The They/Them Who Cried Theocracy

The transgender movement is continuing its invasion of seemingly every major institution in the United States, including the Catholic Church in America. St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Manhattan recently enshrined in its sanctuary an art display provocatively entitled “God is Trans: A Queer Spiritual Journey.” The display equates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to trans genital-mutilation surgery. How do faithful, orthodox Catholics respond to such profane subversion?

Left-wing factions are fond of raising the hue and cry over Catholics attempting to “force” their religious beliefs on the secular world. Catholic Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett serves as a prime example of this. When nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017, Barrett was constantly faulted for her Catholic faith. 

A collection of LGBTQ+ lobbyist and activist groups penned an open letter at the time, expressing concern Barrett wouldn’t be able to separate her faith from her legal duties. During Barrett’s confirmation hearings, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein told the future Supreme Court Justice, “The dogma lives loudly within you, and that is a concern,” alluding to concerns Barrett wouldn’t respect Roe v. Wade due to her Catholic faith. Barrett insisted, “My personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear on the discharge of my duties as a judge.”

In all honesty, it wouldn’t have mattered if that were true or not: Barrett and her Catholicism were still attacked when President Donald Trump nominated her to the Supreme Court in 2020. Although most Democratic congressmen avoided open criticism of her faith—which would have been obscenely hypocritical given that their party’s then-presidential-nominee Joe Biden still claims to be Catholic while flouting nearly every moral code the Church has ever held—Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted Barrett’s nomination vote, and every Democrat in the Senate voted against her confirmation.

But leftist mouthpieces, pundits, and media outlets continued to blast the esteemed jurist’s Catholic beliefs. Politico implied Barrett’s charismatic Catholic community is a cult, as did the left-wing National Catholic Reporter, while Newsweek used the term “cult” outright. The Nation castigated Barrett’s “extremist religious beliefs”; The New Yorker accused her of “remaking America” using her Catholicism as a blueprint; the aptly-named outlet Crooked labeled her “a Catholic bigot”; and the list goes on. Things got especially heated after the predominantly-Catholic Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, with Catholic Justice Brett Kavanaugh even being targeted for assassination.

Why, you may ask, is it worth glossing the vitriol aimed at Barrett for her Catholicism? The point is an illustrative one, and only one of countless examples: Catholic Jim Caviezel has been blackballed from Hollywood for starring in fellow Catholic Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ; Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr has been smeared for being “neck-deep in extremist Catholic institutions”; the FBI has targeted Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass; and, once again, the list goes on.

In answer to the question above, these examples are demonstrative of a common leftist tactic—namely, crying “authoritarian theocracy” whenever a devout Catholic is appointed to or earns—or, honestly, is even considered for—a position of any influence. But it doesn’t stop there—no, that’s only half the tactic. The other half consists of simultaneously quietly invading and infiltrating Catholic institutions.

The profane trans artwork hanging on the altar in St. Paul’s is demonstrative of this. Although the Metropolitan Archdiocese of New York has launched an investigation into the ordeal, it’s not the only one of its type.

The pastor of St. Paul’s, Fr. Rick Walsh, said in 2020, “Christ is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.” The parish also features an LGBTQ+ “ministry” program, in contradiction to the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church. The archdiocesan investigation is unlikely to yield any substantial results as New York’s cardinal, Timothy Dolan, has long been a quiet supporter of the LGBTQ+ agenda, including allowing pro-gay groups to march under rainbow banners in New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

In Lexington, Kentucky, the historic St. Paul Catholic Church has a vocal LGBTQ+ wing, resulting in priests wearing rainbow-flag vestments and images of the Blessed Virgin Mary being draped in pro-gay colors. Lexington’s bishop, John Stowe, has been highly supportive of the LGBTQ+ agenda.

Chicago’s powerful cardinal, Blase Cupich, has also endorsed the rainbow-flag crowd, including trying to water down a Vatican ban on blessing same-sex unions. San Diego’s cardinal, Robert McElroy, is a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ+ agenda, as are prominent Jesuit priest and media personality James Martin and openly gay priest and theology professor Bryan Massingale. As before, the list goes on. Catholic bishops include John Stowe, Blase Cupich, and Robert McElroy have been outspoken of their endorsement of the rainbow-flag crowd.Tweet This

Homosexuality and transgenderism aren’t the only leftist pet projects to have infected Catholic institutions and leaders. Abortion has, too. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sitting president, Joe Biden, one of the most rabidly pro-abortion politicians in U.S. history and a self-professed Catholic. In 2021, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops refused to publicly deny Biden access to Holy Communion, which they are permitted and even expected to do in accordance with Canon Law.

While “the dogma lives loudly within” Barrett and countless other maligned Catholics, the leftist dogma lives loudly within pro-LGBTQ+ and pro-abortion activists rankling within even the world’s oldest and most historically conservative institution, the Catholic Church, despite cries of “theocracy” and “religious extremism.”

Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen warned, “A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it.” Faithful Catholics would do well to heed that warning: start defending the Church and start interfering with the secular order. You cannot sit idly and hope the danger will pass from your door, it won’t; either it dies or you do, and all you hold dear.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]