Sunday 6th October 2024

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

What A Year!

December 16, 2017 Frontpage No Comments

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

A year ago, Barack Hussein Obama was in the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state, the fabric of the rule of law was tattered and tearing, and America’s Catholic bishops were in a panic.
During the 1916 presidential campaign, our beloved shepherds — most of them, anyway — had certainly not been strong supporters of Hillary Clinton. Nonetheless, like most members of the Establishment, they clearly expected her to win. They were bracing themselves for four more years of government attacks on religious freedom, on the unborn, on life at all stages, and on the taxpayer (who was funding abortion at home and abroad through various federal programs), even as they looked forward to an expansion of federal funding for the operations of their various welfare agencies.
For our bishops, Donald Trump’s victory was truly stunning — which is to say, it left them thoroughly stunned. While many faithful Catholics valiantly cheered the prospect of a pro-life president, the political staff at the USCCB’s Washington headquarters was thrown into disarray. For years, that staff had championed the liberal agenda of the Democrats with the full support of the bishops. Leaders virtually ignored the conference’s small office devoted to the protection of unborn life. In July, The Wanderer reported how Mark Gallagher, the USCCB’s longtime pro-life lobbyist, recounted how that staff gained control of the USCCB’s massive bureaucracy.
In the late 1970s, the conference’s left-wing staff pulled off what has to be called a stealth operation that was both brilliant and simple. They recognized that Democrat politicians friendly to the USCCB’s welfare-state agenda were becoming a problem: They were being more open, even brazen, in their support of abortion. Key conference staffers were afraid that these pro-aborts would force millions of pro-life Democrats to jump ship and vote for the more pro-life Republicans, endangering their “social justice” agenda. So they carefully wove the fabric of what was to become the “Seamless Garment” — a Trojan Horse that dragged the conference into the Dictatorship of Relativism, chanting the doctrine that welfare-state economic and social issues were just as important as the protection of life in the womb.
Forty years later, that “deep state” of the USCCB bureaucracy still drives the bishops’ public policy priorities, and in 2017 the glaring contradictions of that agenda became more evident than ever with Donald Trump’s victory. Suddenly the conference confronted two challenges:
First of all, bishops were faced with the prospect of a reversal of Obama’s left-wing social agenda, an approach which the USCCB had succeeded in branding as “Catholic.” Second of all, the conference’s member bishops faced a drastic reduction in the federal funding that provides the lifeblood of countless chancery and welfare agency staffs. These considerations, and not the protection of life at every stage, have provided the driving force of the conference’s activities throughout the year.
The election sent conference leaders scrambling in crisis mode to preserve the status quo on the political as well as the financial level, all the while paying little attention to Trump’s historic reversal of the Obama administration’s radically pro-abortion, pro-sodomy, and anti-family platform.
After all, the funding for the bishops’ various welfare agencies had grown every year under Obama, although the conference will not disclose just how much that funding was. Those agencies, in turn, were burdened not only by ideology but also by a sense of inertia: thousands of conference and chancery staffers, “experts,” lobbyists, and consultants depended for their livelihoods on the continued flow of federal funding; as a result, many prominent leaders, bishops, and bureaucrats alike, insisted that it would be “uncharitable” to put these fine people out of work as a result of funding cuts to their programs.
To preserve the twin goals of their political agenda and their federal funding, the bishops launched an intensive lobbying and public relations campaign that began even before President Trump was inaugurated in January. By the month of March, they had attacked Trump’s positions on over a dozen key issues, including health care, the travel ban, refugee policy, Cuba policy, the Paris agreement, the death penalty, global warming, the environment, migration, immigration, foreign aid, sanctuary cities, deportations, State Department organization, and border security.
In each case, the bishops favored the policies of the Obama administration, and in the majority of cases, the programs they advocated provided significant funding — hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, all told — to the bishops and their various welfare agencies. In each case, Trump’s policies threatened to reduce or to terminate that funding.
This is not to say that the bishops opposed Trump’s approach to magisterial issues. In fact, USCCB officials publicly commended the new president for his actions on religious liberty, the HHS mandate, United Nations abortion funding, Planned Parenthood funding, the Mexico City policy (regarding U.S. funding of international abortions), and “transgender” student regulations.
However, none of Trump’s policies in these areas provided any federal funding to the bishops, so the conference did not dwell on those issues in their vigorous public advocacy.
Instead, they focused on supporting government programs that provided federal funding. And their most zealous efforts centered on immigration.
The intensity of the bishops’ pro-amnesty efforts boiled over during the summer, as it became clear that the Trump administration intended to enforce existing immigration laws that had been largely ignored during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
To commemorate the Fourth of July, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz mounted a strident attack on state attorneys general and one governor (including three pro-life Catholics) who advocated negating Obama’s diktat known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which had unconstitutionally nullified federal law. Bishop Seitz later admitted that he was emotional when he called these officials “Pharisees and hypocrites,” but like many of his pro-amnesty colleagues, he has never taken the occasion to publicly remonstrate his 100 percent pro-abortion Democrat congressman, Cong. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso.
In November, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski added to the hyperbole, effectively likening himself to the Minutemen at Concord Bridge as he advocated breaking laws that bishops didn’t like (address on November 28, 2017, at the IMPAC Fund’s Bipartisan Summit on Immigration Reform, held on the campus of the University of Miami).
But bright lights appeared on the horizon, as the pro-amnesty juggernaut confronted the sensibility articulated by Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, when he pointed out in April that “the Church is gravely mistaken as to the nature of the real crisis if she thinks that her essential mission is to offer solutions to all the political problems relating to justice, peace, poverty, the reception of migrants, etc., while neglecting evangelization.”
Cardinal Sarah insisted that the Church will ultimately “fail in her mission” if she forgets that fundamental truth.
At the USCCB’s annual meeting in Baltimore in November, the fault lines in the conference were evidenced in the election of the new head of the Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. There were only two candidates, Blase Cardinal Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City.
While a cardinal has traditionally occupied the post, Archbishop Naumann won by a thin margin, and quickly made it clear that he took his new responsibilities seriously. In a December interview with the Catholic World Report, he insisted that priests should make the protection of life from conception to natural death a priority in their preaching. “If the Church is silent on the destruction of life, we’re being negligent, and leaving our young people vulnerable to making this tragic decision,” the archbishop said.
The fissures in the conference are not clear, but they are there. One thing sure, the days of the “seamless garment” are over in the age of President Trump. Alas, the bishops are not going to cease their politicking. But they are going to have to lay their cards face-up on the table and decide, do they want a government that hands them money, or a government that champions the rights of the unborn? In the long run, they can’t have it both ways.
Merry Christmas!

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

This week at the Synod on Synodality — revolution or much ado about nothing?

Perhaps it is in the very nature of the Synod on Synodality to take steps back after having taken several steps forward. But the tone of the opening days of the synod’s final general assembly makes it apparent that, for the moment, there is no talk of revolution within the Church.  That tone was set days before the gathering got underway this week at the Vatican, when in his speech in Belgium on Sept. 27, Pope Francis…Continue Reading

Wyoming doctor fired by GOP governor for opposing child ‘sex changes’ asks to be reinstated

(The Daily Signal) — Wyoming’s governor removed a doctor from the state’s board of medicine because the doctor supported a law banning “gender-affirming care” for minors. The doctor is suing, and his lawyers are filing a motion Tuesday asking the court to reinstate him on the medical board. His legal team also revealed that more than 5,000 Wyoming residents have signed a petition asking the governor to reinstate him

Pro-life leaders express disgust with ‘fully booked’ mobile Planned Parenthood unit at DNC

(LifeSiteNews) — Planned Parenthood was “fully booked” with 25 appointments to dispense abortion pills at a mobile center on Monday and Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). “Twenty-five innocent human beings whose lives are being ended at the DNC. And this is done as a political statement,” pro-life activist Lila Rose remarked Tuesday on her podcast.

Pope Francis acknowledges conference for ‘LGBT Catholics’

Pope Francis this week said he is “united in prayer” with those participating in a conference for Catholics who identify as LGBT taking place this weekend in Washington, D.C. Father James Martin, a controversial Jesuit priest who founded the pro-LGBT group Outreach in 2022, reportedly asked Pope Francis if he would like to send a greeting to the group’s 2024 gathering, taking place Aug. 2–4 at Georgetown University. Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington is scheduled to celebrate Mass on Saturday at…Continue Reading

Senators Slam Army After Presentation Calls Pro-Life Americans Terrorists

Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Ted Budd (R-NC), along with Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) and their colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth demanding answers after an anti-terrorism training conducted at Fort Liberty, North Carolina depicted Pro-Life Americans as terrorists. “We write regarding social media reports that anti-terrorism training conducted at Ft. Liberty, North Carolina depicts Pro-Life Americans as terrorists. Specifically, the slides identify National Right to Life, ‘Choose Life’ license plate holders, and…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)