Renew The Church! – website and Blog

Shameless public “Catholic” endorsements of the New Morality take one more bow in the spotlight: our present “Catholic” Vice President, Joe Biden, has now officiated for a “marriage” of a same-sex couple. Yes, Joe Biden “married” two men who are long-time White House aides. The story is HERE.

This, to be heard in the echoes of the recent unveiling of a new insult to the Church and the Faith, new to most of us – the “Catholic” Democrat nominee for our next Vice President, Tim Kaine. Mr. Kaine is solidly in support of the New Morality: pro-abortion, pro-contraception, pro-homosexual equivalence in matters of marriage and child adoption. Indeed, “the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, hailed Hillary Clinton’s selection of Tim Kaine — who has a solid commitment to LGBTQ equality — as her running mate.”

Tim Kaine thinks that his Catholic foundation was laid for him in his “Jesuit education.” There, he believes, he was taught to be a “man for others” in the mold of his Jesuit education. Here is a summary from an article on the Cardinal Newman Society website:

But for Kaine, being Catholic doesn’t prevent him from ignoring his faith to support redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, the use of  birth control and the ordination of women as priests.  Being “for others” doesn’t include protecting the innocent unborn, who are created in the image and likeness of God. His efforts to “battle for social justice” don’t include seeking justice for those killed in the womb.

LifeSiteNews notes that Kaine “has a perfect pro-abortion record in the Senate and supports Planned Parenthood. Kaine is also a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would undermine pro-life laws across the country.” The news service also recently highlighted abortion giant Planned Parenthood’s excitement about Kaine as the Democrat vice presidential nominee, calling Kaine a man who has “dedicated his life to serving others.”

More broadly, Kaine betrays his service “for others” as a Catholic by purposefully causing scandal with his public statements and political positions against Church teaching that could confuse both Catholics and others about the importance of defending innocent life.

Sadly there are many other prominent, well-known figures in our government who are Catholic, and who bring only shame to the Church and confusion to many. Our Church is called to be light in this darkening world! Yet many in the Church seek to aid and further empower the darkness. Many – who are called to be evangelizers for the Faith – instead are sources of grave scandal, leading people away from Truth and into sin.

Scandal is a grave matter – Catholics in prominent, responsible positions of leadership in government – and thus positions of power in society – have a grave responsibility to care for those subject to their authority, their leadership and their example. The Catechism teaches, concerning scandal:

Respect for the souls of others: scandal

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” [Mt 18:6; Cf. 1 Cor 8:10-13] Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing. [Cf. Mt 7:15]

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.
Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to “social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible.” [Pius XII, Discourse, June 1, 1941] This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, [Cf. Eph 6:4; Col. 3:21] or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!” [Lk 17:1]

At least two bishops have spoken out concerning such public scandal:

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of Kaine’s home diocese of Richmond, Virginia released a statement regarding Catholics in public office July 22.
“The Catholic Church makes its position very clear as it pertains to the protection of human life, social justice initiatives, and the importance of family life,” he said.
“From the very beginning, Catholic teaching informs us that every human life is sacred from conception until natural death. The right to life is a fundamental, human right for the unborn and any law denying the unborn the right to life is unequivocally unjust.”

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island also commented on the subject, mentioning Kaine by name and lamenting that “apparently, and unfortunately, his faith isn’t central to his public, political life.”

Kaine has been described as a devout Catholic and has attended St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Richmond for decades.

Yes, here I go again. The coming election is haunting me – stalking me – tempting me to grief and worry about the horrors that could come upon us. The country is at the brink of crisis, and people are angry. We are left with two major candidates who are both flawed, both provoking fears and uncertainty about what exactly they would do, and not do, as president. I am left with the resolution that if I cannot in confidence advance the good by my vote, at least I can seek to lessen the evil that could come. And with my primary concern being the right to life, my lot is cast with the Republicans.

I’ve written here several blogs on the concern that our Church is asleep, while our country is adrift and in danger. She sleeps while the world is very busy at work, building its city of deceit, and of death. Some examples –
1. Catholics: It is Time to Awaken! 
2. What Time Is It?
3. Acedia: Spiritual Sloth and the Church of Laodicea, U.S.A 
4. Church as Babysitter in a Culture of Death

I’ll close with this quote from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:

… Across the centuries, it is the drowsiness of the disciples that opens up possibilities for the power of the evil one. Such drowsiness deadens the soul, so that it remains undisturbed by the power of the evil one at work in the world, and by all the injustice and suffering ravaging the earth. In its state of numbness, the soul prefers not to see all this; it is easily persuaded that all things cannot be so bad, so as to continue in the self-satisfaction of its own comfortable existence. Yet this deadening of souls, this lack of vigilance regarding both God’s closeness and the looming forces of darkness is what gives the evil one power in this world. On beholding the drowsy disciples, so disinclined to rouse themselves the Lord says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death.” (Mk 14:34)
(Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI)