Prophetic church, uncomfortable church

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Irene Kahn, has published a report recommending that governments and social media companies silence those who express traditional views on marriage, abortion, sexuality and gender identity. The report argues that such views are, in reality, "sexist misinformation," a form of "gender-based violence." Therefore, in the name of freedom of expression for women and "gender non-conforming" people, this UN official says that those who criticize gender ideology must be silenced, which is, as Ms. Kahn perceives it, a form of curtailing women's freedom of expression.

Beyond the fact that the argument is paradoxical because of the fact that it curtails freedom of expression in the name of freedom of expression, the most disturbing consequence is the path of totalitarianism that the culture of cancellation is taking. Those who are in favor of the traditional option on marriage, abortion or sexuality must be removed from social life. 

In other words, the cancellation of Catholics.

That is, my cancellation.

Today, to be against abortion or to think that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman is reason enough to be stigmatized and, therefore, to be excluded from social life, not to mention political life. It is an exercise of authentic tyranny that is gradually suffocating us and to which we have given citizenship card.

We have lowered our heads, accepting the ideological postulates that are imposed on us and that go against our conscience and against human nature itself. Not even an intellectual debate is possible anymore. Reason has been pushed aside to impose a single model of thought that cannot be questioned.

Faced with this, Catholics have two options. The first is to accept the system and adapt ourselves to it in order to survive as best we can, accepting the postulates imposed on us and, ultimately, making them our own, little by little. We are allowed to have our times of worship, to pray in our churches, as long as we do not leave the sacristies. 

The other option is to raise our voice and simply defend what we believe in, the truth of life and the family. To live a deeply religious faith and union with God, which leads us to social commitment and to seek the good of all our fellow citizens. Even if this means, in many cases, swimming against the current.

In short, we must choose between being an accommodating church or a prophetic church.

A prophetic church is an uncomfortable church, as we can see in Nicaragua, for example. The witness of persecution to which the Catholic community there has been subjected, including the expulsion of religious orders or the imprisonment of its bishops, is only the ultimate consequence of being truly consistent with the faith and proclaiming truth and justice. Even if, as happened to St. John the Baptist, the tyrants of every age do not like to hear it because the first to be denounced by that truth is themselves.

That is why a prophetic church is an uncomfortable church and, consequently, almost always ends up being a martyrial church.

In general, in South America, although there is a high presence of evangelical churches, it is the Catholic Church that has been most attacked by the public powers, precisely because it has given priority to this dimension of prophetic denunciation. If you are concerned only with praise, there are not too many edges with which you can bother the powerful. But if you denounce the excesses of those who govern you risk being cancelled, expelled or put in jail.

In the West, driven by powerful bodies such as the UN, we are also walking along this path of cancellation, as Mrs. Irene Khan has shown us. The example of our persecuted and martyred brothers and sisters in other corners of the planet should encourage us to choose the path of faithfulness to the Lord. To choose to be a courageous and prophetic church and not a comfortable and cowardly church.