By Tom Klocek

“You ought to say plainly that you do not believe in the gospel of Christ. For to believe what you please, is to believe yourselves, and not the gospel.” —St. Augustine, Contra Faustum, 17:3

In a replay of a ploy self-proclaimed Catholic Democrats used two years ago, 30 so-called Catholic representatives have issued a “Renewed Statement of Principles.” Much like the one two years ago, they proclaimed to be “proud that we are part of the faithful pro-choice Catholic majority.” To paraphrase Shakespeare, methinks they doth protest too much.

In typical fashion, they invoke half-truths and outright lies to set the stage for their claims to be “making real the basic principles at the heart of Catholic social teaching.” The first outright lie comes right in the first paragraph, wherein they claim that women have been “stripped of their right to abortion” when, in fact, control of abortion has been reverted to the states, where it should always have been before liberal justices created a mythical right from the “penumbra” of the Constitution.

They follow that up with the worn-out mantra of systemic racism when the U.S. is probably the least racist nation in the world. For example, there are more mixed marriages in the U.S. than in any other nation. According to Pew Research, only 14% of nonblack adults say they would be opposed to a close relative marrying a black person. This same report also notes that the percentage of non-whites intermarrying is significantly larger for those born in the U.S. than those born abroad. A further indication that “systemic” racism is a myth.

Claiming commitment to “making real the basic principles at the heart of Catholic social teaching,” they completely ignore its most basic foundation, the integrity of every human life, including the unborn, the aged, the disabled, and the infirm. They want to claim righteousness based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) with regard to conscience, but it seems they did not fully comprehend the extensive section on conscience in the Catechism, especially paragraph 1780: “The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience.”

These politicians resort to another well-worn phrase in an effort to justify going against Catholic teaching, to “not impose our religious beliefs and customs on others who may not share them.” Nevertheless, every time they create some law, they are imposing their beliefs and customs on others who do not share them. For example, they want to impose a guaranteed, unrestricted right to abortion across the land in opposition to the majority of the population who feel that some restrictions are appropriate and necessary. Again, Pew reports, “71% either say it should be mostly legal or mostly illegal, or say there are exceptions to their blanket support for, or opposition to, legal abortion.” Only 19% say it should be legal in all cases.

Going to another source, these self-proclaimed Catholics resort to cherry-picking Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici, using that as a basis to claim to be “creating a more just America and world.” Here are some other tidbits from that document that they must have missed:

• Para 4: “Adversely affected by the impressive triumphs of continuing scientific and technological development and above all, fascinated by a very old and yet new temptation, namely, that of wishing to become like God (cf. Gen 3:5) through the use of a liberty without bounds, individuals cut the religious roots that are in their hearts; they forget God, or simply retain him without meaning in their lives, or outrightly reject him, and begin to adore various ‘idols’ of the contemporary world.” (Emphasis added.)

• Para 5: “Once again we find ourselves before many persons … whose fundamental rights are being violated, owing to their exceedingly great capacity for endurance and to the clear injustice of certain civil laws: the right to life and to integrity.” (Emphasis added.)

• Para 38: “In effect the acknowledgment of the personal dignity of every human being demands the respect, the defence and the promotion of the rights of the human person.”

• Also para 38 and most important: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights-for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.” (Emphasis added.)

And again, from Pope St. John Paul II:

“John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.” —Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Doctrinal Note on the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, 4

Many of these Catholic politicians touted their faith in an effort to garner votes. Think of how many times Joe Biden spoke of his “Catholicity” and pulled his rosary out of his pocket. Having claimed their faith to help them get elected, now they want to avoid following the tenets, teachings, and foundations of that faith in order to garner donations from entities such as Planned Parenthood and push a popular but misguided narrative that abortion is necessary to have a successful life, in denial of the damage it does to the child (killing), the mother (many of whom suffer from post-abortion syndrome), and society (encouraging the negative culture of death as opposed to a joyous culture of life and family).

Let’s face it, they are only deceiving themselves. Even people who share their views see through the smoke to the obvious attempt to justify actions they know are wrong. Even non-believers understand about wolves in sheep’s’ clothing:

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

Basically, this letter is one of equivocation and obfuscation — an attempt to try to show consideration for Christ’s teachings without actually following them. Remember, it was the Democrat Party that took God out of its platform  It was the Democrat Party that stated that religions would have to modify their positions. And it is the Democrat Party whose policies fly in the face of natural and God’s laws.

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” —Ephesians 5:11