Cloaky

I was impressed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference. He indeed addressed a number of particular political issues, but what most grabbed my attention was his stress on the common culture that unites Europe and America. He cited Dante, Shakespeare, the Sistine Chapel, Cologne Cathedral—even the Beatles as expressions of basic cultural intuitions that still inform the West. But he pressed the matter further, insisting, in the spirit of both Christopher Dawson and Pope Benedict XVI, that that culture is grounded ultimately in the Christian faith. It is simply the case that reverence for the dignity of the individual, for human rights, for political freedom, and for equality comes, in the final analysis, from the Christian Gospel. Basic to his presentation was the conviction that Europe and America will truly flourish when each re-discovers its spiritual mooring.

There was a line from Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address yesterday that took my breath away. He said he intended to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least one hundred million people in the last century. Socialist and Communist forms of government around the world today—Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc.—are disastrous. Catholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as “rugged individualism.” In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person. For God’s sake, spare me the “warmth of collectivism.”

When I was still an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, I attended with my brother bishops from California an ad limina visit with Pope Francis. At the conclusion of the meeting, as we were rising to leave, the Pope stopped us and said, “I want you all to battle the gender ideology that is sweeping your country. It is opposed to the Bible and to our Catholic anthropology.” In his later declaration “Dignitas infinita,” Pope Francis strongly reiterated this position, arguing that gender ideology is deeply harmful to the dignity of young people. This is why I was so pleased to see Secretary Robert Kennedy’s announcement this morning that he is endeavoring to ban so-called gender re-assignment surgery and the use of puberty blockers that halt natural sexual development. The Catholic Church agrees with Secretary Kennedy that these procedures result in irreparable physical harm and typically increase the psychological distress of those who undergo them.   Anyone with a pastor’s heart sympathizes with those who suffer from gender dysphoria and insists that all people must be treated with love, compassion, respect, and dignity. But interventions that result in the mutilation of our young people are neither compassionate nor respectful. I’m grateful to Secretary Kennedy and the department of Health and Human Services for this action.