Having recently read books on the Kulturkampf and the Nazi state's relationship with the German Catholic Church, I am struck by the fact that every single move in the Obama's administrations effort to sweep Catholicism from the public stage has happened before.
The Obama's administration's argument that Catholic conscience and practice is protected only when it involves the administration of the sacraments to Catholics? The Nazis made the same distinction for the same purpose, namely to eliminate Catholic influence in "political" life. See this and this.
The Obama's administration use of Catholics who identify themselves as Democrat or liberal or progressive first, and Catholic second? That is a gambit, again, right out of Nazi Germany.
The intrusion of state power and politics into every facet of life so that dissenting from the State's policies on maters of conscience is made into a risky "political" decision? The Nazis, again.
Using State power to suppressing Catholic moral doctrines on the grounds that such doctrines are "superstitious"? The German Kulturkampf - a period of oppression and persecution initiated and sustained by German liberals.
In the same vein, Mark Shea writes:
As I mentioned, the strategy of states seeking to dominate the Church is–as Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, the Nazi, and the Chinese Commies have all demonstrated–to foster a Patriotic Church, docile to the will of the Ruling Class, and then encourage devotion to that as “real Christianity” in contrast to the actual Catholic Church in union with the Pope and the bishops. We don’t live in a confessional country, so the state can’t actually make Obama the Head of the Church. But Obama can certainly help foster the perception of lickspittle bureaucrats, dissenting theologians, and sundry cringing suckups on the Catholic left as an alternative magisterium. That appears to be precisely the tactic he is taking with, of course, the willing and eager help of the MSM, who naturally portray the whole thing as Plucky Rebel Alliance of forward-thinking Catholics vs. Evil Empire of Sexually Retarded Bishops. Nobody even bothers to ask why the Church might have qualms about contraception or abortifacients. The meme machine is revved, ginning up the public to cheer for the crushing of Catholic conscience by a tyrant who has usurped the power to murder and indefinitely detain American citizens as a triumph of the human spirit. Sin does indeed make people stupid.
Posts
