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Catholic Activism

As group, Catholics can be a strong voice confronting our culture. When we stand together, great things could be accomplished. Of course, it’s difficult to get a significant majority of Catholics to agree on a topic and even more difficult to get them to act. But if there are two issues that Catholics should clearly stand together on, it’s Abortion and anti-Catholicism.

We are called to live out the Catholic life on earth. One easy way is to help others. For example, Barr Labs just announced that they would be buying the morning-after abortion pill sickeningly called “Plan B.” As a Catholic, the one clear thing we can do is make sure we don’t buy anything Barr Labs produces. Because they are basically a contraception/abortion-oriented company, committed Catholics aren’t likely to affect their business too much. Is there anything we can do? Pray for the souls of those working at companies like this and work towards changing our culture of death. How, you say, can I change our culture of death – I’m just one little man/woman on earth? The easiest way is to talk to your friends. Convince them that contraception is sinful – this is easier than you think with non-Catholic Christians who strive to do God’s will. Kimberly Hahn has a great book that can teach you how to prove God didn’t intend for his people to use contraception (and this is a good one by a protestant on contraception). By doing this, even if you only change one mind, you slowly hurt Barr Lab’s and their business model and you help others live a life more full of God’s Grace. This is Catholic activism at it’s finest.

In terms of anti-Catholicism, some Catholic groups are currently pointing out the obvious in a public sphere, but individual Catholics can make a quiet and strong statement. Just last night I caught a CBS show called “Without a Trace.” The premise of the show was that a priest had shown up missing, however the show was basically filled with anti-Catholic sentiment and actions. Priests were having sex with parishioners; the Bishop was made out to be incompetent. Oh – and the only reason the missing man became a priest is because he killed a child as a drug dealer early in his life (believe it or not!). This is the easiest thing to confront: stop watching this crap CBS puts out – turn off the ‘boob tube’ and say the rosary instead. You’ll get more out of it, I promise. And you, personally, won’t be supporting this anti-Catholic mentality that the cultural elites of America have deemed okay to propagate.

I think it’s time we stood up for our beliefs and took concrete actions to have our voice heard. I’m sick of hearing about companies supporting the murder of babies. I’m tired of the anti-Catholic bias that has become not-so-subtle in America today. It’s time to make a stand, even if it’s just a small personal stand against the culture of death. Ultimately, we have a responsibility to improve America – clearly, a strong Catholic influence would do more good than anything else.

Jay