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TRANSCRIPT
Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.
When you cover all sorts of news and events from the point of view of authentic Catholicism (like we do here at Church Militant), a number of things jump out at you — patterns and trends, for example.
Every single day, we are amazed at the number of times we encounter Catholics in public life, for good or for bad (mostly for bad). It never ceases to amaze us just how many people in the political world are Catholic. The list is a little overwhelming. Not a night goes by, for example, on our Church Militant Evening News where we don’t say, “Catholic such and such,” or “so and so, who’s Catholic.”
There are the obvious ones of course — Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, etc. — and then the big second-tier names like Cuomo of New York, Chris Christie and that whole gang. There are also other big names who are less known as Catholics, like Ron DeSantis of Florida, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Gavin Newsom of California and Xavier Becerra (HHS director under Biden), to name just a few.
Moral truths mean nothing to a large percentage of Catholic political leaders — absolutely nothing.
On the congressional scene, Catholics are overrepresented when compared with our share of the total population. Only about 21% of Americans are Catholic, but 29% of U.S. congressmen are Catholic. In the Senate, it’s not quite as overrepresented, but still slightly so at 24%.
The problem, of course, is that the designation doesn’t really mean very much — just look at Biden, for example. The U.S. bishops have done such a horrible job over these past decades of ensuring the Faith is transmitted correctly, a Catholic can actually cast votes or run for office as a straight-up Marxist. Just ask Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Moral truths mean nothing to a large percentage of Catholic political leaders — absolutely nothing. It’s a situation that first came to light with the Kennedy clan back in the 1960s. Andrew Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, the supporter of abortion legislation with his garbage line of, “I’m personally opposed, but …” was just as much a phony Catholic whose bishop did nothing about.
It’s one reason in our Evening News each weeknight that we are always certain to let you know if a newsmaker is Catholic, and, if so, what type of Catholic. Unfortunately, you will quite often hear us having to employ adjectives like “fake” or “phony” in front of a given politician’s name. We do it because the bishops won’t.
It’s also why when we come across a Catholic who seems solid in his or her Faith, we like showcasing the person. Such is the case with a Michigan man who is looking to unseat the current governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. This man’s name is Ryan Kelley.
First, though, one thing the godless crowd has understood in its quest for power — power ultimately to be used to wipe out religion — is the necessity of politics. Many Christians have a long history of not really being that politically involved, fooling themselves that God is so completely in control that they are absolved of any responsibility to bring about justice and so forth.
Kelley is one of a new small — but growing — breed that recognizes the existential threat of cultural and political forces.
This thinking has played marvelously into the hands of Marxists who are more than happy to have a certain segment of the citizenry simply stay out of politics. Many of this same crowd, largely comprised of more fundamentalist denominations of Protestantism, just do not participate in the political process, which is why their numbers are so underrepresented. They either do not know or they ignore that religion was a foundational component of the American nation, as expressed in the Constitution.
Kelley is one of a new — but growing — breed that recognizes the existential threat of cultural and political forces and believes people of faith must step up and do what they can to make a difference for this and future generations.
While much is made about the clash between communism and freedom on the national stage, the smart money will never forget the old political adage, “All politics is local.” As we’ve seen, most especially during the virus crisis, who the governor is of a given state does matter.
If you’d like to watch the entire interview with Ryan Kelley in his quest to capture the GOP nomination and ultimately unseat Gretchen, just click here. It’s sort of refreshing to hear from a Catholic aspiring for office who actually believes what the Church teaches, unlike many Catholic politicians and a large number of bishops and clergy who allow rotten Catholics to achieve political power.
