U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an epiphany on Jan. 6 — traditionally the day designated as the Feast of the Epiphany for many Christians. It commemorates the visit of the Three Wise Men to Bethlehem which signifies the internationalization of the Jewish Messiah. The visit shows (epiphany) us that God loves everyone and everyone should experience God’s love. It is now past time for all Christians and all people of faith to have an epiphany about Donald Trump.
As a Catholic priest and a pastor, I publicly called attention to his racism before the 2016 election. A parishioner threatened me with the withdrawal of his financial support. When I publicly voiced my support for Joe Biden in August, I was told that I was putting my parish’s tax-exempt status at risk and told to remove my personal Facebook post or resign.
My endorsement was a response to New York Cardinal Dolan’s public statement to Donald Trump that “…. We need you now, Mr. President, more than ever before.” It was also a response to the many bishops and priests who were telling people that it was a sin to vote for the Democratic candidate because of the issue of abortion.
January 6 will now become a Day of Infamy in the history of our nation because on this day the President of the United States incited a riot that saw swarms of rioters swarm the U.S. Capitol and force members of Congress to barricade themselves against the mobs. One woman was shot to death inside the building. A police officer was bludgeoned to death.
It is hard not to see Trump’s claim of a stolen election and his encouragement to storm the Capitol as anything but seditious treason. Sedition is a serious felony punishable by 20 years in prison. It is defined as an act of inciting violence against a lawful authority with the goal of overthrowing it.
Committing crime in plain sight has become commonplace during the past four years by the Trump administration. Emblematic of this is obstruction of justice. This is a crime of willfully interfering with the process of justice.
The Mueller Report explains that key witnesses to their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election refused to cooperate because Trump was dangling pardons in order to pressure their silence. Any doubt about Trump’s obstruction of justice was removed when he pardoned the two convicted key witnesses in the Mueller probe who had refused to testify.
The wheels of justice will hopefully sort out what needs to happen in the future. Meantime, public opinion needs to be marshalled against the kind of behavior that we have recently witnessed and which could blossom into greater domestic terrorism if not dealt with in the short term. The credibility of the official Catholic Church and other non-Catholic religious leaders has been severely damaged by their great support of Donald Trump. It is past time for us to recognize officially the xenophobic and racist practices of the Trump administration and begin to work seriously at mending the wounds of our democracy. Addressing these evils should be the work of us all but our religious leaders have a special obligation to assist in this endeavor.
If sin is to be forgiven, the first step needs to be repentance. This may not be a secular challenge but it most certainly is a religious one. The Cardinal Dolans of the world need to be the people who lead this charge. Unless there is recognition within our nation of the fruits of mendacity that we have seen on Jan. 6, the process of healing our divides will never get off the ground.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is the former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn and the
current pastor of St. Brigid and Sacred Heart Parishes in Lexington.