Update 16/04/23: I have been contacted to suggest that Joe Biden may not have been invited to Knock Shrine but may have put it on the agenda himself. I have changed the wording below to reflect this i.e. “those who welcomed Joe Biden to Knock Shrine”. In one way this actually makes the situation worse because it suggests that the sacraments of the Catholic Church were suspended to accommodate the visit of a secular ruler who publicly defies Catholic Church teaching on the sanctity of human life. Worse too that those in authority acceded to his demands.
The Catholic Church teaches us that there are nine ways of co-operating in the sins of another. Such co-operation is a sin in itself and the gravity of the sin of co-operation is commensurate with the gravity of the sin co-operated with.
The nine ways of co-operation are; by counsel, by command, by consent, by provocation, by praise or flattery, by concealment, by partaking, by silence, and by defence.
One of the most common ways of co-operating in the sins of another is by silence. That is by refusing to condemn the sin and by refusing to challenge the sinner, especially if the sinner is an important public figure.
Joe Biden’s visit to Knock Shrine brought this to mind. Joe Biden is a public sinner who regularly contradicts Catholic teaching on the evil of abortion. When Roe V Wade was overturned in America, Joe Biden vowed to codify Roe V Wade in American Law in an attempt to subvert the decision of the Supreme Court of America. Joe Biden said, in response to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe-V Wade that:
“The fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign immediately upon its passage, at my desk.”
Between 600,000 and 950,000 innocent unborn human beings are murdered in America every year by abortion and President Joe Biden is one of the greatest advocates for access to abortion. He is also trying to prevent States from outlawing or limiting abortion.
Joe Biden’s actions in this regard are mortally sinful. This is not to say definitively that Joe Biden is in a state of mortal sin, because apart from grave matter, there must be full knowledge and full consent. Nonetheless we cannot co-operate in the sins of another.
That those officials who welcomed Joe Biden to Knock Shrine remained silent on his abortion advocacy, constitutes co-operation in Joe Biden’s sinful actions. Pope Leo XIII issued a warning to Catholics in his encyclical letter Sapiente Christianae about such silence.
“To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamours are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good.” (Sapiente Christianae 14)
Imagine that instead of Joe Biden, it was Adolf Hitler who was visiting Ireland and visiting Knock Shrine for a personal tour. There are those who will immediately say that there is no comparison between Hitler and Joe Biden. The two cases are certainly not identical, however, abortion is responsible for the deaths of far more humans than were killed in World War II. In America more than 63 million have been murdered by abortion to date and Joe Biden is the current champion and leader of this killing regime.
The parish Church in Knock is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Saint John the Baptist was beheaded because he refused to stay silent concerning Herod’s adultery.
The Irish bishops have not made any statements at their quarterly meetings on the publication of the abortion figures in Ireland. These figures are published each June since 2020 and the most recently disclosed figures show that 8,500 murders of innocent pre-born human beings took place in 2022. But our bishops are silent on these figures at their quarterly meetings.
We must pray for the conversion of Joe Biden but to remain silent on Joe Biden’s public abortion advocacy is to co-operate in his sin and to share in his guilt before God.
May God bless you
John Lacken
Legio Sanctae Familiae
Caherea
Lissycasey
Ennis
Co Clare V95 T6D0
E-mail: john@truedevotions.ie
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