A Service of Celebration for Commonwealth Day 2020

Father Rutler: Socialism is Communism Not Yet in Power

Father George W. Rutler

Materialism, fantasy, and false worship were the temptations Satan thrust at Christ, and he is tempting our nation the same way. These seductions are a formula for Socialism, which Winston Churchill in 1948 defined as “The philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”

   A poorly educated generation succumbs to adolescent idealism, bereft of history, unaware that a cult of the state has been a consistent failure, costing countless millions of lives in modern times.

   State worship was resisted by the earliest Christians, who refused to offer incense to Caesar. Socialism is simply Communism not yet in power, and its smiling face in the guise of “Democratic Socialism” quickly scowls once it has control. As the economist Ludwig von Mises showed in various ways, the essence of Socialism is coercion and manipulation. Pope John XXIII, quoting Pope Pius XI, taught in 1961: “No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism.”

   Socialism in the guise of benevolence exploits the naïve. As a corollary, Yeats said: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Lack of conviction moved appeasers to sign the Munich Agreement, and in present times it has ceded the Church’s integrity to the Chinese government. Naïve people were scandalized by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Stalin and Hitler were simply Socialists in different uniforms. Just as the National Socialist manifesto of 1920 tried to replace the Church with a pastiche of “Positive Christianity,” which was Christianity without Christ, so has the Chinese government ordered that images of Christ be replaced with images of Party leader Xi Jinping.

   In 1931, Pope Pius XI denounced the exaltation of the state as “Idolatry.” He insisted that “Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” From a conviction born of suffering under National Socialism and Soviet Socialism, Pope John Paul II maintained that “the fundamental error of Socialism is anthropological . . . [because it] considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism… .”

   As the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization in the world, Catholics should note what a present candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, who calls himself a Democratic Socialist, said years ago: “I don’t believe in charities . . .government, rather than charity organizations, should take over responsibility for social programs.” But Pope Benedict VI has said: “We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces . . .”

   The prophet Samuel warned the Israelites who wanted a king in charge of everything: “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves” (1 Samuel 8:17). That voice is louder now. 

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father George W. Rutler

Our First Catholic President?

From Crisis Magazine
By Sean Fitzpatrick

On Ash Wednesday, the White House released a statement from President Trump. “For Catholics and many other Christians,” it reads, “Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season that concludes with the joyful celebration of Easter Sunday. Today, millions of Christians will be marked on their foreheads with the sign of the cross. The imposition of ashes is an invitation to spend time during Lent fasting, praying, and engaging in acts of charity. This powerful and sacred tradition reminds us of our shared mortality, Christ’s saving love, and the need to repent and accept the Gospel more fully. We join in prayer with everyone observing this holy day and wish you a prayerful Lenten journey. May you grow closer to God in your faith during this blessed season.”

These are remarkable words to come from a sitting president. But then, much of this presidency is remarkable. Donald Trump has ignited a movement that is unparalleled in modern times. His devil-may-care, go-for-the-jugular manner may not always be gentlemanly, but it’s effective. President Trump is not a perfect president, but he may be the perfect president for a country threatened by left-wing madness. As far as Catholics are concerned, his Ash Wednesday message should stand in contrast to the message coming from the Democratic hopefuls of Super Tuesday, offering some clarity in the confusion and a strong indicator why President Trump deserves and needs Catholic support in the 2020 election.

President Trump’s Lenten statement is one of clear, calm Christianity and a call for those acts that America and Americans most need: prayer, fasting, and charity. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates are yelling over each other on debate stages and trying to outdo each other in their progressivism as they claw their way to Super Tuesday, united only in a mounting hatred for President Trump as he bravely serves according to his lights and not the entrenched agenda of left-lunging bureaucrats and politicians.

Super Tuesday’s presidential primaries in fourteen states will bring at least one of the candidates closer to the delegate count required to run against President Trump. Whoever emerges victorious, it’s certain that person will campaign for a worldview of political radicalism and moral relativism. The Democratic nominee, whoever he may be, will unleash a fresh barrage of contempt for the President in keeping with the unprecedented backlash of antipathy we have already seen against this man who refused, and still refuses, to play the political pattycake of Washington, D.C.

The hatred leveled at President Trump is extraordinary--even demonic--as all hatred must be deemed to some extent.  Catholics should take good note of this hatred, and also not that all the "right" people hate President Trump--that is, the Left.  "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," as the saying goes and Catholics should take seriously the call to side against such hatred with the power of their vote.  His Ash Wednesday message of humility and living the Gospel is a comfort because it shows that President Trump is willing to speak the truth.  It is a message Catholics can hardly hope to hear from any Democrat.

Ironically, Democrats constantly attack the President as one waging a war on truth. These accusations are difficult to countenance from those who deny the truth of life, sex, and gender, the corruption of big government, the results of elections, and even the existence of objective truth itself. When the truth does not matter, but only political posturing, positioning, and party lines, then the one who speaks truth fearlessly will be a bull in a china shop. President Trump doesn’t care if he is that bull—and he is hated for it.

To be fair, the President also has a self-serving streak about him. Self-aggrandizement and self-promotion have been his bread and butter for decades. These qualities are not among those that make a man virtuous. Manners and morals must matter in government; given his track record, Catholics ought to be wary and qualify their support when he does or says things that are not laudable or virtuous.

But we should support him nonetheless. Catholics should admire and respect all that President Trump has done for the cause of life and truth, and prepare to support him against the hate he will face from his opponent. His Ash Wednesday message is one that Catholics can get behind and, in so doing, they should get behind him for Super Tuesday and beyond.

The Founding Fathers spilt a good deal of ink on the essential role of virtue, both private and public if freedom or a true republic were to exist. Even though President Trump may not be the most virtuous president history has seen, a man with less (shall we say) self-confidence may have lacked the mettle to take on the Beltway establishment.

Catholics should remain loyal to the President while pushing for virtue as well as victory. Virtue must remain the ideal and vulgarity resisted in the same way that the hatred from the Democrats should be resisted. Being guarded, however, does not exclude being grateful for President Trump and—with prayer and fasting and works of charity—to expect that he will continue to act decisively.

Given the dark hatred of Super Tuesday’s candidates and their affiliates, may Catholics play their part in securing a second term for President Trump to make America great again while bearing in mind the words of President John Adams: “No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.” May we grow closer to God in our faith during this blessed season.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Sean Fitzpatrick is a senior contributor to Crisis. He's a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and the Headmaster of Gregory the Great Academy. He lives in Scranton, Penn. with his wife and family of four.

Father Rutler: The Practical Guide

Father George W. Rutler Earnest preachers use their personalities to lead people to Jesus without obstructing him with themselves. They may honestly boast that they have been given the best information to convey, and we have it in the form of what we call the Bible—that is, the Biblia, or Books.     At the start of Lent, our Lord makes us privy to the forty days he spent confronting the Anti-Christ. The only reason he made this public is that he, “who knew all men” (John 2:24), conquered with a blithe insouciance the same three temptations that we mere mortals, whom he loves, confront every day.    The temptation to turn stone to bread is the seductive power of disordered passions: trying to gratify the wants of the flesh with gossamer seductions that never satisfy for very long. Besides uncontrolled sexuality, this includes gossip, anger and abuse, such as that of drugs and drink, and creates an illusion of pleasure that God alone can give without end. The temptation to defy gravity afflicts human souls by wallowing in fantasy every day, ogling at what others have. The temptation to rule kingdoms is the seduction of the ego to measure ourselves by the prestige others accord us.    That temptation to rule kingdoms is the most vicious temptation because it elicits and animates the original sin of pride. Not everyone has political power, but each human being is tempted to make a kingdom of his own imagining. Every generation is witness to the futility of that vanity, such as befell the King of Babylon who said in his delusion, like Lucifer: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13).    Catholicism is practical, which is why its supernatural power may appear among what is deceptively ordinary. Even superstitions, kitsch art, and scandalous behavior by some who identify as Catholics, witness to the fact that the supernatural character of the Church does not depend on human virtue. In some respects, heretical partisans are more virtuous and sober than Catholics, but that is because they depend on themselves, with the result that their populations become monochrome and have no tolerance for exceptions.    G.K. Chesterton said that if he were stranded on a desert island and could have only one book, if he wanted impress people he would ask for something by Plato or Aristotle, and if he expected to remain stranded a long while, he would want Dickens’ novel Pickwick Papers. But if he wanted to get off quickly, he would want Thomas’ “Guide to Practical Shipbuilding.” The Church is the Barque of Peter and, as such, has the most practical information for those who are stranded in a fallen world and want to get off quickly into the vibrant and colorful civilization of the saints. To begin Lent, the Church provides the guide. Faithfully yours in Christ, Father George W. Rutler

President Trump Comes to Charleston, South Carolina!

Father Rutler: The Gateway to Glory

Father George W. Rutler

I used to dread Ash Wednesday because of the endless lines of people coming for ashes. By the end of the day, priests look like coal miners.

   Sociologists may condescendingly consider the phenomenon of crowds coming for ashes, when they do not enter a church at other times of the year, a habit of tribal identity. If the mystery of the Holy Trinity, or Christ dying and rising from the dead, confounds limited human intelligence, there is still a spark of the sense that biological life has an end as real as its beginning. For skeptics, the Easter proclamation “Christ is Risen” may seem like an indulgence of romance or wishful thinking, but no one drawing breath can deny that “Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.”

   God gives life and does not intend to take it away. He resents mortality, and when he came into the world that he had made good, he wept to see how it had gone wrong. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), and those tears were not because he was poor or hungry or insulted, or because of bad harvests or unpredictable climate or corrupt governments. He wept because someone had died. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

   Even if some think that is too good to be true, every day radio and television advertisements promise that you will feel better if you take their multiple vitamins or subscribe to their weight-loss programs. This is what philosophers call the “élan vital,” or the will to live. The forty days of Lent, which go faster than health regimens, offer a promise of life beyond death more audacious than any promise of improved nutrition or medical cures.

   In 1970 the film “Love Story” was a real tear-jerker, breaking records for its profits at the box office. Its closing line was “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It was an altruistic sentiment, but God is love and not sentiment. Divine love is so powerful that, as Dante wrote, it “moves the sun and the other stars.” That power is offered to the human soul, which is in the image of God. “Know you not that the saints shall judge this world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” (1 Corinthians 6:2).

   Powerful love, sanctifying grace, is available through the absolution of sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We shortchange ourselves of splendor if we do not tell God we are sorry, as “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Lent is not an unwelcome burden, for it is the gateway to glory greater than the sun and the other stars.

Home Free - "How Great Thou Art"

In loving memory and gratitude for a special friend on her birthday.