By Tom Klocek

“For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” —John 3:20

“Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived.” —2 Timothy 3:12-13 (emphasis added)

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One.” —1 John 5:19

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder.” —James 2:19

We are in one fearful state these days. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) appears to be on the verge of striking down the abominable Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortion throughout the country and throughout a woman’s pregnancy. While there are many grounds for this being a bad decision, from the killing of an innocent child (without due process of law) to the advocacy of public funding for this murder, regardless of one’s religious conviction, the most obvious one is that, on its merits, it violates the Constitution. This decision violated states’ rights as well as being targeted against a particular class of people, babies in the womb, as well as violating our religious freedom. With the leak of this potential decision, the pro-abortion advocates have stepped up their assault on unborn children and on conservatives in general. Their attacks extend to the Catholic Church, which is not an advocate for either political party but an advocate for principles, especially the God-given principles and rights on which our nation was founded.

So how is this evil going to the extreme? One only has to look at the history of those who advocate baby killing. At one time the mantra was to make abortion safe, legal, and rare. Now the mantra is “celebrate your abortion” or “it’s my right” without any consideration of the child within or any idea of personal responsibility for one’s actions. Of course, in the case of rape, it was another’s actions, but the baby is still innocent. And statistics show that while such situations are relatively rare, most women who became pregnant from a rape decide to carry their child to term. The Left continually tries to divert the discussion from the killing of an innocent child, distinct in all ways from the mother as shown by science, to the “rights” of the mother to the exclusion of all else. Ignoring the extreme error in the Roe ruling from the start, it now falls back on such things as “upsetting decades of precedent protecting the right of Americans to make fundamental personal decisions.” These words were actually written to me by a supposedly Catholic senator. He then tried to divert the discussion to contraception even though the Roe decision has no connection to women’s contraception issues. Others have even gone so far as to suggest that interracial marriages will be in danger. You would think that, with all the brouhaha made recently over Clarence Thomas’s wife, they would know that she is white. Additionally, this senator notes that after the point of fetal viability, states may enact “reasonable limitations to restrict abortion” even though he voted for an extreme bill that would go well beyond the limitations already in place both federally and locally and couldn’t even vote to preserve the life of a child who survived an abortion. Another of their arguments is “my body, my choice.” Yet that argument was totally ignored by the bullies in the administration when it came to vaccines and mask mandates, closing churches and businesses, and in some areas requiring proof of vaccination for entry.

And now the bullies are (illegally) even threatening the Supreme Court justices and their families in an effort to intimidate them. They were possibly encouraged by the Senate majority leader’s comments.

Other areas where sin goes to the extreme include the LGBTQ+ agenda. A few decades ago, they claimed that their goal was just that others accept their lifestyle without harassment. Now they are actively attacking others who, in their own decision space, refuse to endorse a lifestyle that has been counter to faith practices for millennia. And contrary to popular claims, try as they might, science has not been able to identify a “homosexual gene.” One smarmy self-proclaimed Catholic stood up in Congress saying he was going to tell them all the words Jesus said about homosexuality and then said nothing for several minutes. While it is true that there is nothing recorded in the gospels where Jesus used the word “homosexual,” Jesus did say: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). The law he is referring to, of course, is found in the Old Testament. He also talks of the necessity of doing the will of the Father. Again, this includes the Old Testament laws. St. Paul expands on this when he says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

And again, contrary to science, they have moved from raising children in a family environment with parental oversight to trying to remove parents from all sorts of decisions concerning their children’s well-being, whether it’s education, sex grooming, transgender decisions and encouragement, etc. Publicly, the current administration likes to perpetrate the lie that encouraging minors to decide their own sex, to the point of chemical or surgical alterations, will reduce suicides and suicide attempts in the long run while research has shown the opposite. In 85% of the cases, these situations resolve themselves if the child is allowed to go through puberty. Additionally, for those who undergo such procedures, the rate of suicide is 20 times that of the population in general. When challenged the administration doubled down on its assertion without data to back up its claim, thus exacerbating the lie (just like the lie claiming that women who undergo abortion only rarely suffer physical and/or mental problems as a result).

These same groups — the cultural and political elite — bemoan the fact that bullying occurs on social media or in life itself, yet they are in the business of bullying the population in general. Unfortunately, the population in general has acquiesced, mostly for fear of becoming targets of the bullies. This bullying extends to the destruction of law and order, the family, and basic freedoms. Oddly enough, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has said, with respect to a special election in Texas, that it supports Roe v Wade because it supports fundamental rights. Meanwhile, it wants conservative speech restricted, censorship by the social media platforms, people’s guns taken away, and for us to keep our religion to ourselves. The whole woke world, while claiming to be victims, is actually bullying anyone with common sense. They want to claim victim status while victimizing everyone who might oppose them. Look at who is actually engaging in and promoting violence. Black Lives Matter sparked and led many riots resulting in death and costing millions of dollars in damage. It was supported and even spurred on by the media and many in government. It was a left-wing supporter of Bernie Sanders who shot at Republican representatives (and nearly killed one) at a congressional baseball practice. Many of the shootings were initially claimed to be by conservatives, but with just a little research the perpetrators were found to have been left-wing supporters. The Left tries to blame the NRA for gun violence, but none of these shooters have been NRA members. At the same time, they avoid dealing with the underlying issues that result in these broken and damaged individuals who commit these atrocities.

In order to hide their intentions and actions, they continually obfuscate and misuse vocabulary so as to make their positions more palatable or to provide disinformation to the public, all the while claiming transparency. A good example is the misuse of the term healthcare. They call abortion healthcare. They like to use this term (healthcare), which is normally construed to try to save lives, even though in an abortion one of the patients dies and the other suffers long-term injury. Similarly, they push “gender affirming” therapy (chemical treatment such as puberty blockers) and surgery as healthcare based on their claim that it reduces suicides and suicide attempts, while studies show that the opposite is true. Based on recent comprehensive studies, Sweden has currently restricted use of puberty blockers and other transgender therapies for youth under 18.

In the meantime, these “healthcare therapies” cause irreparable and irreversible damage. Should any of these victims want to go back to a normal life, and many do, it is not possible. They suffer from bone damage, sterilization, and other withdrawal problems when they come off these chemicals (which they are tied to in order to maintain their gender “reassignment”). Look at the words I had to use to discuss this foolishness. This is the work of the devil. C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters describes the misuse or twisting of vocabulary as a tactic for demons to redirect people’s attention or hide the actual work of corrupting their targets (humans). Jesus warned about transparency in John 3:19-2: “The light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.”

The common theme in all of this is the absence of God. In the rare cases where they acknowledge God, they always seem to know better than Him.

They always claim to know better than the rest of us as well. Let’s take one of the current prominent situations today, Nancy Pelosi, whose pastoral leader, Archbishop Cordileone, told her she was forbidden to receive communion. For years she has claimed to know better than the rest of as to how to spend our money, make life decisions, be allowed to speak freely, or exercise our basic rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. She claims, very vocally, to come from a pro-life family and that she is a devout Catholic. She has also claimed to know more than the Catholic Church about such things as abortion and sexual decisions, at various times saying that opposition to abortion or a homosexual lifestyle was not a part of Catholic history or teaching. Obviously, she has not done any research into the early Church, as these were noted issues in the Bible and in a first-century document called the Didache. She recently showed that she likes to quote scripture. Perhaps she should read St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians mentioned above.

The early Christians were also noted by historians as living in a way that set them apart from the debauchery that was the Roman society of the time.

In a recent interview, Pelosi claimed to be doing God’s work by looking out for the poor and the needy, referring to the Gospel of Matthew. Perhaps she should have read the entire passage which she was citing. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Of course, she had already made this claim when, in 2021, 60 Catholic Democrats penned an open letter to the Catholic Bishops, entitled “Statement of Principles.” In fact, she should probably read the entire Gospel of Matthew (the Catholic Church encourages all of its members to read Scripture often). Other important passages she should familiarize herself with include:

• “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.” —Matthew 7:15-16

• “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” —Matthew 7:21, emphasis added

• “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’” —Matthew 7 22-23

Keep in mind that Satan also quoted Scripture when trying to tempt Jesus in the desert.

Of course, the liberal media and celebrities, including that paragon of church knowledge and canon law who once played a nun, Whoopi Goldberg, came rushing out of the woodwork to claim that Archbishop Cordileone had overstepped his bounds. She used such pithy statements as, “That’s not your job, dude.” Of course, it IS his job. Again, drawing on history we see that even in the time of King David, it was the responsibility of the religious leaders to correct even the king when he stepped out of the boundaries God had set down. As such, Archbishop Cordileone is only following the example of Nathan, the prophet, who did not hesitate to confront David, the king, saying, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?” (2 Samuel 12:9). Similarly, we also have the example of St. Ambrose, who, as Bishop of Milan, made the Roman Emperor, Theodosius, sit with the laity, as it was not his place to be in the sanctuary. Furthermore, when notified of an unspeakable atrocity committed by this Christian emperor, Ambrose “urged him to repent publicly for his crime.” (M. D'Ambrosio, When the Church was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers). Ambrose required the emperor to do public penance before being readmitted to the Blessed Sacrament. Theodosius did several months of public penance outside the church as Ambrose demanded. Archbishop Cordileone was merely following the guidance laid down by St. Augustine in the 4th Century (New Testament Sermon No. 33):

“Then when it is necessary let us apply discipline. Otherwise, the evil may grow by the relaxing of discipline.

"If the sin is private, correct the sinner in private. If it is public and manifest, apply the correction in public so that the sinner may be led to betterment and others may conceive a salutary fear.”

So, Archbishop Cordileone’s demand that Pelosi publicly recant and repent is not only part of his duty but is also in keeping with leaders of faith and saints throughout history.

However, I don’t hold out much hope for Ms. Pelosi. Her demonstrated arrogance does not bode well for repentance. And just in case her actions are the result of ignorance, I encourage her to read the gospels and familiarize herself with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If she is truly the devout Catholic she claims to be, this should be right in keeping with the practice of her faith. To listen to her, she already knows all there is to know of Catholicism. Of course, many refuse to learn more because they feel that their ignorance gives them an excuse to act as they please. As Father Mitch Pacwa of EWTN notes, “Sometimes we may not like hearing what the Lord has to say because it corrects or challenges our behavior and expectations.”

Another point she tries to fall back on is her claim that she doesn’t want to foist her beliefs on others, yet she works hard to foist her culture-of-death philosophy on the country at large, or to violate our feelings and beliefs to force us to fund abortion and accept transgender ideology. In truth, if she and others like her wanted to avoid foisting their opinions on others, they should just remain neutral and only vote “present” on these issues. Of course, actions speak louder than words. And despite the claims that they believe what their faith teaches, I am inclined to agree with Bishop Fulton Sheen: “If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing what you live.”

So, what do we need to do? Several things.

First, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Next, we need to exercise our freedom, not acquiesce to the forces of death (evil). If we don’t, the tyrants win. “The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil” (Bishop Fulton Sheen).

Vote for and support the culture of life. With all the death and hate going around, it’s no wonder that exorcists report a rise in activity these days.

Pray. God hears our prayers and has a record of bringing good out of evil. “We’re not doubting that God will do the best for us; we’re wondering how painful the best will turn out to be” (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis).

“Many call themselves Christian, but that they certainly are not! They are not what their title signifies – not in their life, not in their morals, not in their faith, not in their hope, not in their charity.” —St. Augustine, Sermon on 1 John 4:4