I was that little baby. I too had been born at twenty-five weeks gestation and that was over thirty years ago! The doctor looked at me with tears in his eyes and said thank you! He then shared how my actions of fighting for that baby’s life reminded him why he became a doctor. From that day forward we were best of friends!
Falling Off The Cliff
Let’s return for a moment to the question Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?” Truth is the understanding of something bigger than us. Truth is looking at the whole picture around us and recognizing the reality that exists. We have seen in the early days of the new Biden administration that “real truth” has been replaced by “relative truth.” Executive orders have been signed to stop the death penalty, while the innocent unborn continue to be executed.
Our nation has fallen off the cliff of morality and unless we return to an understanding of what truth really is, we are doomed! In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus says: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
May all Catholics, and others of goodwill, pray fervently for our nation so that the “truth” may set us free from the bondage of the evil loose in our midst!