MODERN DAY KNOW-NOTHINGS

 

MODERN DAY KNOW-NOTHINGS

The Native American Party was a movement which had beginnings in the 1840s and grew in numbers and influence in the 1850s.  It told its members to respond to inquiries with the words “I know nothing.”  Thus, the origin of their name as the Know-Nothing Party.  The Know Nothings were convinced of a “Romanist” (i.e. Catholic) strategy to subvert the civil government and suppress religious liberty in the United States.  They considered the influx of Catholic Irish immigrants as a threat to American democracy.  The movement managed to elect a few members to Congress and in 1856 former President Millard Fillmore accepted its nomination for him as president.  He received only 21.5% of the popular vote and only won the state of Maryland.  The Know-Nothing Party collapsed shortly after the election. 

It is disturbing that such a virulent anti-Catholic political party gained as much support as it did, and that a former president freely expressed strong anti-Catholic views.  Unfortunately, the spirit of the movement is being reignited in our days.  One example is the recent revelation that the FBI was planning to infiltrate Catholic churches and diocesan offices for the sake of keeping tabs on traditionalists whom they thought might become terrorists!  Terrorism around the world is fostered by elements of another major religion, not by Catholicism.  The Black Lives Matter movement has burned neighborhoods, destroyed statues and vehicles, and looted shops in cities throughout the country.  A radical pro-abortionist tried to assassinate a Catholic Supreme Court judge and has been applauded by many pro-abortion activists.  No one is killing people or destroying property in the name of Catholicism.    

Since May 2020 there have been almost 300 attacks on Catholic churches nationwide, and other Christian churches also, mostly in protest to their pro-life position and traditional teachings on sex and marriage.  The methods of these woke far-left protestors are the same that the fascists in Italy and Germany used to gain power in the 1920s and 1930s.  By violence, libel and threats they seek to silence the free speech of those with other viewpoints.  They are trying to win their way by intimidation and not by argument or dialogue.  They attack the Catholic Church because she is the largest and most out-spoken proponent of traditional values and common decency.  No matter what they do, that will not change.

Some of today’s Know Nothings are elites serving in corporations, educational institutions, the media, and government.  Some of them run sports teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The leaders of this formerly venerable baseball team decided to give an award at their annual pride celebration to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, whose members dress up like Catholic nuns, ridicule them, and commit sacrilegious acts.  The Dodgers now promote what Catholic writer George Weigel calls the last acceptable prejudice in American elite culture – anti-Catholicism.  Would the Dodgers or any other organization celebrate a group that mocks Mohammad and his followers, or Jewish rabbis and cantors?  The Dodgers have fallen a long way down from their venerable past when, in 1947, they were the first MLB team to field an African American baseball player.     

The Church did not succumb to the Know Nothings of the nineteenth century, and we will not succumb to the Know Nothings of the twenty-first century.  In the Name of Jesus we will continue to proclaim our faith and do the works that benefit the poor, the orphans, the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable.  We will also celebrate and honor the consecrated women who over the centuries have dedicated their lives to God and the poor by living their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  With God’s help we will pray for the conversion of our unhappy opponents and not surrender to their prejudices.