Fr. Thom ⚓️

Over the past several weeks, Carrie Prejean Boller has complained that she was removed from the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty because of her Catholic beliefs, and she has called out myself and other Catholic members of the commission for not defending her. This is absurd. Mrs. Prejean Boller was not dismissed for her religious convictions but rather for her behavior at a gathering of the Commission last month: browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes. The Catholic position on matters of “Zionism,” to which I fully subscribe, is as follows: all forms of antisemitism are to be unequivocally condemned; the state of Israel has a right to exist; but the modern nation of Israel does not represent the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies and hence does not stand beyond criticism. If Mrs. Prejean Boller were dismissed for holding these beliefs, it is difficult to understand why I am still a member of the Commission. To paint herself as a victim of anti-Catholic prejudice or to claim that her religious liberty has been denied is simply preposterous.

Your Excellency, you shared with me through text message to me that my position reflects Catholic teaching, especially that the modern state of Israel is not the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. That is the position I expressed, and yet I was removed from the Religious Liberty Commission. Respectfully, it is difficult not to conclude that this commission does not truly care about religious liberty when a Catholic can be removed for faithfully articulating the Church’s teaching. Asking me to deny Catholic teaching in order to satisfy a political ideology is itself a violation of my religious freedom. As Pope Leo XIII warned, “To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamor is raised against truth, is the part of a coward.” Whether I serve on this Commission or not, my voice will only grow louder for those being persecuted for their faith. I believe this appointment was ordained by God, and I will not abandon my Catholic faith to keep a position on a commission that has abandoned its mission. If my religious freedom is not protected, then no one’s is. Please speak up. Please stand up for Catholics. Be brave, Bishop Barron. The world needs brave men.

In honor of International Women’s Day, name your favorite quote by a woman.

Priests all!