The Columbus Dispatch reports that Hale had a divorce and now cohabits with her lesbian partner leaving her children with a “blended” (i.e., broken) family of mom, dad, and two step-moms–or perhaps a step-aunt? The study of genealogy is notably silent on the terminology for such creative arrangements. Apparently the extended Hale family lives by the apocryphal African proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child.” Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO has vowed to join in the public intimidation of the Catholic Church, undoubtedly with their usual thuggish tactics.

These liberal forces that are attacking the Church are biting the hand that feeds the people they claim to represent. Catholic schools provide an indispensible service, especially to inner city families that cannot afford secular private schools. After decades of neglect and mismanagement under one-party rule, inner city public schools are so bad that even by the third grade, urban students are already far behind their suburban peers. Catholic schools, on the other hand, are consistently awarded for their high standards while at the same time providing tuition assistance to underprivileged youths as part of the Church’s mission of Christian charity.

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery by Alessandro Turchi, c. 1600

Charity does not mean that the Catholic Church must abandon its most sacred and central mission, which is the salvation of mankind. Contrary to the blabbering of dissidents who claim the Catholic Church is in need of liberal reforms, the Church has always been most concerned with the repentance and forgiveness of sin from the beginning when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in the upper room. However, the confession of sin must arise from a contrite heart. Jesus tells us to “go and sin no more.” He does not tell us, “do whatever makes you feel happy.” Grace alone is not enough. We must also do good works.

There is no question whatsoever that both women violated Church teachings or their contractual obligations. They certainly are not living according to the commandment of Jesus that the sacred matrimonial bond between one man and woman which is consummated in the act of procreation–the literal and figurative union of two into one flesh–must never be broken. Furthermore, the case of Christa Dias puts paid to the absurd argument offered by Carla Hale’s defenders that the Catholic Church would never fire a straight teacher for immoral conduct. Man or woman, gay or straight, sex outside of marriage is always immoral. It doesn’t matter who is doing what to whom.

However, instead of leaving this as an internal disciplinary matter, liberals are obsessed with enforcing secular values on the Catholic Church because Catholic institutions provide essential public services that threaten their power–especially in the inner city where liberals are accustomed to wielding absolute and unchallenged control. True charity given freely undermines the social engineering through coercive force which is the centerpiece of modern liberalism. Liberals believe what they say about diversity and inclusion, but they reserve a special enmity towards the Catholic Church precisely because its insistence on good works and subsidiarity is a glorious and brilliant inconvenience to the entire liberal project.

At the same time the IRS was ramping up its harassment of Tea Party groups in 2011, liberals were outraged and President Obama threatened to veto the debt ceiling legislation when Republicans tried to end public financing of Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills and incessant political advocacy. Even now, Planned Parenthood continues to receive public funding and also operates a 501(c)(4), presumably with private contributions, although accounting gimmicks make this separation highly dubious. Meanwhile, Tea Party groups whose stated mission is to educate citizens about the Bill of Rights and accept only private donations were held to a much higher level of scrutiny.

The contrast is spectacular and revealing: for modern liberalism, abortion is a public good but freedom of speech is not. Obama made this explicit when he told Planned Parenthood, “God bless you” and then went on to tell the graduates of Ohio State to reject the voices that warn that tyranny is just around the corner. If the revelations of the past few days have taught us anything, it is that the phrase “unaccountable bureaucrat” is not just a political cliché, and pace Obama’s assurances, there really is a petty tyrant that is always lurking around the corner of every page of ambiguous and ill-conceived legislation—and ObamaCare is by far the most heinous example.

President Obama claimed in a press conference yesterday that he had no knowledge of the IRS program, but this does not absolve him of responsibility. During his State of the Union address in 2010, President Obama made it clear that he was vehemently opposed to 501(c)(4) organizations engaging in political activity and urged Congress to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Perhaps, like the knights who killed Saint Thomas á Beckett after hearing Henry II wish for his death in a fit of rage, the IRS employees were just trying to please their boss.

“Paying the Tax,” by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, c.1620

This should give us pause when we consider the wide-ranging powers granted to the IRS under ObamaCare. Indeed, the landmark ruling of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius only upheld ObamaCare by interpreting its most onerous provisions as an exercise of the taxing power. Liberal pundits echo Obama’s claim that we have nothing to fear, but they said the same thing about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. In this light, the words of the Declaration of Independence reverberate through the centuries as a warning that is just as relevant today, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” The HHS contraceptive and abortifacient mandate is only a foretaste of what is to come.

In the age of Obama, we can no longer hope that the executive branch will exercise prudence and sound judgement in the enforcement of the law. Whenever the law allows for discretion, it also allows for abuse. As far as we know, this scandal is not the product of some Nixonian conspiracy, although the scope and longevity of the IRS program do not reflect well on Obama’s leadership if nobody ever thought to bring it to his attention. As the saying goes, “A fish rots from the head down.”

Most likely, these abuses are simply the result of an incompetent and ineffectual President who despises the citizens that elected him and takes no interest in the task of governing when it does not suit his latest initiative to remake American society. If we can take Obama at his word, the IRS employees were simply left to their own devices without proper oversight. It is only natural that they would follow the example of a President who never misses an opportunity to chastise his conservative opponents and to politicize every function of the government under his control. Sadly, in his peevish aloofness, Obama is the pettiest tyrant of them all.

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Correction Note: the original version of this article referred to the debt ceiling debate as taking place in May 2012 when it was in fact the summer of 2011.

Campbell said earlier in the day that Hale was not fired because of her sexual orientation but because her “quasi-spousal relationship” with another woman violates the church’s moral teaching. He said Hale violated a teacher contract and Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus policy that prohibits immoral behavior and requires employees to follow general church tenets.

In an exclusive interview with The Dispatch, the bishop said diocesan officials “don’t necessarily go looking for things like that,” but Hale’s decision to name her partner in her mother’s obituary made the relationship public and initiated the termination process.

As bishop, he said, he has a “fundamental responsibility” to maintain the Catholic identity of the institutions under his purview.

“We do this in an atmosphere of care, of calm consideration, but yet out of the realization that at particular times we have to make particular decisions,” he said. “And they are difficult sometimes, but they do flow from what we believe, who we are and how we are to live.”

His Excellency, The Most Rev. Frederick Campbell, Bishop of Columbus (Catholic News Agency File Photo)

Unfortunately this is not the last word on the matter. According to the Columbus NBC affiliate, WCMH Channel 4, Hale’s attorney has formally filed a criminal complaint against the Diocese of Columbus which carries a possible penalty of up to six months in jail and has no exemption for religious organizations. That Bishop Campbell waited until now to speak publicly on the matter is evidence of how agonizing and heartbreaking this must be for him to see a former employee now lashing out against the Church.

In a bizarre side-story, an angry parent was escorted from a charity dinner with the Bishop after an outburst this past weekend. WCMH Channel 4 reports that John Petrucci supports Hale’s dismissal but was concerned about the violent threats that have been directed at Bishop Watterson High School. In response to the confrontation, a spokesman for the Diocese issued the following statement:

“During last evening’s dinner for diocesan ‘Bishop Annual Appeal’ contributors, an attendee, immediately prior to Bishop Campbell’s address, abruptly stood and began speaking regarding Carla Hale in a manner that was not understood or heard by many in attendance. While speaking, he began moving toward the Bishop in a way that concerned many in the audience.  Several attendees thought it necessary to intervene on the Bishop’s behalf, asked the man to leave, and escorted him from the event.  No extraordinary force was either required or applied in this process.

“Bishop Campbell is aware of the passions that have surrounded the Carla Hale issue and is deeply concerned about the anxiety and alarm it has created within our community.  He encourages all on either side of this subject to maintain civility and calm while the grievance process in this case moves forward.”

Given the threats that Petrucci is rightly concerned about, it is understandable that some in the audience may have thought he was a supporter of Hale. The attack on Belgian Archbishop Leonard is one recent example of the anger and hatred that is directed against the Catholic Church. The hacker group “Anonymous” has also issued threats against employees of the diocese. There will surely be worse to come for any who have the courage to defend the truth. Petrucci’s outburst illustrates how easily emotions and passions can overwhelm reason and good judgment. We must choose our words and our actions carefully.

Bishop Campbell and all who share his steadfastness will be called uncompassionate, intolerant, and hypocritical for holding fast to unpopular beliefs. However, we must remember that that love and compassion demand that we make sacrifices for the good of others. Carla Hale’s supporters who call for the Church to violate eternal truths have forgotten that compassion is not just about giving unconditionally, but that sometimes correction is needed when we go astray. The Bishop’s crozier is a reminder of this sacred duty not only to keep his sheep in the fold, but also as a rod to defend from wolves when the time comes.

Until these most recent development, the media coverage of this story has been entirely focused on Carla Hale’s supporters. However, members of the public who support Bishop Campbell and the Dioceses for upholding the Catholic faith have quietly begun to mobilize. A group of parents and students of Bishop Watterson High School has started a petition to offer prayers and encouragement to the Bishop and the Diocese. In the tribulations that lie ahead, they will need our help and our sacrifices.

In a story that seems to have garnered very little attention, the Wall Street Journal‘s Jennifer Graham reported last Thursday that in the carnage following the Boston Marathon bombings, first responders did not include area clergy.  This was, however, no accident. Graham writes:

The heart-wrenching photographs taken in the moments after the Boston Marathon bombings show the blue-and-yellow jackets of volunteers, police officers, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, even a three-foot-high blue M&M. Conspicuously absent are any clerical collars or images of pastoral care.

This was not for lack of proximity. Close to the bombing site are Trinity Episcopal Church, Old South Church and St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine, all on Boylston Street. When the priests at St. Clement’s, three blocks away, heard the explosions, they gathered sacramental oils and hurried to the scene in hopes of anointing the injured and, if necessary, administering last rites, the final of seven Catholic sacraments. But the priests, who belong to the order Oblates of the Virgin Mary, weren’t allowed at the scene.

The Rev. John Wykes, director of the St. Francis Chapel at Boston’s soaring Prudential Center, and the Rev. Tom Carzon, rector of Our Lady of Grace Seminary, were among the priests who were turned away right after the bombings. It was jarring for Father Wykes, who, as a hospital chaplain in Illinois a decade ago, was never denied access to crime or accident scenes.

“I was allowed to go anywhere. In Boston, I don’t have that access,” he says.

Since the Boston Police Department has refused to comment on the story, the reasons why clergy were barred from entering the scene remain shrouded in speculation. One credible theory is that because a terrorist could enter the scene masquerading as clergy and do further damage, they locked down the scene.

I find such a theory questionable, however, insofar as there were so many people on the scene from the start, many of them volunteers with no credentials who merely happened to be on location when the bombing occurred.  These were not asked to leave the scene, and in many of the news photos of the initial aftermath these non-uniformed citizen helpers are shown tending to the wounded and helping to get the most seriously injured to medical transport.

Would it truly have been such a risk to allow local clergy to assist the bombing victims, especially those in danger of death? Doesn’t it seem likely that at least some of the local police attending the event would have known these individuals, since their churches were close at hand? And perhaps most importantly, is this the kind of nation we are creating, one that refuses admission to those carrying hope, spiritual consolation, and sacraments for the dying on the off chance that they might be bad guys? Graham points out that:

…it is a poignant irony that Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy who died on Boylston Street, was a Catholic who had received his first Communion just last year. As Martin lay dying, priests were only yards away, beyond the police tape, unable to reach him to administer last rites—a sacrament that, to Catholics, bears enormous significance.

If that were my son, I would be furious. Bad enough to lose him. Worse still to deny him those incredibly important final graces that all Catholics hope to receive at the hour of death.

Final judgment on this story should be reserved until the Boston Police Department clarifies their thinking on the matter, which I hope they will do very soon. But the whole thing is unsettling. Many in the media along with government officials who have spoken out after the bombings have positively tripped over themselves in their attempts to merely label this an act of “extremism” or even, if they’re feeling generous, “religious extremism” — without ever acknowledging exactly which extremist religious philosophy was behind it. And yet they have also, for reasons as yet unknown, kept those religious persons who were truly attempting to bring comfort and peace to the injured and dying away from the scene of this horrific tragedy.

Something doesn’t add up.

LifeSiteNews reports that the terms of employment which were approved by the union that represents Carla Hale explicitly forbid this kind of posturing: “A contract may be terminated at any time for gross inefficiency or immorality, for serious unethical conduct, or for willful and/or persistent violations of reasonable regulations of the school or the Diocesan Office of Catholic Schools.” Many disagree with the Catholic Church regarding the morality of same-sex unions, but surely they cannot disagree that lying to your employer for 19 years and then abruptly denouncing them in public is grossly immoral and seriously unethical.

Only royal trumpeters should toot their own horn. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Catholic Church teaches that people with homosexual feelings fully deserve human dignity and compassion. However, the media frenzy that Hale is all too happy to keep feeding is the very definition of willful and persistent violation of Catholic teaching. In the Gospel, Jesus admonishes his disciples against such public displays, “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

Meanwhile, the principal and other employees of the school have received threatening emails and phone calls from Hale’s supporters. From Hale’s handling of this case, it is clear she is aggressively pushing an agenda that goes beyond simply getting her job back. Even if the school wanted to bring her back, how could they possibly do so now with the media circus and angry mob following on her heels? Far from being contrite and resolving to sin no more, Hale is poisoning whatever sympathy might have remained for her from her former employer.

The invective and demagoguery surrounding this case is typical. All who defend Catholic teaching are derided as hypocrites, bigots, and simply mean-spirited. How wounding these criticisms must be to the heart of Bishop Campbell and the employees of the Diocese of Columbus and Watterson High School who so deeply love the Church and seek the best for all God’s children. Pray for them. Write them a letter to show your support. Thank them for their steadfastness and their courage in defense of the Catholic faith. Unlike Hale, these good servants of God’s people do not seek earthly recognition, but it couldn’t hurt to let them know they are not alone amidst the storm and fury of anti-Catholic persecution which is becoming so fashionable in our time.

There is also the possibility that this case could end up in the Supreme Court, as the unanimous decision in the Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC case specifically leaves open the possibility of subsequent litigation for breach of contract. However, one has to wonder whether a contract based on a 19-year lie could still be valid. The Dispatch article does not state whether the school knew Hale was a lesbian and perhaps had some informal agreement with her provided she kept it quiet, but if so, the concealment on Hale’s part would only be more damning. Neither the school nor the diocese should be punished for trying to right the situation.

Bishop Campbell’s diocese is being sued for upholding Catholic teaching. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)

An analogous scenario would be a bank manager discovering that one of her employees has been robbing banks, or a police chief discovering that one of his officers has been dealing drugs on the side for the past 20 years. Carla Hale clearly opposes Catholic teaching, so how can she possibly be a Catholic teacher? The Catholic Church is often accused of hypocrisy, but what could be more hypocritical than allowing a teacher to publicly contradict the Catholic faith?

Catholic schools entrust their teachers with a special responsibility to provide spiritual formation and act as role models for their impressionable charges. Not so long ago, most if not all teachers at Catholic schools were consecrated religious. Carla Hale is not even Catholic, but is a practicing Methodist. There is nothing wrong with ecumenism, but faithful Catholic parents have every right to expect that teachers at a Catholic school should be faithful ministers of the Gospel and witnesses to Christ in both their public and private lives.

Nevertheless, Hale has found a deep well of vocal support from partisans on the left. At time of writing, an online petition for her reinstatement had over 10,000 signatures. In times of persecution, there is always an angry mob that thinks it is in the right. Popular opinion claims to be loudly and fiercely opposed to any form of intolerance as a matter of principle, but this apparently does not include intolerance of faithful Catholics.

The more we are persecuted, the more we must pray that Bishop Campbell, and indeed all of us will have the strength to bear the cross. As the motto of the Carthusian order reminds us, “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.” The Cross is steady while the world is turning. We must hold fast to the cross, because the world around us is not going to stop. We must remember as the cross grows heavier, it is because we still believe we are standing on solid ground, when in truth, the cross is all that is solid and eternal.

Whereas all of the other sacraments were instituted by Jesus during his ministry on earth, marriage was instituted at the beginning of the world and cannot be altered by any human law, and indeed is common to all civilizations. From a purely biological standpoint, this truth is so obvious as to be almost trivial. Procreation requires the union of man and woman. Even at the lowest level, every cell in the human body carries a special kind of DNA which can only be inherited from the mother. God’s handiwork is clear.

Balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet by Frank Bernard Dicksee, 1884.

It doesn’t stop there. The clamor for recognition of same-sex couples is only further evidence of just how important marriage is. Just as Adam yearned for a companion in the garden of Eden, people with homosexual desires still feel this yearning for companionship. Just as Eve was created as the complement to Adam, we all desire the completeness of another person with whom we can share everything. Even in the brokenness of sin, we are made in the likeness of God, and thus we all desire to love unconditionally.

However, marriage and procreation are inseparably linked. It is not enough that we love another person. In order for the sacrament of marriage to be valid, a man and a woman can not just consent to love one another forever unconditionally and to be faithful to one another. If that’s all there was to it, the debate about gay marriage would be over. The essential third component to marriage which even transcends our human mortality itself is the openness to life, which is to say, the intention to procreate if at all possible.

This openness to life elevates marriage to the divine, because in the act of procreation, we share more than just intimacy and companionship, but indeed we become co-authors with God of the very universe itself. Just as Jesus commands us as Christians to protect the unborn, the weak, the infirm, the elderly, and the outcasts of society, this respect for life also compels us to defend the means by which life comes into existence. As Jesus tells Peter when he falls asleep in the garden at Gesthemane, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” In our depraved culture, it is easy to forget that procreation is a spiritual act as much as a physical one.

Through a respect for life and marriage, we have the power to stamp out the darkness of the Father of Lies. The 80’s pop ballad, “Love is a Battlefield” was only half right. We, the poor banished children of Eve, should open ourselves to life. We should not be fighting the battle of the sexes—which can never be won, but rather should commit ourselves to the never-ending battle against Satan and destruction in which our victory is ensured only through the Passion and Resurrection of Christ that we celebrate this week.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike were a couple living in Germany who homeschooled their six children. There’s only one problem: in Germany, homeschooling has been against the law since the Nazis were in power.

After facing intimidation, abuse, and repeated fines (to the tune of $10,000 USD) the Romeikes chose to move to the United States to ask asylum and homeschool their children in peace. In 2010, they were granted political refuge by a US immigration judge. Like so many immigrants before them, they came to America seeking to exercise religious liberty in a way not afforded to them in their own nation.

But under Attorney General Eric Holder, the US Department of Justice wants to send them back. If they are forced to return to Germany and refuse to send their children to school, they face the very real threat of losing custody.

Now living in Tennessee, the Romeikes are being represented by Michael Farris, an attorney and the founder and chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Writes Farris:

The U.S. law of asylum allows a refugee to stay in the United States permanently if he can show that he is being persecuted for one of several specific reasons. Among these are persecution for religious reasons and persecution of a “particular social group.”

In most asylum cases, there is some guesswork necessary to figure out the government’s true motive—but not in this case. The Supreme Court of Germany declared that the purpose of the German ban on homeschooling was to “counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies.”

This sounds elegant, perhaps, but at its core it is a frightening concept. This means that the German government wants to prohibit people who think differently from the government (on religious or philosophical grounds) from growing and developing into a force in society.

[...]

But, let’s assess the position of the United States government on the face of its argument: a nation violates no one’s rights if it bans homeschooling entirely.

There are two major portions of constitutional rights of citizens—fundamental liberties and equal protection. The U.S. Attorney General has said this about homeschooling. There is no fundamental liberty to homeschool. So long as a government bans homeschooling broadly and equally, there is no violation of your rights. This is a view which gives some acknowledgement to the principle of equal protection but which entirely jettisons the concept of fundamental liberties.

A second argument is revealing. The U.S. government contended that the Romeikes’ case failed to show that there was any discrimination based on religion because, among other reasons, the Romeikes did not prove that all homeschoolers were religious, and that not all Christians believed they had to homeschool.

[...]

This argument necessarily means that the United States government believes that it would not violate your rights if our own government banned homeschooling entirely.

This is a dangerous precedent. If the position of the US DOJ is that there is no fundamental right for families to educate their own children, how long will it take before the right to do so is taken away in the US? The case is couched in language about individual vs. group rights as a basis for evidence of persecution, but what right is more fundamental in our nation than individual religious liberty, the very principle America was founded upon?

The continued encroachment upon religious liberty under this administration is chilling. Keep an eye on this case, as it will likely serve as a bellwether for what is to come for US homeschoolers.

Organizer Joe Grabowski from StandWithHobbyLobby.com is calling on “all Americans who value freedom of religion and oppose the HHS mandate’s unfair impositions” to “show their support for Hobby Lobby by shopping either at their local retail Hobby Lobby store or online.”

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took to his Facebook page and expressed his support for the event, arguing that when it comes to defending religious liberty, “we will either stand together or fall together. I choose to stand.”

Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, as it is affectionately being called, is a response to recent rulings by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor that denied Hobby Lobby’s request to opt out of providing abortion-inducing drugs to their roughly 13,000 employees.

By not complying with the onerous HHS mandate, Hobby Lobby may face up to $1.3 million in fines PER DAY. Regardless, Kyle Duncan, who is representing the company on behalf of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, insists Hobby Lobby will not comply with the mandate.

You can add your name to the petition by clicking here.

h/t Steven Ertelt

That’s the question Ave Maria Communications seeks to answer with their upcoming “Catholic Witness in a Nation Divided” conference.

Sponsored in part by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, the “Catholic Witness in a Nation Divided” conference is set to take place Saturday, January 12th from 9:00 to 5:00 pm at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I highly encourage you to attend. Tickets can be purchased here. See you there!