Courage to Preach and Teach

Several years ago, while visiting a member of our parish who owns a local barbershop, a mutual friend came in and seemed disturbed about something. He hesitated and hemmed and hawed when addressing me and then burst out with, “Deacon, why does the Catholic Church involve itself in politics so much? Why don’t they just stick to worshiping God and mind their own business?” With some further questioning on my part, I discovered that my friend was upset about the Catholic Church’s very public stand supporting a statewide initiative that would require abortion clinics to obtain parental consent before performing an abortion on a minor child. The Catholic Bishops of California had been very vociferous during the initiative campaign, and within parish communities their teaching was well distributed.

I continued with my friend in explaining that the Catholic Church was doing what Christ told us to do. His message is to proclaim His truth, the Good News, to the world and that the Church would be more than happy to cease and desist from these “political issues” when civil law, court judgments and initiatives of all kinds stopped broaching moral issues concerning life and death. This is especially true when it comes to innocent human life, or, for that matter, issues relating to what we understand to be contrary to the natural law that is given to us by God.
The following weekend was my cycle to preach at three of our parish Masses. The conversation I had with my friend reverberating in my ears, led me in prayer to ask if I was being called to take the message of the Catholic Bishops, the truth of the matter on the respect for life from conception to natural death, to more people than my confused and somewhat perplexed friend. Thanking God for the internet, I went to the website of the California Conference of Catholic Bishops and framed my homily using the information found there about the upcoming initiative. The information was beautifully crafted with no hint of partisanship but clearly dealing with the issues at hand, the moral issues  which our society was facing.

Armed with this information, and using the example of my experience of the recent barbershop conversation, I set out to explain the position of the Catholic Church on this issue. To say that I was nervous in my initial foray deep into this territory would be to put it mildly, as I understood that my friend in the barbershop, sadly, is not alone in his opinion. The results were interesting. At one of the Masses, people broke out in applause, largely I believe, in relief that someone was addressing the issue and they were now equipped to understand it themselves and offer others a faithful explanation. Others had their say later. Two people called the rectory the next day and said if the deacon can’t stay out of politics they were taking their children out of our school. Our pastor told them that was their prerogative. I have no idea if they ever did.

In the final analysis, taking such issues on at the pulpit always risks offending some, and the fears clergy have about being misconstrued are possible, but not guaranteed. A perfect opportunity exists every election cycle to address the moral issues that arise, whether those be the life issues, same sex marriage, contraception, or other similar issues. Issues that require the same courage, the same determination of the One who came to give us the Truth.