Every day, it seems I'm treated to a slew of lectures from the Pope and other Catholic officials on things like war, immigration, the death penalty, and environmentalism. Fine, I suppose. All of those issues can be open to interpretation, including under the "just war" criteria and a slew of other Catholic apologetics that allow a wider berth on those issues.
But it would be nice if once in a while the same scolding was given to Catholics who proudly and actively flout their refusal to follow actual firm Catholic teaching on things like abortion and homosexuality. Unlike, say, illegal immigration, where people of good faith can disagree on policy approaches, there's no wiggle room with abortion: it's verboten. And not only is personally procuring an abortion against Catholic doctrine, so is supporting abortion, helping someone obtain an abortion, or enacting pro-abortion policies.
Yet there were no breathless treatises chastising former President Biden, a so-called "devout Catholic" who opened wide the gates for the widespread proliferation of the chemical abortion drug. Many babies, and some women, have died as a result of this "devout Catholic's" actions and even after Biden got an award from Planned Parenthood, there wasn't much of a peep.
Sure, under Catholic teaching, Biden has excommunicated himself, but a public display naming and shaming him — and calling on him to repent — would send a message to the rest of us Catholics that the church isn't simply focusing on sticking it to Republicans.
The same goes for Fr. James Martin, who openly flouts the Church's teaching on homosexuality and gay marriage (something that does not, and can never, exist in the Catholic Church). When Pope Francis dropped Fiducia Supplicans in late 2023, Fr. Martin was one of the first to interpret it as an opening of the door to same-sex unions in the Church. He blessed a "married" gay couple — something we were assured wasn't allowed by Fiducia Supplicans. That was especially irksome, given the hatred with which Pope Francis treated the Traditional Latin Mass and the communities who preferred that form of worship.
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Now Martin is back, advocating for allowing sexually active gays to receive Communion, another thing strictly prohibited by the Catechism.
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) October 14, 2026SCANDAL: Fr. James Martin claims gays are "treated like dirt" when they're refused Communion, if they are sexually active.
He called out priests who follow Catholic teaching by not receiving the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.https://t.co/J2GD9CalC3 pic.twitter.com/qP3ipcw4oX
You are not allowed to receive the Eucharist while in a state of mortal sin. Engaging in sexual activity with someone of the same gender is a mortal sin, just as engaging in heterosexual sex outside of marriage is sin. And because the Catholic Church does not recognize gay marriage as canonically valid, even a "married" gay couple cannot receive Communion.
Once again, this rogue priest will face neither condemnation nor consequences from his Bishop or Pope Leo, who understandably has other things on his mind at the moment. What message does this send to Catholics?
You cannot support civil justice for criminals via the death penalty. You cannot support taking out the world's largest state sponsor of terror — a regime that killed tens of thousands of its own citizens and others. You cannot question unfettered illegal immigration into your nation, no matter the cost or consequence, and you cannot wonder if maybe the commies who want to ruin our quality of life in the name of "environmentalism" might not have humanity's best interest at heart.
But you can be a Catholic priest who attacks his fellow priests for following Catholic teaching, and you can be an openly "Catholic" president who oversaw the deaths of tens of millions of babies because of the policies you endorsed and codified, and you don't get so much as a raised eyebrow.