It seems that people have mixed up the Church with a political party. I can join either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party and disagree with many of its positions. If enough people join the party with a certain belief that party will change its position. That is obvious looking at the history of the two parties. The Democratic Party was at one time the party to which slaveholders belonged and it was the Republican Party responsible for freeing the slaves. Now the parties are very different.
It is good for a political party to change with the times and people’s opinions but the Church is radically different. It has only one person to please, God. It is called to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and to lead people to God. Jesus didn’t tell the Apostles to take a poll to see what people thought. He told them to preach the Gospel and part of that Gospel says in Matthew 7:14 “narrow is the way that leads to life.” What the majority of people think isn’t going to get people to heaven which is the primary role of the Church.
It doesn’t matter what people think; the Ten Commandments are still the Ten Commandments; the Bible is still the word of God. God’s opinion on what is right or wrong hasn’t changed only what we want to hear. The Church has preached the same message for two thousand years and will continue to preach the same message. We haven’t always heard that message.
The Church is guided by the Holy Spirit not the polls or elections. The Church is created to serve God and lead people to God. The Church has to speak out for the helpless. The Church has to speak out against sin and falsehood. Throughout its history there have been those who felt and claimed they knew better than the Church. The result has been heresies, schisms and the formation of new denominations.
The Church cannot change the truth to fit the times. It is to proclaim the truth in every generation come what may. It may be rejected or persecuted but that is nothing new. Every century has had its martyrs. We are called to stand for the truth and risk all if necessary. There are far worse things than being out of office. Look at what happened to St. Thomas More, the patron saint of politicians.
Being Catholic has never meant changing the truth to fit in. It has never meant that we let the world change us. Rather we are called to change the world by our example and courage.
