“I think candidates are making it easier and easier for us because they’re drawing the line in the sand and you listen to them,” Burbidge said. “You listen to what candidates are saying. They draw the line in the sand, and in many ways there’s the choice between good and evil here.” “And so, listen to what candidates are saying,” Burbidge advised. “They’re making our job easier — who it is that will really do the most good for the preborn, for the vulnerable, for the poor and for our Commonwealth.” Atwell added: “And for religious freedom and rights of speech.”
Obviously this rejection of Catholicism by those who are charged by our Lord to defend it is horrific and tragic. Yet it can serve a good purpose: it makes clear what had been muddled for so long. Instead of pretending everything is awesome while souls are lost, many Catholics—including many bishops and priests—now see with clarity that we are in an open battle for the Church and one has to choose sides.
But when the shepherds speak out against abortion, or the redefinition of marriage, or the trampling of religious freedom, they are not intruding into politics. They’re defending God’s rights against intrusive politicians. The right to life, the meaning of marriage, the reality of male and female – such things belong to God. We cannot cooperate in giving them to Caesar. When the Church speaks out on those matters, she is simply echoing the word of her divine Spouse: repay to God what belongs to God.