At Catholic Advocate, I argue the White House and the Congress are empowering Catholic dissidents, and, as a result, the Church is paying the price.
For those who say we must wait for the Church to exert its influence over politics, I say the Church in presently too weak. The vectors of influence can be traced from Democratic party leadership towards the Church, and not vice versa.
The travesty of ObamaCare is the case in point, or, should I say, the most publicized case of inverse influence. As I explain at Catholic Advocate:
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
Sign up to get Crisis articles delivered to your inbox daily
The pro-abortion forces in this country and the “social justice/seamless garment” crowd in the Church have been empowered by the new Congress and presidency. The reason the Church is so weak right now is the sudden power of groups like the Catholic Health Association, Catholics United, and Catholics In Alliance for the Common Good.
These groups, and their leadership, have straight lines of communication throughout the Church, through the USCCB, chanceries, parishes, and various Catholic associations. This is the network that drove the twisted interpretation of “Faithful Citizenship” through parishes nationwide in 2008.
Take a look at the picture above: Sr. Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, is speaking from a podium bearing the presidential seal while Vice President Biden, a Catholic, peers over her shoulder as if to make sure she got through all her White House-supplied talking points.
No wonder Sr. Keehan received one of the official Presidential pens used to sign the health care bill — providing billions of dollars for abortion — into law.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one day that pen took on a life of its own and, as if in a bizarre fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, escaped from CHA headquarters and clamored on the door of the the D. C. Planned Parenthood clinic asking for work at its registration desk.