Culture War: What Do We Do About Fredo? Catholic Immuno Response

What to do: When an intimate, an insider, your very own blood turns against the family? The Michael Corleone approach is not an option for Catholics! We can't take the Bidens, Kennedys, Kerrys out on the lake and toss the bodies into the water. Much less can we do so with made men like Cupich, Gregory and such. What to do about betrayal of our values from within?

Fifty years into the Culture War now, am I tired? Of course I am! But capitulation, fatigue, even retirement...not options! I will fight the Culture War to my last breath. To live is to fight: to defend what is True and Good and Beautiful. It is like the Hatfields and the McCoys; like the Jets and the Sharks; like the Saxons and the Danes! With God's grace I will die with my boots on: running the good race, fighting the good fight.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow Catholics in combat with our adversaries is not fatiguing. It is invigorating, energizing and refreshing...like a good basketball or handball game. To be an American Catholic is to fight: Calvinist prohibitionists, Marxists labor leaders, Southern Fundamentalist bigots, secular Jewish pornograhers and movie moguls, WASP capitalists, and the eugenicists in the Ford/Rockafellow Foundations and Planned Parenthood. To live is to fight the good fight.

How often have I wondered: Why don't they just go up the street to the Episcopalian Church with is dying for members? Their theology is Anglican: their sexual ethics, sacramental practice, eccessiology...Everything! Personally I have little esteem for the denomination of Henry VIII with their watered-down, go-along-to-get-along, will-you-like-us sentimentality. But I do see an integrity in those who believe with that Church and leave ours to join it. It would be nice and neat if others would follow: they could have all they want of woman priests, sterile sexuality and reproductive freedom and we Catholics can just be Catholic. But it is not that simple.

The progressive Catholic seems to be conflicted: deeply connected to the Church of his birth, but driven to transform it to a more enlightened form. The sense of allegiance is genuine. But they are also like parasites: drawing life from the host but also working to undermine the life form in its integrity. The Church herself also exists in the tension between a maternal concern to welcome and include and a paternal steadfastness in Truth. The Church's response to the rejection of Humanae Vitae is emblematic: there was no crackdown or mass expulsion, but those loyal to the magisterium, expecially John Paul and Benedict, continued patiently and steadfastly to announce the truth. So what are we to do?

My answer: the Catholic Immuno Response! We all know about our immune system and herd immunities. The more we are in contact with germs and infections, the more our immune systems attack the invaders and we become stronger and healthier.

A decade ago the liberal Catholic project seemed to have failed in the face of the gentle steadfastness of John Paul and Benedict.That death notice was premature as it has resurged under Francis. It makes sense that the compulsion to accomadate to and collaborate with dominant elite values is a permanent ecclesial temptation. But this perenial parasitic pest serves a providential purpose: it arouses us to affirm the truth, in season and out, in good times and bad, steadily, gently, sweetly, energetically,confidently. If it doesn't kill us, it makes us stronger. Thank God for all the Fredos around us, who betray our values and arouse us to fierce loyalty. Let us pray for patience! Let us use this provocation to grow in Truth and Love! Let us pray for the Fredos among us!