"An Insidious Persecutor"

But today we fight an insidious persecutor, an enemy who flatters, the AntiChrist Constantius. He does not stab us in the back but fills our stomachs, does not seize our property to lead us to life but stuffs our pockets to lead us to death, does not free us by putting us in prison but enslaves us by attendance at court, does not lash our bodies but kills the spirit with gold, does not publicly threaten us with the stake but privately kindles the fires of hell. He does not fight to avoid defeat but flatters in order to dominate. He confesses Christ to deny him, seeks uniformity to banish peace, compromises with heretics to be rid of Christians, honors priests to abolish bishops, builds churches to destroy the Faith. He honors you, O God, in words and on his lips, yet does all he can to weaken belief in you as Father of all...

I found this quote from St. Hilary of Poitiers cited by Hugo Rahner in his wonderful study Church and State in Early Christianity. It seemed germane to our whole political situation, even before I read Giuliani's promise to appoint anti-Roe v. Wade judges. Nor do I intend to mark Giuliani as the only culprit here. An election with two candidates who refuse to acknowledge life forces us to look more closely at what we are asking for from our elected officials.

It seems to me Giuliani is exploiting a kind of reduction in view that pro-life people have made. I know I've said this myself. The Republican party may not be making much progress in protecting the unborn, but at least they'll give us some sympathetic justices. This is the problem with being against something instead of being a presence, to paraphrase Msgr. Giussani.

I appreciate Deacon Scott's refusal to compromise on our vision of the human person called by God to an eternal destiny. I also appreciate the widening of scope that Fred brings in, including instead of subsuming questions of freedom, education and a method of facing reality.