Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, on the eve of the 447th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto. A small group of protesters gathered outside the U.S. Capitol, chanting slogans against the Senate’s decision to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Sitting Justice Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court is first of all a great accomplishment of President Donald Trump. The 50-48 vote came after days of unsubstantiated accusations bordering on criminal defamation. The world saw the sad spectacle with amusement as mud flew back and forth in the Senate. That is the same Senate where so many great men of the past have faithfully served their country.
A Texas Senator declared: “The Senate has been an embarrassment.” It is hard to disagree with him. Hordes of protesters heckled from the gallery in a rude and obnoxious display. They noisily echoed the baseless charges hurled without any compunction by most of the Democratic senators. The whole thing was a shame and it made the country look awful.
President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork in 1987. That started the new uncivil ways of conducting the “advice and consent” sessions. Judge Bork had once rented a pornographic movie through an assistant. He was in the process of writing a commentary on obscenity laws. That rental came up during the confirmation sessions. The obvious intent was to make Judge Bork look like a cad and a hypocrite. Senators Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy, hardly examples of moral decorum, led the charge against Bork.
Terrible as the Bork hearings were, they look civilized in comparison with the hypocritical displays of hysteria now passing for senatorial advise. Times have changed. We live in a strange dystopia where congressmen, clerics, journalists, and university professors behave like scoundrels without blushing, broadcasting their moral turpitude[1] through the media.
In the midst of the homosexual scandals presently rocking the Catholic Church, the hearings offered a strange consolation: the moral debacle appears to be quite universal. The fruits of political correctness are now in plain view. They affect nearly everyone in power; even those who take good care not to catch that ideological infection.
As for the Catholic Church, in my opinion, if we are not seeing “the abomination of desolation standing on holy ground” I certainly do not know what is it. The rap show opening the 2018 Synod on Young People frankly shocked me. I would not want a daughter or son of mine to be at all connected with the rap culture, its glorification of violent sex, gangsters, abuse of women, and drug trafficking. Did you see the bishops clapping to the rhythm of rap at the Vatican? It was almost as shocking as watching American senators in the political equivalent of a school cafeteria food fight.
Like the Christian fleet of 447 years ago, we are sailing into the unknown. We know that dangerous combat is ahead of us. We will have to fight a new Lepanto. I pray the battle won’t last long, and we all survive to see better times. Let’s hope the efforts of good men like Brett Kavanaugh help our society find its way back to decency. Wait in God for the purification of the Church … Like St. Pio, I hope and pray. I am trying hard not to worry.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:1-3;10-11 (NIV)
[1] Interesting note from times past: Moral turpitude is defined as an “act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.” [my italics] Chadwick v. State Bar, 49 Cal. 3d 103, 110, 776 P.2d 240, 260 Cal. Rptr. 538 (1989) ; Sosa-Martinez v. United States AG, 420 F.3d 1338, 1341 (11th Cir. 2005)
Gresham’s law (bad money drives out good) seems to apply to politics as well as any corporate relationship where legalism and bad faith have displaced the providing of goods and services. But as Pilate said, when he allowed the innocent to be beaten, spit upon, tortured and killed in order to satisfy the mob, “what is truth?” Of course the final irony is that Truth is what he was torturing and handing over to be killed. The mob understood in their hearts of hearts that the words of the innocent were a threat to their accustomed lifestyle.
Great article, Carlos! I hadn’t seen the Vatican rap show, but it doesn’t surprise me. It’s very clear that Francis is an anti-pope whose only goal is to lead the liberal Church into schism. The “youth synod” has been a farce since its beginnings. Not surprised at anything I’ve seen come out of it. Like you, I hope the purification is ASAP & swift, & that all of us survive to live in a purified & restored Catholic Church. Rough times ahead, though.
I was just coming of age when Vatican II took place and it seemed, suddenly, that the Church became dedicated to the cult of Man and things of God were relegated to the back burner. But, I wondered how it all got started. Were all the truths that were taught to me in Catholic schools by dedicated nuns and priests somehow wrong? No, this was a calculated plan set up by enemies of the Church to destroy Her. I searched and searched for a place where I could worship in good conscience and finally found it. The story is on my webpage at http://phaley.faithweb.com and even at that the local bishop tried to wean me away from the true worship I had known as a child. He even published a declaration against those I had come to trust and believe in. It didn’t work, of course, because I knew the Truth when I found it. Thank God.
The parallel between the U.S. political landscape and the Vatican since the Second Vatican Council is uncanny in that in both are operating under the influence and direction of Satan and have the same goal-destroy the mind, heart and soul.
The laity need to stop donating to fund unfaithful Bishops, Priests, seminaries, and the Vatican.
We need to insist, or demand courageous, faithful, and truthful shepherds.