Renew The Church! – website and Blog

If seawater is gushing into the boat and there is no land in sight, what would your first priority be?  Well, prayer to God would be gushing out of my heart as I run to the broken hole in the boat, to do whatever I could do to stop this catastrophe mortally threatening all in the boat.  Such a life or death scenario is coming upon us in America soon, now – less than 100 days away – an election unlike any we have faced in this brief experiment of the Republic, the United States of America. 

The 2016 election was a miracle, I am sure.  God gave us – the Church – a second chance.  God “guided the bullet,” to adapt the phrase St. John Paul II used to describe his miraculous survival of the 1981 assassination attempt on his life.  “One hand pulled the trigger, another guided the bullet,” and it was Our Lady herself who saved him, he was sure.  The bullet was fired on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13.  

There is a different gun aimed at the heart of America, this coming national election, and the enemy not one lone assassin with a gun – the enemy is more and much worse than any of flesh and blood.  The enemy is moving in many ways to destroy the Christian Faith, Christian morality, marriage and the family, the human person, human rights and freedoms – indeed, history has exposed this enemy many times in the cruel culture of death in his wake, and the horrific brutal dictatorships he espouses and uses.  

Fr. Frank Pavone, a strong and faithful pro-life priest, has come out on this issue – on the crucial importance of this election – recently, with a force and a commitment that is music to my ears.  How I have longed to hear such conviction from priests and bishops throughout the country!  America needs to wake up!  America does not, yet, see the danger at our door – the enemy at the gate.  Our Church needs to wake up!  Fr. Pavone is preaching what the Church needs desperately to hear, and to understand the truth of it, and the growing urgency of it!  

The following is from Fr. Pavone, from a LifeSite article of a few days ago:

With 100 days left until Election Day, November 3, 2020, I call upon all of my fellow patriots who embrace pro-life and conservative principles to put aside, as much as possible, all other activities and to make it their first priority, as it will be mine, to re-elect President Trump, to give him a Republican House and Senate, and to elect Republicans on the state and local level as well.

Along with all my brothers and sisters in Christ, I affirm that my platform is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also affirm that the Democrat Party, in the principles and policies it embraces, has radically abandoned that Gospel, as well as the principles on which America was founded and Western Civilization rests.

It is no exaggeration to say that everything we’ve worked for, as a Church, a nation, and a pro-life, pro-family movement, is on the line in these next 100 days. This is a spiritual battle and no less than a civil war. We have to be all in, publicly, unapologetically, and with crystal clarity.

[A Democrat victory would] bring the holocaust of abortion, paid for by taxpayers, to unprecedented levels, taking away every restriction, even on infanticide; it would destroy our nation, bringing us socialism and open borders; it would replace law and order with mob rule and depleted law enforcement; it would deprive the Church of the freedom to conduct her mission and instead subject ministries to oppressive mandates, as Biden has already promised; it would destroy the family and any public protection for it; it would ruin our economy, ensnare us in destructive international agreements, and allow China to pursue its destructive agenda; it would fill the courts with judges who tear up the Constitution rather than apply it; it would roll back the protections President Trump has put in place for the consciences of healthcare workers, students on campus, and children who want to pray in school.

…..

We have to be able to read the signs of the times, and understand the stark differences between the Democrat and Republican parties. These are not merely difference of policy, but of principle. These are not two parties choosing different means to get to the same goal. They have radically different and irreconcilable goals. Only by choosing the Republican candidates can we preserve the values we hold as Americans and believers. That is not the canonization of a party; it is simply the recognition of who our friends and enemies in the political realm are at this point in time.

Our President and the Republican candidates are standing for America as an exceptional nation, for our Constitution and the rule of law, for the protection of the unborn, for pro-life judges, for parental rights and school choice, for a strong military, strong but welcoming borders, and a strong economy, for fair trade deals, for the rights of pastors to preach the Word of God freely and of all believers – domestically and around the world — to conduct their affairs without discrimination against their faith; for strong and ethical healthcare, and for many more policies that protect rather than abandon our principles.

Along with countless others, I am ashamed and disgusted at the silence and lack of leadership by so many of the Churches. They have made themselves irrelevant, failing to preach on the issues of the day and using the lame excuse of political neutrality, and a desire to promote “unity,” to hide in the sanctuary instead of engage the public square while the Democrats destroy the unity on which this nation and the Church are founded. Moreover, many Church leaders try to intimidate and silence those of us who are not afraid to pass moral judgment in matters of politics, and to name the enemy. It is a disgrace, and it is time for believers to take matters into their own hands, link arms and hearts with fellow believers, and engage in new and creative ways to proclaim and apply the Gospel teachings to this moment in history.

LifeSite article link.

Yes, the above is a strong proclamation!  It needs to be shouted: the situation in America has become dire, and the professed ambitions of the Democrats (especially many of the “Catholic” ones!) are truly frightening.  Their professed policies and plans oppose the faithful Church and the American Constitution, and even common sense.  Every bishop and priest in the country ought to see clearly the existential danger that the Democrats in our time pose to the Faith.  I pray that Fr. Pavone’s words will help them all toward the courage their positions demand, that they will guide, with zeal, the faithful to Truth.