The USCCB Scoreboard Reads: Lions 7, Christians 0

Looking at America’s Catholic bishops from far outside and with zero insider information, I can say that they appear to be split into two camps. 

One camp, the ascendant and apparently controlling group, are the buddies — dare I say operatives? — of extremist billionaires. You might call them the lions. 

The other camp, the gobsmacked, blithering, can’t-quite-figure-out-that-they-are-nose-to-nose-with-evil-incarnate group, are the bishops who still think that the 10 Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes are, well, commandments from God, and that Jesus Christ, not Trumpism, is Lord. You might call them the Christians. 

So far — and again from far outside and with zero insider information — it’s looking like the score is Lions 7, Christians 0. 

Meanwhile, over in Italy, the land that — with the backing of the Vatican — went fascist even before Germany in the 1930s, the bishops are actually celebrating democracy instead of aligning themselves with those who are working to kill it. 

History repeats itself. But differently. 

America’s right wing bishops have even begun enacting right wing political goals into the fabric of Church governance itself by cutting the USCCB’s programs that serve the poor and seek justice.  At the same time, Pope Francis continues to visit the poor, and to speak for them, even when he is slandered and attacked for doing it, and the Italian Bishops Conference has dedicated this year to the theme “At the Heart of Democracy: Participation throughout history and into the future.”

History repeats itself. But differently.  

In that vein, the Italian press has published a previous speech by Pope Francis highlighting the same theme. Pope Francis also gave a speech decrying the attacks on democracy. Pope Francis and the Italian bishops make the point that democracy requires many people from all sorts of backgrounds, faiths and ideas to work together for common goals. 

That is why democracy is always so incredibly successful. From the ancient Greeks, to the Roman Republic, to the United States of America, democracy empowers people to build and grow. In the course of that, democratic nations inevitably trounce all competition and end up powerhouses of strength and prosperity. 

The problem comes when a few individuals give their souls to bottomless greed. They figure out how to hack the democracy in order to concentrate wealth to themselves. Then, inevitably, they decide they want all the money, and all the power. They kill the democracy so that they can have everything for themselves.  

And that is where America is today.

I applaud the Italian bishops and Pope Francis for their support of democracy. Democracy is, as everything humans devise, imperfect. That is inevitable since democracy is government of, by and for the people, and people are imperfect. But democracy is the form of government that provides the greatest freedom, happiness, prosperity and security we can know in this world. 

Totalitarianism leads to misery, suffering and death. Dictatorships crush ordinary people like you and me under its wheels like an 18-wheeler rolling over bugs on a highway. 

I feel that our bishops have deserted us in this time of great peril. Even the best of them, the well-intentioned and still faithful among them, are dithering, not leading.

I don’t feel so much heartened as ironical when I see that the Italian bishops and the pope are willing to speak for the good of democracy. When I put it in historical context, the irony of the Italian bishops cherishing democracy while the American bishops work to destroy it is so thick I could walk on it from here to Kansas. 

From Crux:

Speaking to the Italian Bishops’ Conference the pope said July 7, “It is evident that in the world today, democracy, let’s tell the truth, does not enjoy good health.”

… The declining state of democracy, the pope said, is concerning for the world, because the good of humanity is at risk … He compared the current crisis in democracy to “a wounded heart,” describing it as a “heart attack” in which “we must also worry about the different forms of social exclusion.”

… “It is our duty not to manipulate the word democracy nor to deform it with titles, empty titles, capable of justifying any action. Democracy is not an empty box, but is tied to the values of the person, of fraternity, and also of integral ecology,” he said.