At the end of June, Americans saw the sixth state of the union approve what is euphemistically called gay "marriage". The Democrats and Republicans were able to see beyond their differences enough to agree on the overthrow of the traditional definition of marriage and to embrace a new, elastic one. It was another blow to the conservative cause in the United States, and another example where those supposedly divided in politics were able to act as one, and draw from one principle: there is no moral law save for what man decides; all else is in the private sphere, and even here there is the danger of opposition being stamped out. This was made clear by the warning of the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan:
"If the experience of those few other states and countries where this is already law is any indication, the churches, and believers, will soon be harassed, threatened, and hauled into court for their conviction that marriage is between one man, one woman, forever, bringing children into the world,” wrote the archbishop.
This is a rather dire warning from one who did little to halt the process as it was being moved forward, yet despite the emptiness of his actions, his warning rings true. For a world in open revolt against the very idea of submission to God, persecution cannot be far behind, open or not. No doubt this new instance of revolt will not stir the conscience of those who are so devoted to the modern ideals of democracy that they not dare to question their loyalties. But for the Catholic who knows history and realizes that states rise and fall while only the Church is guaranteed not to fail, it is time to shake off the illusions of the modern world. For anyone who has eyes to see, the western world is throwing off all of its history so as to embrace the world promised by liberalism, a world where man answers only to himself. No Catholic can embrace such a world-view and yet remain a true Catholic, for he knows that all things were created to help man reach his supernatural goal, that there is truly a God Who governs the world and before Whom all must submit or be destroyed.
The modern illusion is wet with the blood of millions; it bred the First World War, the war to end all wars, the Second World War in which the godlessness of Nazism was fought by the Allies in full union with the scourge of atheistic Communism as incarnate in the Soviet Union, in the rise of Communist China and its purge of millions, in the death of millions of the unborn at the hands of the very mothers that conceived them, and this plague is in the decadent West. Even now, Euthanasia slowly finds legal refuge in lands where death threatens the very young as well as the sick and aged.
The apostasy lies heavy in these United States as modern education and hedonism combine to produce the malleable population foreseen by Pope Leo XIII in his masterful encyclical against Freemasonry. Yet Catholics remain paralyzed. Modernism and the desire for pleasure have converted them in droves, and the anemic Churchmen since the Second Vatican Council either lead the apostasy, or remain unable to gather opposition. For Catholics loyal to Tradition there is a fear of letting go of the last treads tying them to the liberal illusion, though the grosser of the errors have not been able to seduce them. How should we treat this State that more and more shows who its master really is?
Some claim that we are in a position like the early days of the Church, when pagan emperors threatened the lives of Christians, and their empire held many of the present day illusions. Were the rulers not unbelievers? Christians were loyal to them nonetheless, despite their errors. In fact, the Theban Legions shows Catholic soldiery willing to die rather than either to offend God by false worship, or to take up arms against the pagan emperor. It seems a strong argument. However, this modern world is not the world languishing in ignorance concerning the Saviour. It is the world turned away from the true God, rejecting Him and His Rule in favour of the rule of almighty man. This is a different and more evil world, a new paganism worse than the first. It is not to the Caesars that we must turn for inspiration, but to that mighty Pontiff, Pope St. Pius V, as he deprived the bastard Elizabeth of the throne of England, though she was acknowledged by the great majority of her subjects, and his forbidding of Catholics to acknowledge the apostate as legitimate queen. This is the action of a saint faced with a ruler not pagan, but unfaithful. It not the voice of human prudence, but of Divine sight.
The modern governments are not pagan, per se. They are apostate. They have turned away from the truth in order to make their own "truth". They are ripening for the punishment of apostasy. They are the fig tree where Christ can find no fruit. They have been weighed and found wanting. Catholics need not refuse to acknowledge these states, for the Church has not deposed their rulers as she did the bastard Elizabeth. They still have some claim, perhaps, to our allegiance. But the age of illusions must pass. It is time for Catholics to refuse to go along with the tide of liberalism infecting both parties of government. It is time to pull out of a losing battle. There is only one answer, the Catholic one. There is only the true Faith that can save us. It is only Christ Who stands behind every human authority. When that authority allows its own citizens to be put to death by the millions, when it perverts the natural order by contraception, abortion, and gay marriage, the Catholic must finally make a choice as to where his allegiance finally lies.
We live in an age where Americans more and more show that they have lost all contact with even natural truth. They are the makers of reality. God is no more than the religious projection of their own self-deification. With such men, we must realize that compromise is impossible. It might mean that we can no longer patronize restaurants or other businesses that pour money into the organized revolt against God; it might mean refusing to vote unless the candidate is Catholic in his stand; it might mean inconvenience to us as to where we work, or where we keep our money. But it is God's rights that are at stake. We must come to the point when we realize that enough is enough. It is time to be Catholic, and to let the chips fall.
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