Kavanaugh’s Inquisition
One knows not what to say at times, as events spiral faster than one’s capacity to comment on them; even one’s reflection is superseded: Oh, you may reach a tentative conclusion, then someone says or does something even more outrageous, and you think, hmm, I should revise that. In the midst of the chaos, we must keep our wits about us, our minds focused and loins girded.
The Kavanaugh inquisition – or what other word does one use – is reaching its finale, as the alleged victim, ‘Dr. Ford’, presents her testimony this morning.
Now that I think of it, calling this an inquisition is a slight upon the Inquisition, which at least believed in due process, innocence until proven guilty and all that. Yet witness one sitting Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, publicly declaring that Mr. Kavanaugh does not deserve due process because he is not ‘on trial’, and anyway, the presumption, for sure he’s guilty.
Well, first, he is ‘on trial’ before a legislative body, the Senate, and accusations of past grave and criminal misconduct should be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
And, second, presumed innocence is not just a legal principle, but more fundamentally a moral one, that should apply to how we speak about and act towards others in charity and justice even in the most mundane of daily interactions. Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Yet it seems the ‘Democrats’ – a term encompassing those who would like to jettison most of what makes civilization civil, just and humane – seem rather fatigued of ‘charity and justice’, except in their inverted notions. Abortion is just, indeed a human right, ignoring, of course, the baby, who is not really a baby, but might be, if the mother deems it so. Sodomy is a basis for love and marriage, and one’s sex is as changeable as one’s clothes. Legal principles can be ignored, and people’s reputations deliberately and irrevocably besmirched, if any of these aforementioned ‘rights’ is threatened. Total war, manners and the moral law be damned. Oh, and the universe is whatever you make it to be.
I know not what Brett Kavanaugh did in high school, and I don’t think anyone really can know, three-and-a-half decades in the past. Things keep getting murkier. Now, Spartacus style, two other men have come forward claiming to be the ‘assailants’ in the alleged assault, including of the other alleged victim, all the while other victims of whomever lurk in the anonymous shadows.
What happens to Mr. Kavanaugh –decided by vote tomorrow – is secondary to what has already happened to him. For he will always be ‘tainted’ to some extent, as was Justice Clarence Thomas all those years ago in his own inquisitorial process (which he survived).
The simple reason why so much depends on this show trial, why it is such a media circus, and why the Democrats are so apoplectic over the semi-warm conservatism of Justice Kavanaugh is that the Supreme Court has far too much authority, and the Democrats recognize the potential threat to their imposed amoral ‘view of the universe’, a threat that must be deposed of, forthwith, by means fair or, more usually, foul.
As I ponder this whole mess, I would also suggest that now is a good time to do away – I almost wrote due away – with the hubristic, anointed, be-robed, unelected, no-recourse-allowed authority of the Nine Justices who can do no wrong, and now have more power and influence than any elected body in the Republic, an inversion of the Constitution if ‘ere there were. In fact, the Supreme Court has more sway over the minds and souls of the people than the very Magisterium of the Church, which, under certain conditions, does happen to be infallible (see Griswold and Roe for the Court’s influence in changing minds on contraception and abortion, regardless of what the Church has always taught).
If this bizarre episode wakes people up to that, I suppose some good will have been done.
There are bigger issues here than Justice Kavanaugh’s fate, and all this should remind us that underlying the moral edifice is necessary for law not just to be just, but to work at all. Unhinged from the very laws of God that ‘will never pass away’, human law becomes a travesty, and we may be witnessing the beginning of the outright collapse of the rule of law, as warned by Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae. Grave and consistent immorality, to put things mildly, eventually takes its toll.
We could call this whole circus a joke if it were not so serious. To paraphrase Thomas More’s response to his son-in-law Roper – who wanted to tear down the laws to get at the king – without the ‘thicket of laws’, what wicked winds will blow then, and what protection will we have from the capricious forces of evil? A brief perusal of Soviet Russia gives a glimpse of a land without ‘due process’
Even then, be bold, and fear not: For we of sort-of sound mind can always rebuild from the rubble.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→