February 9, 2003

Within the boundaries of our parish are the Governor’s city office, numerous consulates, the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, and countless law firms. It seemed suitable, and even necessary, that our parish church have a shrine to Saint Thomas More, long the patron saint of lawyers, whom Pope John Paul II in the Jubilee Year declared Patron of Politicians and Statesmen.

For many painful years, serious social harm has been done by some Catholics in politics who compromised moral truth in order to get elected and enjoy the spoils of office. Their mantra on matters of moral evil has been that they are “personally opposed, but...”. Saint Thomas More, appointed Lord Chancellor of England by King Henry VIII in 1529 knew that such duplicity can damn a man’s soul and ruin whole nations. With elegance, kindness, brilliance, and cheerful wit he defended himself before a kangaroo court on the great Christian principles of the indissolubility of marriage, the primacy of the Pope, and the freedom of the Church in relations with the state. False friends deserted him, his family was reduced to poverty, and he was beheaded on 6 July 1535. Once when I read that a Catholic politician had removed a picture of the great Martyr from his office during his election campaign, because it disturbed some of his staff, it struck me: While the loss of a head signaled the end of More’s political career, it signaled the beginning of the political career of this other man. He won election to a governorship, through the inattentive voting of Catholics. At the University of Notre Dame he delivered a speech defending his compromise on abortion, which was enthusiastically received by the press. History will compare it unfavorably with St. Thomas More’s speech before his accusers, so well portrayed in the play, A Man for All Seasons.

On January 16 of this year, a Vatican document on the behavior of Catholic politicians said: “…a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals. The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”

Last Thursday, His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan solemnly blessed an image of Saint Thomas More in our church. The saint died “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” I hope that Catholic men and women in public life will have recourse to it and that all of our parishioners will light candles and ask the great Martyr’s intercessions for those who govern and administer justice, that they may never render to Caesar what belongs to God, and that through their virtue inspired by grace, they may share everlasting life with the Man for All Seasons.

Fr. George W. Rutler