The Problems with Fidelity Month

In those long-ago days of 2002, during the Long Lent, when it came to light that homosexual priests had been abusing young men and boys for decades, the response from the great Richard John Neuhaus, whom we miss every single day, were the words “Fidelity. Fidelity. Fidelity.” He said these words slowly in that incredible, rhythmic baritone voice of his. He said it on television, radio, and in print. “Fidelity. Fidelity. Fidelity.” Can’t you hear it now in your head?

The proposition was that these men were merely unfaithful to the vow of chastity that they had made as men of the cloth. If only they had remained faithful to those vows. And this is true, as far as it goes. Except the problem was much deeper than that.

The problem went to the heart of who they thought they were. To view oneself as a new category of person, to view oneself as “a homosexual,” sets oneself up against human nature and eternal moral norms. Fidelity is the least of your and, therefore, our problems.

Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity was perhaps too clever, too winsome. There was a great call in those days to be winsome. This winsomeness was the way to convince our fellow Catholics not to accept the messaging and desires of the homosexual movement.

Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity slid into new messaging in the Great Marriage Debate when some homosexuals began to campaign to change the definition of marriage and to view their “vowed” sodomitical relationships as the same as man-woman marriage bound to life-long marriage and fecundity. The winsome message became “every child needs a mom and a dad,” things that two men cannot provide. 

Some in our ranks of prominent spokesmen actually said they respected the loving relationship between two men. Quite clearly, the grotesque “love is love,” which, after all, includes a father and his adult son or daughter, was more potent than “moms and dads.” Look around. Which message won: “moms and dads” or “love is love?”

And so, we come to June, and we are awash in Satan’s “pride” rainbow. In response comes “Fidelity Month,” complete with logo, t-shirts, and messaging: “God, family, country.” This is proposed to be enough to stand up to the vicious onslaught of “pride.” But is it?

First, consider the logo. It looks like either a bank or a branch of the military. Let me quote the great apologist Karl Keating, who said this in a Facebook thread in response to an explanation of the logo on the Fidelity Month website:

At first glance, it struck me as a military-service symbol or as a symbol for a U.N. department. Then I read the website’s explanation—and winced. 

If you have to explain the meaning of each element of a symbol, the symbol fails. Robby George started with myrtle because that is a symbol of fidelity—but who knows that? Almost no one. The website says, “additional elements were added to symbolize God, family, and country.”

Right away, I understood that the small circle with a star alluded to the U.S., but the rest of the symbolism is just too far-fetched: “The circular shape of the wreath is representative of God and His eternal nature, while the openness at the top of the wreath is suggestive of a divine embrace.” 

I’d bet that no one aside from the designers would draw such an understanding.

“The color gold symbolizes generosity and compassion…[and the] color blue, our background color, symbolizes truth, loyalty, responsibility, and peace.” 

This is too abstract. It reminds me of modernist architecture’s proponents trying to explain how symbolic their hunks of bare concrete are. In fact, for them, there’s no there there, and there isn’t much there in the Fidelity Month symbol.

I entirely agree that the logo fails abundantly. Though it is packed with meaning, it ends up having no meaning at all.

And then the message. God. Family. Country. Though Professor Robert George, the spokesman for this effort, says “Fidelity Month” could be any month of the year, organizers present it as an answer to “Pride Month.” But is it? Is it really? 

The question becomes: Is there anything in this message that the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” can disagree with? Even now, I can hear Sister Guard N. O’Pansies, Sister Lourdes Mae Shepherd, or Sister Shalita Corndog exclaim, “I love God, family, and country. This is why we do what we do!” I can hear trans luggage-stealer Sam Brinton agree with the messaging of Fidelity Month.

Organizers of Fidelity Month say that its logo and message are inclusive and that everyone can come along, and this is quite obviously true; even the trannies can come along. But sometimes you must draw lines. Sometimes politics is not addition; it is subtraction and even division.

June is already the month of the Sacred Heart. Sometimes the Cross of Christ is the answer. We are told that the Sacred Heart is only for Catholics. I do not believe this is true. The month of June can not only be an answer to “pride month,” but it can also be a call to evangelize something extraordinary to our non-Catholic Christians.

The striking image of a beating and flaming heart pierced by a sword is enough to swell pride in the hearts of Catholics during this month when we feel so beaten down. It may be enough to win the attention of our Protestant brothers and sisters. It may very well be enough to call Sister Lourdes Mae Shepherd away from a life of sin. Yes, sin. Let us talk about sin again. The Sacred Heart can do things that a corporate logo and limp political slogans cannot. The striking image of a beating and flaming heart pierced by a sword is enough to swell pride in the hearts of Catholics during this month when we feel so beaten down.Tweet This

For this month, my family is flying the Flag of the Vendée, the French peasants who refused to go along with the French Revolution, who were not winsome. They stood up to the revolutionaries of those days in precisely the same way we are called to stand up to the Sexual Revolutionaries of our day. They were willing to wear the martyr’s crown. Are we?

The response to Sacred Heart flags flying in front of homes has been astounding. People are doing it all over the country, all over the world. We do not need a new symbol or movement when we have a wonderful one from centuries ago that is being rediscovered now by faithful Christians. The Sacred Heart of Christ is more powerful than all, more powerful than “fidelity.”