HEROES
The Most Reverend Paul D. Etienne Archbishop of Seattle
On May 4, Archbishop Etienne took a bold stand against legislation that makes priests mandatory reporters of abuse without offering an exemption for information communicated during the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The state would force Catholic priests to violate the seal of the confessional–an unthinkable act for a priest that incurs automatic excommunication. The archbishop said in a statement, “After the apostles were arrested and thrown into jail for preaching the name of Jesus Christ, St. Peter responds to the Sanhedrin: ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29). This is our stance now in the face of this new law. Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession.”
Benedictine College Atchison, KS
While some college commencement speakers have used the occasion of a graduation ceremony to air political laundry, Benedictine College put its students first, inviting the very worthy Sister Dierdre Byrne to be their commencement speaker. In addition to being a religious sister, Sister Deirdre is a surgeon and former Army officer who provided medical care in such places as South Korea and on deployment in Afghanistan. Her personal story is inspiring and on May 17, in a heartfelt and Christ-centered address, she used that story to advise Benedictine’s graduates on how to discover God’s plan for their lives.
Marco Rubio US Secretary of State
Marco Rubio took on all comers during his May 20 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In particular, he made a stand for the right of the United States to protect its citizens by placing guardrails around the nation’s immigration policies. He went toe-to-toe with Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA, who accused the administration of using race as an immigration criterion. In an exchange with Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, Rubio defended the deportation of MS-13 gang member Abrego Garcia as well as the right of the United States to revoke student visas in the national interest.
ZEROES
Bob Ferguson Governor of Washington
Bob Ferguson, a Catholic, is the governor who signed into law the abovementioned bill that criminalizes the seal of confession. As a Catholic, he knows the serious nature of sacramental confession and the importance of keeping any information communicated there confidential. Priests are already mandatory reporters of abuse by virtue of Church rules, with the exception of knowledge obtained in the confessional. But Ferguson insists on turning priests into criminals for the simple act of adhering to their vows. The bill not only criminalizes priestly ministry, it runs the risk of penitents failing to address any grave sin in the confessional for fear of their sins becoming public.
Tim Kaine US Senator, D-VA
In the aforementioned exchange with Marco Rubio, former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Tim Kaine insisted on playing the race card. He strongly intimated that 24 recently accepted immigrants from South Africa had been admitted solely because they are white. He also downplayed the level of peril those people would have faced had they remained in South Africa. Kaine also complained about the withholding of funds from various NSAID-related and other programs suspected of being lax in their vetting of the people they helped to gain access to the United States.
St. Mary’s College Notre Dame, IN
Ostensibly Catholic St. Mary’s College made this list back in March with their commencement address invitation to Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland. They’re back this month for proceeding with that invitation. On the same day Sister Deirdre Byrne, a strong Catholic role model, spoke at Benedictine College, St. Mary’s gave an honorary degree to a professed Catholic who advocates for such things as abortion, the redefinition of marriage, the ordination of women, and even an end to the practice of infant baptism. While those topics were mercifully absent from her address, the fact that a person of McAleese’s views was feted by a Catholic college is disturbing.
