Once again, Alaska’s “Catholic” U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski has given herself over to Planned Parenthood and the Culture of Death that it promotes by her refusal to de-fund the abortion giant from federal hand-outs. Of the approximately sixty million abortions that have been performed when the first states legalized it since the late 60s, through the feminist years of the 70s and 80s until now, Planned Parenthood has accounted for more abortions — into the tens of millions — than any other source.

Planned Parenthood is the first to deny that they are obsessed with abortion, constantly referring to their “other services” such as pap smears and breast cancer tests … yet join with gusto as co-litigants whenever a challenge to “abortion rights” occurs on the state and national levels.

Most people reading this are not Catholic Alaskans, but every one of them have Murkowski as their U.S. Senator. In dealing with political figures who deviate from Catholic teaching, there are supposed to be consequences that instruct the recalcitrant office holders, consequences that can range anywhere from a public rebuke to excommunication. There are, of course, other options in between those parameters, yet none have ever been visited upon any Alaskan Catholic politician.

Indeed, public statements come out from chanceries whenever a favored socialist program is threatened by conservatives. One is reminded of the instant reaction regarding President Trump’s travel ban.

This leaves many prolifers, both Catholic and non-Catholic, in a quandary. “The Catholic Church talks a good game, but does not follow through”, would be one way to characterize it. The faithful who have approached now three different bishops in the Archdiocese of Anchorage over the years have received silence, tut-tut head pats, assurances that behind-the-scenes efforts would be a better way to approach the problem, or admonishment for fomenting divisiveness.

There are other issues that this cavalier treatment by the bishops of Alaska are creating by a tepid response. One would be the salvation of the soul of the offending politician. “Actions have eternal consequences” are homilies that seldom are heard in the “peace-and-justice” themes that dominate Alaskan Catholic parishes, and the only sins discussed seem to be “judgmentalism” and “rigidity”.

Then we have the confusion this creates among the faithful, especially those with a weak catechesis, the favored policy of the chanceries. In my own parish we have had candidates and elected officials serve as lectors, Eucharistic ministers and teachers who were openly in favor of “abortion rights”, or characterized themselves as “pro-choice”. My own children who joined in the picketing of abortionists asked me, in their formative years, how this could be. I told them straightforward:

“Cowardly and weak priests, bishops and nuns”. I believe that my response helped them to understand the challenges inside of their Church now that they are adults.

When I debated Mark Begich in 2008 for the U.S. Senate, I had some vague sense that he was a nominal Catholic, and when he confirmed that he was, I asked him how he could reconcile his aggressive promotion of abortion and Planned Parenthood, in light of some very public statements that had been made by Pope Benedict and the U.S. bishops’ conference. He went into a predictably frosty discourse of how his faith was “personal and private”, and would not allow it to dictate public policy, a response learned at the knee of Mario Cuomo and delivered as a speech at that great “Catholic” institution, Notre Dame.

Indeed, Begich spoke with the calm certitude that he had a free rein. What’s more, he had appeared at Anchorage’s Holy Family Cathedral on the topic of homelessness just before his campaign began.

“Follow the Money” is the sagest advice for understanding corruption. Could it be that the Catholic bishops do not want to lose federal funding for their homeless shelters, hospitals and other social services? According to the Washington Times, over $1.6 billion has been funneled their way in recent years.

Alaska’s Catholic clerics have failed to perform any meaningful gesture, however small or symbolic, to proclaim the truth about allegedly Catholic politicians who support Planned Parenthood’s war on the unborn. If they did, it would constitute a minor miracle that might give a small ray of hope in a culture that has gone mad.