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<\/a><\/p>\nIt reportedly happened during Mass at Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC. A New York Times editor reports:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Last Sunday, the diminutive priest, [Father Percival D\u2019Silva] now 82 and officially retired, once again affirmed those basic principles and called leaders to account. In his sermon, he spoke of how the \u201ccurrent occupant of the White House spews hatred, bigotry and intolerance\u201d and must resign, I learned from James Zogby, a longtime parishioner who heads the Arab American Institute, an advocacy group. (I now live in the New York area.)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m compelled by Jesus Christ to say what I\u2019m going to say. Jesus won\u2019t let me off the hook,\u201d the priest said, according to Mr. Zogby. Other parishioners who were there confirmed the gist of his comments.<\/p>\n The message, after Mr. Trump\u00a0exhorted<\/a>\u00a0four Democratic congresswomen of color to \u201cgo back\u201d to where they came from, was unsparing. In the most political of towns, before a congregation that includes many of Washington\u2019s most powerful people, of all political stripes, it offered a different view of what Christ expects of his followers from that promoted by acolytes of President Trump, like Vice President Mike Pence, who assert that their evangelical Christianity is consistent with separating migrant children from their families, courting brutal dictators, seeking to bar Muslims from the country and stirring racism.<\/p>\n A\u00a0few days earlier, hundreds of Catholic priests, nuns and lay people\u00a0protested at the Capitol<\/a>\u00a0against conditions facing migrants at the southern border. Many protesters were led away in handcuffs.<\/p>\n Father D\u2019Silva\u00a0would not speak on the record about his sermon, but those at the Mass told me that he talked about how racism is a sin and referred to the\u00a0Bishops\u2019 Pastoral Letter on Racism\u00a0<\/a>of 1979, which called upon the church at every level to confront the evil of racism and work toward full inclusion of racial and ethnic groups. He stressed the need to \u201crespect one another as children of God\u201d and talked of racism as being rooted in fear \u2014 of the unknown, of losing control, of one\u2019s inadequacies, of those who are different.<\/p>\n And he admonished parents about their responsibility to teach children to appreciate the differences among people, invoking the Rodgers and Hammerstein\u00a0song<\/a>\u00a0from \u201cSouth Pacific\u201d about how \u201cyou\u2019ve got to be taught to hate and fear\u201d as a reference point.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read the whole column.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Is this kosher? Well, Church law doesn\u2019t address this particular circumstance, but it does give some guidance.<\/p>\n From the Code of Canon Law:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Can. 285 \u00a71. Clerics are to refrain completely from all those things which are unbecoming to their state, according to the prescripts of particular law.<\/p>\n \u00a72. Clerics are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state.<\/p>\n \u00a73. Clerics are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.<\/p>\n Can. 287 \u00a71. Most especially, clerics are always to foster the peace and harmony based on justice which are to be observed among people.<\/p>\n \u00a72. They are not to have an active part in political parties and in governing labor unions unless, in the judgment of competent ecclesiastical authority, the protection of the rights of the Church or the promotion of the common good requires it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n St. John Paul was more explicit. He told priests from Mexico in 1979<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n You are participants in Christ\u2019s ministerial priesthood for the service of the unity of the community. A service which is realized by virtue of the authority received to direct the People of God, to forgive sins and to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice (cf.\u00a0Lumen Gentium<\/em><\/a>, 10;\u00a0Presbyterorum Ordinis<\/a><\/em>, 2)!\u00a0<\/em>A specific priestly service, which cannot be replaced in the Christian community by the common priesthood of the faithful, which is essentially different from the former (Lumen Gentium<\/a><\/em>, 10)!<\/p>\n You are servants of the People of God, servants of faith, administrators and witnesses of\u00a0Christ\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>love for men; a love that is not partisan, that excludes no\u00a0one,\u00a0<\/em>although it is addressed preferably to the poorest.<\/strong> In this connection, I wish to remind you of what I said not long ago to the Superiors General of the Religious in Rome: \u201cThe soul that lives in habitual contact with God and moves within the ardent ray of his love, is able to defend\u00a0itself easily against the temptation of particularisms and contrasts that create the risk of painful divisions; it is able to interpret in the correct light of the Gospel the options for the poorest and for each of the victims of human selfishness, without giving way to socio-political radicalisms which are seen in the long run to be inopportune and self-defeating\u201d (Address to the Superiors General of Men\u2019s Religious Orders<\/a><\/em>, 24 November 1978).<\/p>\n You are spiritual guides who endeavor to direct and improve the hearts of the\u00a0<\/em>faithful in order that, converted, they may live love for God and their neighbor and commit themselves to the betterment of man and to increasing his dignity.<\/p>\n You are priests and religious; you are not social or political leaders or officials of a temporal power.<\/strong> For this reason I repeat to you \u201cLet us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel if we `dilute\u2019 our charism through an exaggerated interest in the wide field\u00a0of temporal problems.\u201d (Address to the Clergy of Rome<\/a><\/em>, 9 November 1978). Let us not forget that temporal leadership can easily be a source of division, while the priest must be a sign and agent of unity and brotherhood. Secular functions are the specific field of action of laymen, who have to improve temporal matters with the Christian spirit\u00a0(Apostolicam Actuositatem<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>4).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n