Penning Thoughts

Gentlemen,

At a time when our very democracy is in peril, you have questioned Catholic officials for their stance on whether women ought to be able to choose an abortion, equating those officials with someone who supports or promotes that terrible procedure. Yet another, essential matter cries out for your leadership.

What have you done to chasten and deny the Eucharist to public officials who question the legitimacy of our elections? Who belittle the storming of our U.S. Capitol, the center of our democracy, our first branch of government, our Congress, in a violent insurrection? What have you done to call out those who have incited violence to solve our political differences?

Sirs, this is the most frightening time in my 75 years as a Catholic U.S. citizen. We look to you for leadership and moral courage to uplift the legitimacy of our form of government and the sanctity of our elections, and instead you focus on an issue that addresses none of that. My children, my grandchildren live in fear for their futures, as almost half the country believe the enormous lies of a former president and his acolytes.

Please, focus on our nation and the weakening of our democracy by an entire political party. That is the issue of our time. Are we to be bystanders, as a would-be dictator turns us into a fascist state? As Catholic legislators and political figures encourage this abhorrent, appalling public display of immorality?

For now, all I can say to you is, “Shame.”

Please, act on this matter, require and call on our public officials to act with the utmost urgency to preserve what makes us a beacon of liberty, a worldwide center of hope. Otherwise, that beacon will be snuffed out, with a puff of inaction from those who could act, but, instead, choose to stand by and merely observe.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Penning