Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How many times have you heard that you should not mix religion and politics? Poppycock. Listen to what Cardinal Newman writes about our responsibility to bring the truth of Our Lord to politics.

“Clergymen are bound to form and pronounce an opinion. It is sometimes said, in familiar language, that a clergyman should have nothing to do with politics. This is true, if it be meant that he should not aim at secular objects, should not side with a political party as such, should not be ambitious of popular applause, or the favor of great men. . . . But if it means that he should not express an opinion and exert an influence one way rather than another, it is plainly unscriptural. Did not the Apostles, with all their reverence for the temporal power, whether Jewish or Roman, and all their separation from worldly ambition, did they not still denounce their rulers as wicked men, who had crucified and slain the Lord’s Christ? and would they have been as a city on a hill if they had not done so? And all this may be done without injury to our Christian gentleness and humbleness, though it is difficult to do it. We need not be angry nor use contentious words, and yet may firmly give our opinion, in proportion as we have the means of forming one, and be zealous towards God in all active good service, and scrupulously and pointedly keep aloof from the bad men whose evil arts we fear.” (John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons)

To choose or promote a political party is not the duty of the priest or bishop or pope. But, as St. John Newman reminds us, it is necessarily the Church’s duty shine the light of Christ on public policy that is contrary to natural law. To point out those efforts that are contrary to the Gospel and to the Church’s teaching dates back to the early Church and Christ Himself. Silence is not an option when it comes to the Church’s duty to proclaim the truth of the Gospel with love. Realizing the beauty of the Catholic faith, compels us to share the truth and dispel the lies.

“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most radical doctrine in the history of ideas. If the world believed what Jesus proclaimed — that God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters created in His image with God-given dignity and a transcendent destiny — every society could be transformed overnight.” (Catholics in the Public Square, Forward, Archbishop Gomez)

If every Catholic realized the great gift and power God has entrusted to us to do good and proclaim the love of Our Lord Jesus, especially to those who oppose the Gospel of life, our nation could truly become that “city on the hilltop” shining for all the world to see. Imagine a world where all people could come to know the goodness of God and His transformational love for all His children. It would be heavenly.

The beauty of our Catholic faith begins with the awareness that by our baptism, we belong to the “city of God.” All of creation, every human being was created by God for God and created by Love for Love. As God’s children, created in His image, we are given the awesome responsibility and duty, not only to His Church, but to the “city of man”. God has entrusted to His children the ability to correct injustices and make decisions that are in union with God’s desires for all His children. As members of the Catholic Church and disciples of Our Lord Jesus, each of us are called by God to promote the common good and to protect the most vulnerable, the unborn, the elderly, the poor, the marginalized and the weak.

“God does not see the world through the limitations of our political categories of ‘left’ and ‘right,’ ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative.’ He is our Father and He sees only His children. When one of God’s children is suffering injustice, He calls the rest of us to love and compassion and to ‘make things right.’ How can we justify defending the dignity of some and not others or protecting God’s creation while neglecting some of His most vulnerable creatures?” (Catholics in the Public Square, Forward, Archbishop Gomez)

Fr. Don Kline
Pastor

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