Some Bishops and the President.

I started this post yesterday, early in the morning.  I didn't finish it, however, as I was mostly waiting for it to get a little later so that I could pack up and go deer hunting.  By today, the following day, the story has already significantly moved on, showing I guess how quickly the news cycle moves.

Anyhow, let's start here:

57. Building a world of respect for human life and dignity, where justice and peace prevail, requires more than just political commitment. Individuals, families, businesses, community organizations, and governments all have a role to play. Participation in political life in light of fundamental moral principles is an essential duty for every Catholic and all people of good will.

58. The Church is involved in the political process but is not partisan. The Church cannot champion any candidate or party. Our cause is the defense of human life and dignity and the protection of the weak and vulnerable.

59. The Church is engaged in the political process but should not be used.We welcome dialogue with political leaders and candidates; we seek to engage and persuade public officials. Events and photo ops cannot substitute for serious dialogue

60. The Church is principled but not ideological. As St. John Paul II wrote in his encyclical,Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,The Church’s social doctrine is not . . . an ideology, but rather the accurate formulation of the results of a careful reflection on the complex realities of human existence, in society and in the international order, in the light of faith and of the Church’s tradition. Its main aim is to interpret these realities, determining their conformity with or divergence from the lines of the Gospel teaching on man and his vocation, a vocation which is at once earthly and transcendent; its aim is thus to guide Christian behavior. It therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral theology. (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, no. 41)We cannot compromise basic principles or moral teaching. We are committed to clarity about our moral teaching and to civility. In public life, it is important to practice the virtues of charity and justice that are at the core of our Tradition. We should work with others in a variety of ways to advance our moral principles.

61. In light of these principles and the blessings we share as part of a free and democratic nation, we bishops vigorously repeat our call for a renewed kind of politics: 

•Focused more on moral principles than on the latest poll 

•Focused more on the needs of the weak than on benefits for the strong 

•Focused more on the pursuit of the common good than on the demands of narrow interests

62. This kind of political participation reflects the social teaching of our Church and the best traditions of our nation.

FormingConsciencesFaithfulCitizenshipforA Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United State

My heart just sank when I check my computer the other morning and saw this:

I have traditionally been extremely careful about criticizing Bishops on this site, and not just Catholic bishops.  I don't know if I've ever criticized any bishops at all.  Perhaps those of the English Church at the time of Henry VIII, sort of. That's about it, and I don't think I really even did that.  Catholics owe deference to their Bishops, and for the most part we probably owe deference to Orthodox Bishops on most things as well. So, suffice it to say, this is unusual.

The Church does not  hold, however, that we can never do so.  Respect to the Bishop and the Bishop's office is owed when we do, however.  

Recently I've seen a lot of criticism aimed at one particular Bishop, the Bishop of Rome, which has been made by right wing Catholics which is simply shocking in nature.  Probably sinful as well.  Pope Francis received that sort of criticism all the time from the Catholic right.  I never openly criticized either and certainly have not Pope Leo.  I was not a huge fan of Pope Francis, but I'm also not in his shoes in any fashion so my criticism, when it was made, was fairly muted.  There was a little, however.

Here I fear I must offer some criticism.  I'm not the only one who  is doing so.  I'd note the reaction to his photo and event, which was organized reportedly by somebody from The Heritage Foundation, has been pretty severe. The White House itself issued a statement saying from its Faith Director stating that the meeting was:

 [N]ot politics. This is policy in action ending with meaningful Prayer with & for the President. He welcomes prayer in the Oval Office regularly- on and off camera.  People of faith have a VOICE @potus @whitehouse Faith Office.  This is not just a ‘photo op’ These are Catholic Archbishops and Bishops who spent time talking with us about important issues on religious freedom, school choice, family tax credits, religious visas, and life. They are leaders within their communities and have a seat at the table

It's surprising, really, to see the White House try to say something isn't political, which shows how much upset there must be.

The furor caused Archbishop Golka, who delivered the prayer at the meeting, to issue a statement, which said:

Archbishop Golka and other bishops meet with President Trump

Archbishop James R. Golka joined fellow Roman Catholic bishops in meeting with President Trump and led a prayer in the Oval Office, asking God’s blessing upon the president and our nation. His prayer expressed gratitude for “our beautiful nation” and asked the Holy Spirit “to surround our country to protect us against any influence of evil.” With respect for the office of the president, the Archdiocese of Denver welcomes continued conversation on the sanctity of life, from conception to natural death, and the God-given dignity of every person. We invite the faithful to pray for our nation and its leaders, trusting in Christ’s mercy and guidance.

Praying for those in public office is a longstanding Catholic practice, rooted in St. Paul’s instruction to pray for all who hold authority (1 Tim 2:1-2). It is not an endorsement of any specific candidate or party.

The Bishop's statement is completely correct in what it says.  The problem is that every single thing that the White House does is political, and is designed to serve the politics of Donald Trump.

The Church is engaged in the political process but should not be used.

FormingConsciencesFaithfulCitizenshipforA Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States.

I think the Archbishop's appearance at the White House was sincere and not intended to be political.  I also think it was naive.

Certain Catholic and Orthodox Bishops have been seen regularly in the presnece of Donald Trump during this administration.  I've held back any commentary on it, but it bothers me enormously.  There is no evidence whatsoever that Donald Trump is a Christian of any kind.  The evidnece is that Trump will use Christians in order to advance his cause, which is principally Donald Trump.  As we've noted here there are two Christian camps in hte Trump orbit, one being far right Evangelicalism and the other being the very conservative more traditional, and indeed at least somewhat Apostolic Church influenced, National Conservatism/Christian Nationalism.  

The Catholic mainstream is not really part of any of this.

People of faith have in many instances voted for Trump because of their deeply held views, which again differ enormously in the case of Apostolic Christians and Evangelicals.  A lot of the Evangelicals see Trump as a Divinely appointed figure, a latter day Cyrus the Great, who will lead the United States into a position as a new Israel.  

Catholics think nothing of the sort.

What a lot of Catholics think is that Trump has been uniquely effective on a selection of moral issues that are of deep concern to Catholics, abortion being one, but the fable of transgenderism being another.  And frankly he has, although the role of Southern Baptist Mitch McConnell in creating a Supreme Court that eliminated Roe is seemingly underappreciated.  Trump has taken on transgenderism this go around.

At the same time, he's interestingly pretty much lost interest in the other moral issues that are in the air.  Homosexual marriage is something the Church condemns, but Trump's been silent on it and indeed one of the principal cabinet members, Scott Bessent, is in such a purported union.  Trump's administration from time to time embraces the weirdness of pronatalism and as part of that even Catholic J.D. Vance came out for IVF, which the Church condemns.

And this two years has been a parade of horrors on other moral fronts.  The administration clearly favors the death penalty, which is immoral.  It's launched wars without a declaration which cannot possibly square with the Just War Theory.  It's murdered people on the high seas under suspicion that they're drug runners without giving them the benefit of a trial.  And it's been abusive to immigrants no matter what you think of their legal status.

And even at this late date, it seems to escape a lot of people that Trump's administration is not just odd, as Trump is odd, but that backing Trump have their own, very radical, agendas.  The Evangelical far right, in quite a few instances, wants a Calvinist nation and see Trump as a vehicle to get there.  National Conservatives see liberal democracy as a failure and are quasi Francoist in their outlook.

Catholics really haven't seen anything like this since the 1930s.  When they last did, the Church ultimately acted against it. Pope Pius XI condemned Action française in 1926.  The Church condemned the Belgian Rexist movement as a danger to the Church and the nation in 1937.  Fr. Coughlin was famously silenced in 1942.  It's no wonder, therefore, that a lot of people, including a lot of Bishops, are not aware of the back currents in this administration.

And they may also simply not be aware that everything Trump does is political, or perhaps more accurately, self promotional.  They likely sincerely believed that this wouldn't turn into an odd photo op, but somebody should have informed them. There was no way that a gathering like this wasn't going to be used by the Trump Administration to try to suggest that Catholic Bishops are in his corner, with the suggestion being that Catholics should keep that in mind as they head to the polls.

At any rate, this seems to have already passed.

Which is a good thing.

When the Trump era ends, and it's drawing to an end now, Evangelical Protestantism is going to be very badly damaged, even perhaps beyond the point of recovery.  The ignorant and scrivener lazy like to claim that Trump has "Christian" support, which is far too broad of claim and very inaccurate.  Those Christians not part of the Evangelical far right do not want to be tarred with the Trump brush.   The Apostolic Faiths, which have been growing as they are catholic (small c) in nature, particularly do not wish to be.

Sunday Morning Scene. Dominionism and the Department of Defense.

The following was posted by Assistant Secretary of Defense, Sean Parnell:

Sean Parnell

@SeanParnellASW

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. SEND ME!’” — Isaiah 6:8

Frankly, this is a shocking association of the US military with religion.
I've warned here that the US is in the thick of an Administration that features individuals in it who who hold minoritarian Evangelical views well outside the mainstream of Christianity, and further that were introduced rather late in Christian history.  Unfortunately, the United States, which is a Protestant country, is basically the epicenter of such views and many Protestants don't realize their views are not held by most of the globes Christians, most of whom are Apostolic Christians.

Included in that set of views, for some, is the concept that Christians can help bring about the Second Coming and, in some quarters, that the United States is a nation directly charged with a Devine Mission.

The military is definitely suffering right now, with some elements of the Navy having morale problems and a war going on which the administration repeatedly claims we've won, but which drags on.  The current hope is that economic sanctions will bring Iran to its knees but none of the predictions about the war have proven correct so far.  

Not one.

One way to definitely end the war would be to commit ground troops.  It'd also be a bloody mess.

These recruiting blurbs do not indicate a commitment to inserting ground troops, but they do demonstrate a frightening mix of religion with foreign policy.  We are not Crusaders and frankly Crusaders would have regarded American Evangelicals as weird heretics.  The fact that the government sends out a message like this should be alarming, and it should be offensive to Christians, Muslims and Jews, all of whom regard Isaiah as a prophet.

Indeed, when Isaiah spoke those words, he wasn't asking to be sent into combat.  He was being sent as a prophet.

The military should never be committed to an immoral cause, but we should not imagine that every time it has been committed the commitment met Christian standards.  None of the military actions taken during the Second Trump Administration do.  They most particularly do not under the reconsideration of the Just War Theory made by Pope Leo.

What Parnell did here is wrong on so many levels.  Christians should be horrified.

Saturday, September 4, 476. The end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Coin with the image of Emperor Romulus Augustulus.

11 year old Romulus Augustulus, the last Emperor or the Western Roman Empire and a mere figurehead, was forced to advocate by Flavius Odoacer, a German commander of the Roman Guard who declared himself King of Italy and a vassal of the Eastern Roman Emperor.

Coin with the image of Flavius Odoacer.

The event is marked as the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Early Middle Ages.

Romulus went on to live in exile with a pension and seems to have lived to at least 60 years of age.  He was a Catholic (orthodox) Christian  and may have founded a monastery while in exile.*

Odoacer, while regarding himself as a vassal of Constantinople, had a falling out with with the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno who in turn sent Theodoric the Great to depose him, resulting in a war which cost Odoacer his life in 493.  Theodoric did not stop there, but killed many of Odoacer's followers, including his wife Sunigilda, who was stoned to death, and his brother Onoulphus.  In spite of his short reign and violent death, he's regarded as an important post Empire figure.  Odoacer was an Arian Chrisitan.

Theodoric coin.

Theodoric, an Ostrogoth, who became king, was a hugely significant figure, expanding his reign over a fair amount of what had been the Western Roman Empire.  He was an Arian Christian whose rule mimicked forms adopted from Constantinople.  He was King of Italy, the Ostrogoths, and the Visigoths.

Theodoric was a patron of the orthodox Catholic philosopher Boethius for quite some time, but as his rule progressed, Theodoric began to turn from neutral in the dispute between orthodoxy and Arianism and he had Boethius arrested and ultimately executed in 524.

Boethius' magnum opus, De consolatione philosophiae, was written while imprisoned and awaiting execution.  He is regarded as a martyr in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Footnotes:

*This era was marked by a major conflict between orthodox Christianity and Arianism.  To clarify things here, the schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church was very much in the future so the use of orthodoxy here does not mean to imply the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Best Posts of the Week of August 23, 2026, as well as the Feral Week and Agrarian Week. "If", murders and deaths, war gamers smarter than the Pentagon, the race continues, the idiocy of agriculture with the GOP, the Horsemeat March, Real Christians, the US becomes outright moronic, the D-Day which wasn't.

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

If, by Rudyard Kipling. 

The best posts of the week of August 23, 2026.

A week in which we recalled a celebrated murder:

Friday, August 23, 1901. The murder of Rev. Heese.

A noted the passing of a beloved cinematic lover:

Monday, August 23, 1926. Rudolph Valentino passes, as does Dr. Charles William Eliot.

We noted the idiocy of agriculturalist in supporting the Republican Party:

The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.

And we noted the brilliance of war gamers and the dimness of the Trump administration.

How did war gamers get the war with Iran right, before it started, and the Administration didn't?

We concluded our post on the primary election results:

The 2026 Election, 20th Edition. The 2026 Wyoming Primary Results.

And we noted the declining mental status of a person whose never been admirable, but now is outright dangerous.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 142nd Edition, 25th Amendment Watch, 22nd Edition. Worry.

The deficit passed an unconscionable level.

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 8. $40,012,700,535,679.44

The Horsemeat March commenced.

Friday, August 25, 1876. Beginning of the Horsemeat March.

We revolted against being lumped in with Evangelicals as we are members of the original Church.

Ecclesia militans. On the use of the word "Christian".

We watched as the United States descended into outright absurdity.

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition. First set of Additional labels.

Scott Bessent declared an economic D-Day which wasn't really one.

King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.

There were developments over the bar.

Court Watch Part VIII. The only restraint edition.

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition.

We looked the race:

The 2026 Election, 21st Edition. The Contest in the General Election.

The illegitimate occupant of the White House tried to change the name of a Great Lake.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 153rd Edition. The maddening intersection of all politics being local and the two party "system".

The Freedom Caucus tried to throw its diminished weight around.

The 2027 Legislature, super early edition. The make them stop edition.

A survivor of genocide emerged, the last of his tribe.

Tuesday, August 29, 1911. Ishi.

Glenn Beck and Donald Trump came up with a way to satiate cattlemen so that the GOP can keep on screwing them.

Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food

Dolly Parton died and it somehow became a matter of official national observance.

The Feral Week:

A week noted by the ongoing story of Angi Bruce, late of the Game and Fish, data center controversies, and lost hikers and dogs.

Platte County Recommends Rezoning Private Ranchland For Proposed Data Center

Hunter In Helicopter Whose Elk Head Was Stolen By Rancher Busted For Trespassing

Judge OKs cattle grazing on controversial Bridger-Teton allotments, for now

After abrupt move to governor’s office, former Wyoming Game and Fish boss moves on to private lands nonprofit

 

Lost and found

55-Year-Old Hiker Missing Five Days After Setting Out For Wyoming’s Highest Peak

Shots Fired: Nevada Sues Over Water Cuts, Could Drag Wyoming Into Court

Coloradans Call For Bear Baiting And Hounds To Deal With Unprecedented Bear Conflicts

Director Angi Bruce’s departure from Wyoming Game and Fish was likely involuntary, records suggest

The Agrarian Week:

It was a week which stood out for the idiocy of agriculture in politics.

The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.

And a lost dog (which was later found):

Extraordinary All-Out Search Launched North Of Casper For Runaway Livestock Guard Dog

Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food

Eat Local, Help Farmers, Avoid Pathogens

Elections and Aesthetics.

Last edition:

Best posts of the week of August 16, 2026 and the Feral and Agrarian Weeks.