The Catholic Church’s political policy throughout the centuries has been to refrain from endorsing particular forms of governments, political parties and candidates. And the reason for this is that she is in the business of saving souls. As much as humanly possible, the Church Universal does not want to be tied to or associated with fragile earthly powers. In certain countries, however, when the Catholic clergy did aligned themselves- or were perceived to align themselves –with certain political powers, they paid the price for it. Case and point: The French Revolution. On the other hand, she has reserved the right (and his exercised that right) to condemn ideologies and those rulers and political parties who hold to them.In the 20th century, for instance, the Bolsheviks and the Third Reich of Germany are just two examples in which the Catholic Church either criticized or condemned specific political affiliates.
In addition, the early Church is full of cases when the Fathers of the Church publicly took an emperor or ruler to task.
The policy of Sky View is a non-partisan one. Like the Church, it does not endorse any political party nor does it want to be perceived as such. Even the most traditional-value oriented or conservative of the political parties are riddled with positions contrary Catholic principles. For this reason, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents need to hear the Gospel without any unnecessary political distraction. But not all political ideologies and parties are equally blameworthy in terms of supporting immoral policies. Some are worse than others. For instance, the Democrat Party- most especially in their national platform –harbors and lends support to politicians and judges who have proven to be prejudicial, if not hostile, to Christianity.
Although membership to the Democratic Party is not inherently wrong- this because some Democrats sincerely want to reclaim their party from the radicalized version of it –many of its policies and behaviors are intrinsically evil. It was enough that the Democrat Party be censored or condemned by the Church for the immoral policies it advances. But for years it has gone beyond this with many of its patrons seeking to obstruct her mission to save souls. Indeed, these Democrats have gone to great lengths to drive out Christianity from the public square. And symptomatic of this obstruction- that is, the latest and the most notorious version of it -is the Obama-Sebelius healthcare mandate. Indeed, the Democratic Party, by far, is most guilt of these obstructive efforts. Using the Catholic Church’s moral authority, this bad donkey (symbol of the Democratic Party) needs a good kick or it needs to be driven out the pasture.
At the USCCB Assembly in November of 2011, Bishop William Lori called upon his brother bishops to be “watchmen” (cf. Ezekiel 33:7) of the Church. The early Church Fathers drew upon this title quite frequently to describe the role of bishops. And as watchmen, bishops cannot just talk about the threat of wolves in general. No. When a wolf is seen entering the pasture, a good watchmen will draw attention to that specific wolf and then seek to drive it away from the flock. Anything less means that there will be fewer sheep. And no doubt, the flock will be a negligible force in our culture; this, because wolves dressed as donkeys were allowed to roam freely in the pasture. Maybe- just maybe -the reason why Christianity has been driven out of the public square for years now results from the failure of the watchmen of the Church (and we, the laity) to drive out the wolves from God’s green pasture. Think about!
Consider Hilaire Belloc’s words: “The modern attack will not tolerate us. It will attempt to destroy us. Nor can we tolerate it. We must attempt to destroy it as being the fully equipped and ardent enemy of the Truth by which men live. The duel is to the death.” (1938) Take your pick: Either we refuse to tolerate their ways or they will refuse to tolerate us! That's right! Our survival depends, in part, on calling a spade, a spade; or should I say, calling a wolf, a wolf.
