Category: Civil Law

In his annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on January 11, Pope Francis decried the phenomenon of “cancel culture.” The Pope noted that “[u]nder the guise of defending diversity,” “cancel culture” obliterates “all sense of identity, with the risk of silencing positions that defend a respectful and balanced understanding of all sensibilities.” Worse than that, it promotes a kind of thinking that is “constrained to deny history or, worse yet, to rewrite it in terms of present-day categories, whereas any historical situation must be interpreted in the light of a hermeneutics of that particular time, not that of today.” 

One finds examples of the “cancel culture” condemned by the Pope everywhere, with new examples emerging almost daily. Professors and podcasters alike find themselves in the hot seat with astonishing regularity. However, few solutions to “cancel culture” have been identified. The cycle continues. Some prominent professor, executive, or personality says something wicked, foolish, or merely unpopular. The usual suspects of left-wing journalists and Twitter power users find it and boost the signal, often notifying the person’s employer through the phenomenon of “snitch tagging.” The outrage builds in a sort of positive feedback loop. Finally the desired goal is reached and the professor or executive finds herself without a job, without friends, and without prospects. 

On the evening of January 21, 2022, the night before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., pro-life activists gathered in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to celebrate Mass for the unborn and for the success of the March. Unbeknownst to the Mass-goers, another group of protesters gathered with a projector across the street from the Basilica. As Mass was being celebrated inside the church, these protestors projected onto the outside of the church statements in support of legal abortion access. This group was led by Catholics for Choice, an organization dedicated to protecting legal abortion.

The same group released a statement that evening by its president Jamie L. Manson stating, “I support abortion access because my Catholic faith teaches that healthcare is a human right, and that includes abortion. … Catholics for Choice will never stop shining our light on behalf of the pro-choice, faithful majority for the fundamental constitutional and human right to abortion – as a matter of justice, a matter of freedom, and a matter of faith.” The following day Wilton Cardinal Gregory made plain his view of the dissident group and their stunt, stating, “The true voice of the Church was only found within the Basilica,” and that “those whose antics projected words on the outside of the church building demonstrated by those pranks that they really are external to the Church and they did so at night.” He then cited John 13:30: “And Judas having received the bread, went out immediately. And it was night.”