Does "Social Justice" Justify Sin? by Fr. Tom Collins

My friend, Fr. Tom Collins, hits another one out of the ball park! I know many Catholics with a false notion of "social justice" who act exactly as Father describes labeling all those who disagree as intolerant and hateful. What times we live in when those who call for social "justice" act so unjustly toward their brothers and sisters!

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It is painful to acknowledge the fact that we have witnessed a serious degradation of many of the Church's sacred disciplines over the past half century. One of the most glaring examples has been the development of unwritten, but de facto policies, which not only passively ignore, but also pro-actively laud and reward the immoral practices of certain political and civic leaders. Provided such practices are allegedly done for the sake of promoting a "social justice" agenda, they apparently are only to be meekly tolerated, but not carefully critiqued, much less vigorously condemned.

Among the immoral practices routinely embraced by many proponents of the" social justice" agenda are slander, deception, voting fraud, abuse of power, political cronyism, denial of accountability, violation of solemn oaths, the lax enforcement of our laws against the illegal infiltration of our nation (thereby enriching drug cartels and human traffickers for decades), the destruction of pre-born children by abortion, the degradation of our posterity by amoral "family life education" programs and by imposing on them an ever-increasing obscenely onerous burden of debt slavery and unfunded mandates. Sadly, in spite of all these abuses, those who routinely practice them are all too often praised by Church leaders, organizations and institutions as champions of justice.


Just so long as such people assert that their immoral practices are somehow promoting a "social justice" agenda, such proponents are to be held as being above reproach, if not pro-actively praised for the efficiency of their deftness in deviousness and deceit. And the fact that their manipulation of economic and tax policies have actually enhanced the wealth of the richest 5% of our nation, while decimating the economic security of the middle class and the impoverished is excused merely because they claim to be promoting "social justice". In addition, their willingness to use the persuasion of power, when the power of persuasion is not sufficiently effective, is admired and esteemed as the kind of "statesmanship" required to promote social justice. In this way, those under the "social justice" umbrella continue to be given a free-pass to further promote the secularist agenda of a new world order being imposed on humanity by the Culture of Desecration and Death.

The perversion of their policies are further enhanced by Church leaders, who embrace a class-warfare model for the formation of anti-poverty programs. Many have even gone so far as to proclaim that we need to exercise a "preferential option for the poor", and thus rejecting the legitimacy of the mandate given in Lev 19:15 You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the poor nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow man justly.

In addition, many Church leaders have also giving a free-pass to the impression that the Eucharistic Christ approves both the actions of such people and their excuse that, when something becomes a political issue, those promoting it should no longer be held as accountable to objective moral norms. They allege that, for the sake of "social justice", expediency should be allowed to abort integrity. The practical, rather than evangelical truth and divine graciousness, has thus often become the foundation of pastoral practice. And so it is that a number of prominent Church leaders now are inclined to treat those who insist that we uphold the objective standards of faith,truth, morality and virtue as spiritual
pariahs. Such people have thus been either routinely dismissed, condescendingly patronized as psychologically crippled by intolerant religious convictions or condemned as being infected with hate-filled phobias.

In this context, we see a major problem facing the New Evangelization. It is currently in danger of being incrementally detoured away from the path to integrity of conscience and character. In its stead, many of the proponents of the "social justice" agenda would have the New Evangelization be guided by the mere conveyance of theological information and the promotion of a superficial, or even perverted sense of self-esteem in a way that politely avoids addressing the serious moral issues which are threatening the salvation of souls.

 
Thus it is that, for the sake of a spiritual fickleness disguised as "tolerance" or "compassion", many Catholics are being discouraged from developing the clarity, strength and courage of the faith convictions needed for authentic spiritual integrity and maturity. Instead, they are being urged to develop merely a milquetoast spirituality, which requires that several important spiritual works of mercy be increasingly eclipsed by the corporal works of mercy. And even these, of course, are to be interpreted in accordance by the standards currently endorsed by the ever-evolving dictates of
political correctness.

A final word to the wise - such sycophantic spirituality will never be able to promote the disciplines of discipleship required for the nurturing of authentic sanctity, much less the organic growth of the Church in spirit and in truth. The sooner Church leaders clearly, concisely and consistently proclaim these basic truths, the sooner we will witness a new birth of holiness. And this renewal will not be based on the class warfare model of the "social justice" agenda and its tactics of arousing and appeasing resentment. Rather, this renewal will be rooted on a humble, docile and reverent response to the universal call to repentance and reconciliation given to the world through Christ and
brought to fruition through the faithful and gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit.