Four years ago, voters across American chose Donald Trump, who has proven to be the most pro-life President in our history. Many Christian and pro-life citizens voted for him with a question mark in their mind. They were more certain of what they would get from Hillary Clinton than they were of what they would get from Donald Trump.
And they knew they did not want Clinton.
But now, that question mark has become an exclamation point. President Trump has done everything past pro-life presidents have done and more. I have summarized some of his pro-life record at www.ProLifePresident.com.
And he has defended the freedom of the Church to be pro-life, both in her internal practices and in her public witness. My own ministry, along with various dioceses, Catholic institutions, and the Little Sisters of the Poor had to fight all the way up to the Supreme Court for our freedom to live the faith. It was President Trump’s election that gave us the victory.
And so we should not be surprised that Christians and pro-life people, among many other Americans, are cheering him on for a second term. In fact, they are praying for that each day and looking for ways to inform their fellow believers of all the good progress that has been made, and of the dangers that the Church and the unborn face from the Democrats.
And the Trump Campaign is marked by an amazing degree of organization and mobilization, including in the launch of various coalitions, such as “Pro-life Voices for Trump,” “Evangelicals for Trump,” and “Catholics for Trump.”
In fact, in connection with the latter, I was recently involved in a couple of online events and conference calls that may mark a first in US Presidential politics. The Trump Campaign and the RNC actually organized a public Rosary in one online event, and a public Stations of the Cross on a prayer call. They asked me to lead both of these prayer events, and others, which I was happy to do.
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As I often discuss with our Priests for Life associate Alveda King, her uncle, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the final sermon of his life on the night before he was assassinated, addressed his fellow preachers. He urged them to carry out “a relevant ministry.” He reminded them that along with speaking about the glories of the world to come, they must work to make this world a better place.
A relevant ministry is exactly what we need now, and what believers thirst for. We don’t want to go to Church to simply be told stories that make us feel better. We want to be given marching orders to go out and make the world better. We want the Church to mobilize, activate, and equip us to protect children from the violence of abortion, to protect the freedoms we have as believers, and to be faithful citizens of this great nation.
As we go deeper into the election season, and believers raise their voices in favor of our President and other pro-life candidates, some ministers of the Gospel will express their concerns that “the Church is too political.”
But the problem is not that the Church is too political; the problem is that our politics have become too pagan.
And the Church is too silent.
As a result, the freedom of the Church is under attack, and the Democrat Party is embracing unrestricted abortion without apology.
In this context, the admonition of Dr. King is more necessary than ever. We need a relevant ministry, not afraid, as the Catholic Catechism points out, “to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it” (CCC 2246, cf Second Vatican Council, GS, 76).
Never have our fundamental rights required it more than now. And let’s not miss the fascinating fact that while many of those who lead us in prayer and worship still hesitate to do their job in the world of politics, the political world – in the RNC and the Trump Campaign – are not hesitating to do their job in the world of prayer and worship.
That can only be good for America, founded as it is on the vision and sacrifices of men of prayer, who were rooted in the Word of God and who understood that only a virtuous people could govern themselves. In fact, the effort to re-elect this President reminds me more and more of our first President who declared, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports” (George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796).
