Of course, those who wish to “dismantle” the nuclear family would agree that women raising children need support. If the most natural and obvious source of that support is old-fashioned, oppressive, and dismantled, then this support must come from somewhere else. Obviously then, this becomes the state: a disastrously poor substitute for family. This reminds me of a progressive woman who tweeted: “If abortion is illegal then men abandoning their child should also be illegal. If this was a permanent decision for me then it is for you as a father also.” To which someone replied: “Congratulations, you invented marriage.” Eliminating families as antiquated or even (somehow) racist is not merely illogical for pragmatic reasons. It’s cultural suicide. It’s an idea that sociologist and philosopher Philip Rieff might call a “deathwork,” one that exclusively tears down. It cannot build anything. It offers nothing in place of the family.
We are witnessing the construction of a new Babel. Ours is a post-Christian society, an anti-culture that has rejected the Word of God. In our pride, we want on our own terms and by our own accomplishments what creatures can only receive from God. We have thrown off His reality – about gender, sex, life, etc. – and tried to construct our own.
Incarnational, intentional living is not an easy path; in fact, most everything in our society today is set up to oppose embracing it. However, Catholics have always been called to be countercultural, and following this seldom-trodden path could be a means to living an authentically Catholic life in a culture that desperately needs that witness.
To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you are immersed in political discourse and watch TV news (I repeat myself) then there is a reasonable chance you will process information through a political lens. Our Church asks us to process information through the truth of the Gospel and catechism.
This worldview has no room for unjust discrimination. In Catholic education, all men and women and people of all nationalities, races, and creeds are treated with their inherent dignity as children of God. Catholic education seeks to overcome division, not to create it. The answer to the division caused by the sins of racism and discrimination is the unity brought about by fundamental human fraternity and forgiveness.
From the USSCB teaching on Faithful Citizenship: “A legal system that violates the basic right to life on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed,” Since we can’t deny that the malignancy of abortion has reached even more deeply into our society than we realized a decade ago, we must redouble our efforts to pray and fast in reparation. And we must choose other courses of action that help us live according to what we now see.
The remedy for this precarious situation is for Catholic school administrators, along with supportive parents and teachers, to stare down the secular mob and respond with a clear, Catholic message: “Yes, we hear you on the need to combat racism and promote justice. But we will do so on our terms, according to the teachings of Jesus Christ which have been entrusted to the Catholic Church that sponsors this school. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Any program that does not place Him at the center is destined to fail. We will not adopt programs of identity that pit students against each other. No. We will use prayer, sacraments, the Bible, and the Catechism to transform our students into saints. This is the only path to lasting justice.”
"I'm sharing all this with you to say that on Mother's Day, let us remember the unique role a mother and father have passing on the faith by word and example. It can't be outsourced to a parochial school or religious education! Those wonderful teachers and catechists are great partners in your child's faith formation but not substitutes or replacements. I don't want my Mother's Day message to sound like a reprimand but rather the opposite. Never underestimate what you do as parents can do to bring your children to Christ to become real disciples. Remember, they will most likely imitate the faith they see you practicing; you are their model."
Catholics will be forced to take a stand and “pick sides” in the figurative battle, she said. “We know that God is in charge and that He’s far greater than the devil,” said Sister Byrne. “It is He that’s going to make things better. And so we have to be just there, prayer warriors and be battle ready.”
Catholics need to recognize that sometimes councils succeed, and sometimes they fail. A common misconception among Catholics is that the Holy Spirit guides every aspect of ecumenical councils; therefore, all councils are “successful.” This is not Catholic teaching. The Holy Spirit acts primarily as a protector—He protects the deposit of faith by ensuring that no council can definitively declare heresy as Catholic truth. It’s a negative, not a positive, protection.
To refuse to give Holy Communion to dissident Catholic politicians, however, is not to politicize the Eucharist. The politicizing of the Eucharist occurs in the act of the Catholic politician presenting himself or herself to receive Communion even though he or she is well aware that to do so is contrary to what the Church teaches. Those who are objectively in the state of mortal sin, or who dissent from or promote contrary positions to the Church’s fundamental dogmatic or moral teaching are forbidden to receive the body and blood of Jesus, for they have made themselves unworthy to do so.