It’s the Church, stupid!

Here in the United States, the Presidential election is fast approaching.

Much is at stake; not just for those of us who live in this country, but for all the nations of the world for any number of reasons; not the least of which concerns the superpower’s willingness to export such commodities as global warming alarmism, gender confusion, gay marriage and, of course, abortion.

Writing for media giant McClatchy, publisher of more than two dozen newspapers in the U.S., political analyst Andrew Malcolm recently identified what he called the most important of all the central issues, saying:

“That is the Supreme Court and the three, maybe four, appointments the next President of the United States will make.”

And that brings us back to the “sacrament” of the left, abortion.

Hillary Clinton, in an interview with CNN, proclaimed that the upcoming election “is about whether abortion is legal.”

Pro-life voters agree, and so one of the issues most frequently cited by Republican primary candidates concerned the vacancy that was created on the bench by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Prior to his elimination from contention, for example, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Catholic, courted pro-lifers saying:

“The people I’m going to appoint, they’re going to be like Justice Scalia.”

In a speech delivered via video at the Republican National Convention, Rubio said of the party’s nominee, Donald Trump:

I want the successor to Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court to be a conservative. I believe that’s the kind of judge that [Trump] will appoint, and I know she [Clinton] won’t. I want someone that will defend life. I know he will and she won’t.

There can be no doubt that Clinton will appoint a jurist to the Court who does not believe that the lives of the unborn deserve protection.

In an April appearance on Meet the Press, when asked, “When or if does an unborn child have constitutional rights?” Clinton replied coldly:

Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists. The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights. – Hillary Clinton

National Right to Life, one of the nation’s oldest pro-life organizations, recently reminded voters of Clinton’s outrageous comment vis-à-vis the Supreme Court vacancy; contrasting her position with that of Donald Trump who said:

Justice Scalia, great judge, died recently and we have a vacancy. I am looking to appoint judges very much in the mold of Justice Scalia. – Donald Trump

What does this mean in practice?

According to Marco Rubio, it all comes down to one’s approach to the U.S. Constitution:

How do you view the Constitution? Scalia viewed it the right way. What did the Constitution mean to the people who wrote it at the time they wrote it. That’s what we need more of.

So, how did Justice Scalia’s view of the Constitution inform his jurisprudence with respect to abortion?

In a 2008 interview with Lesley Stahl on the popular CBS program 60 Minutes, Scalia was asked:

“What is the connection between your Catholicism, your Jesuit education, and your judicial philosophy?”

Scalia responded:

It has nothing to do with how I decide cases. My job is to interpret the Constitution accurately. And indeed, there are anti-abortion people who think that the Constitution requires a state to prohibit abortion. They say that the Equal Protection Clause requires that you treat a helpless human being that’s still in the womb the way you treat other human beings. I think that’s wrong. I think when the Constitution says that persons are entitled to equal protection of the laws, I think it clearly means walking-around persons.

Yes, you read that correctly: Scalia, like Hillary Clinton, believed that the unborn person doesn’t have Constitutional rights.

So much for the idea that a President who will “appoint judges very much in the mold of Justice Scalia” represents a victory for the pro-life movement; much less Christ.

Though many a media outlet hailed Antonin Scalia as a model of “devout traditional Catholicism,” his judicial approach was truly that of a dyed-in-the-wool Americanist.

In a 2014 article for the Remnant in which Scalia was interviewed by Vincent Chiarello, the writer accurately summarized Scalia’s jurisprudence stating:

When he dons his robe as a Justice of the US Supreme Court, the basis of his decisions must be what the Constitution requires, and if abortion or the death penalty is permitted by the state under its law, then despite his Catholic belief it is the vox populi who are sovereign in these matters.

So, if the upcoming election isn’t about abortion, the Supreme Court, or the Constitution, what is it about?

For Catholics, the answer is simple: It’s the Church, stupid!

I know this may be difficult for some American “social conservatives” to believe, but strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution isn’t the answer; it’s the problem.

How so?

It requires the legitimate civil authority to treat the Holy Catholic Church and its Founder no differently that the many false religions and false gods of the world.

In other words, according to the Constitution, the voice of the Church is just one more constituency among many; the Divine Law that she makes known (or should make known at any rate) carries no more binding authority than the wishes of any other lobbying organization.

And yet, in spite of its mandated rejection of Christ the King and the Holy Catholic Church that speaks in His name, the Constitution arrogantly asserts that the collective We the People is capable of forming a more perfect Union of Justice and Tranquility?

Please… this is enough to make the aims of those who built the Tower of Babel seem reasonable.

When it comes to building the Kingdom of Christ, the Constitution isn’t the only, nor even the most critical, problem that we face, however. It’s the Church!

We must admit, even if those who govern were willing to listen attentively to the voice of the Church, the members of the sacred hierarchy in our day – including the pope – are no longer willing to insist upon the Sovereign Rights of Christ the King.

So, what are we to do?

As it concerns the upcoming Presidential election, let’s not get caught up in anything that would take the focus away from where it belongs.

This election isn’t about abortion, or gay marriage, or some pseudo-right to religious liberty. That’s what one sees when looking at the situation through a Protestant lens.

For us, it’s plain:

This election is about the Holy Catholic Church, in spite of the human faults so evident therein, and her Divine Founder, Jesus Christ.

As such, I’m going to vote for the candidate least likely to encroach upon the exclusive rights of the Holy Catholic Church.

As for the far more important matter that is the current ecclesial crisis, it is my intention to continue fasting and praying for the good of the Church, for the conversion of those who lead us, and for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the Lord’s wishes as given to Lucy of Fatima.