Two Cities in America

This past week, thousands of Americans traveled on two pilgrimages. Republicans flocked to Milwaukee to nominate Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as their nominee for the White House. Meanwhile, Catholics overtook Indianapolis for the first Eucharistic Congress in 83 years. 

Both were pivotal moments in American politics. Trump’s assassination attempt and the implosion of the Democratic Party has invigorated the base, and his victory in November seems inevitable. Meanwhile, the graces and prayers that will come from the Eucharistic Congress will transform the lives of many who attended. 

But it is impossible to overlook the glaring contrast between the two events. In spite of all the pomp of circumstances, a real rot is occurring in the Republican Party. 

The Eucharistic Congress showed that conservatives should strive to build a Eucharistic polity and place the Eucharist as the soul of a nation.

The Vance vice-presidential announcement and many other moments showed positive trends for the Republican Party. But, for every good moment, there were five bad moments. 

The RNC’s biggest mistakes occurred in two areas. First, civil rights attorney and Republican party leader Harmeet Dhillon invoked a demonic prayer. Dhillon led the entire GOP in a prayer to her god, Vahiguru.

Dhillon, who led the convention in a Sikh prayer in 2016, prayed again, stating, 

Dear Vahiguru, our one true God, we thank you for creating America as a unique haven on this earth where all people are free to worship according to their faith. We seek your blessings and guidance for our beloved country. Please bless our people with wisdom as they vote in the upcoming election. And please bless with humility, honesty, skill, and integrity all those who conduct the election.

Any faithful Catholic, or Christian in this instance, should have an immediate problem with this prayer. America was not founded to be a secular nation but a Christian nation. Our heritage is Christian. For a non-Christian prayer to be allowed at the convention is a failure of conservatives to preserve the foundation of American culture. 

The Sikh prayer was indicative that pluralism is alive and well for Republicans. If all religions are the same, why be Catholic? Either Christ is King, or He is not. Pluralism breeds indifferentism, and indifferentism is poison to a Christian society—hence why Bl. Pius IX condemns it in the Syllabus of Errors.

The second mistake came in the sweeping changes to the party platform. The Republican Party no longer believes in traditional marriage or the abolition of abortion. On the issue of life, the platform states, “[W]e will oppose Late-Term Abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).” Meanwhile, the traditional view of marriage is gone. 

While we should support being politically prudent to win elections to secure the common good, we have to come to the sobering truth that conservatives lost the culture war. Instead of working toward preserving the culture, conservatives have decided to scandalize voters and concede the fundamental political issue. The GOP leadership should be reminded of St. Peter, who wrote, “You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17). While we should support being politically prudent to win elections to secure the common good, we have to come to the sobering truth that conservatives lost the culture war.Tweet This

This change is not to say that the people in the GOP are not pro-life. I believe that candidates like Vance will enact pro-life policies based on their record. But, as faithful Catholics, we cannot overlook the fact that the GOP has pinched incense to the god of liberalism. 

What is the solution to this failure in the GOP? It will not be “winning more elections,” but it will come from the source and summit of the Faith: the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist is the solution to our societal ills. While our culture promotes degeneracy, confusion, and division, Christ in the Blessed Sacrament provides His followers with the strength to overcome these challenges. At a time when only 69 percent of Catholics believe in the Real Presence, devotion to the Eucharist remains all the more important.

The Eucharist can offer an alternative political vision that can only be found in Christ. As Vincent Schiffiano wrote in The American Postliberal, 

Our modern politics have become obsessed with a technocratic view of freedom focused only on desire and power. However, the Eucharist offers us a vision of politics focused on truth. A Eucharistic politics offers a vision which is truly sacramental in that it sees images of the divine in man.

This is what our political ends should strive for—not just party conventions and balloon-drops but a real polity that worships the sacrifice of Christ. Our country needs more massive Eucharistic processions and fewer party conventions. 

The struggle is, as St. Augustine described it, the conflict between the City of Man and the City of God. The two cities are built upon two loves. As the saint wrote in The City of God,

Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; and the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of our conscience.

The question is now posed to conservatives, especially Catholics: Which way shall we go? Weakening on social issues, or building a Eucharistic polity? Quo Vadis, America?