To Bear Witness To the Truth:
An Unequivocal Moral Obligation for All Christians
Every Catholic and, indeed, every Christian faithful to the Gospel, has the moral obligation to
bear witness to the truth, “in season and out of season, convenient or inconvenient,” accepted
or rejected. This mandate is nothing new, of course. It’s as old as the Old Testament, and as
new as the New Testament. Nonetheless, I’m afraid that it has become more necessary than
ever to remind ourselves of it.
The Magisterium formally teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2471, quoting
Sacred Scripture, “Before [Pontius] Pilate, Christ proclaimed the He has ‘come into the world to
bear witness to the truth’ (Jn 18:37). The Christian is not to be ‘ashamed then of testifying to
our Lord’ (2 Tm 1:8). In situations that require witness to the faith, the Christian must profess it
without equivocation, after the example of St. Paul before his judges. We must keep ‘a clear
conscience toward God and toward men’” (Acts 24:16).
Let me give you one definition of equivocation: “A statement that is not literally false but that
cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth; intentionally vague or ambiguous.” How about this for an
example: “A woman has the right to choose.” Choose what? A less vague, ambiguous, and
equivocal statement would be, “A woman (or man) has the right to choose to perpetrate
homicide. Or, “A nation has the right to facilitate, enable, or legislate genocide.”
Oh, excuse me, that would be an unpleasant truth, or maybe an “inconvenient truth,” as the
inventor of the internet, Al Gore, might say.
The Catholic Church unambiguously and formally teaches:
The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them [IMPELS
THEM] to act as witnesses of the Gospel and the obligations that flow from it.
This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds. WITNESS IS AN
ACT OF JUSTICE THAT ESTABLISHES THE TRUTH OR MAKES IT KNOWN (see
Matthew 18:16).
The recent travesty involving the University of Notre Dame’s invitation to the President of the
United States to give the commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of laws
degree is the antithesis of Catholic and Christian witness to the truth. A lawyer who vigorously,
publicly, and consistently support an anti‐life and anti‐family litany of evils will now receive an
honorary doctor of laws degree from what is arguably the most prestigious Catholic University
in America.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Indeed, what thousand words will be conveyed by the
picture(s) of Mr. Obama receiving his honorary doctorate and sending off the graduating class
at Notre Dame University?
This will be a dark day indeed for the University of Notre Dame and the Catholic Church that
permitted it to happen. In the end the bishops have the right, and the duty, to decide if the
University of Notre Dame can any longer claim “Catholic” credentials.
Meanwhile, the obligation to bear witness to the truth weighs more heavily than ever on each
one of us. We have rapidly entered into a new era of persecution of the Church and the truth
that she professes and teaches, reminding us again,
The disciple of Christ must not only keep faith and live on it, but also profess it,
confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: All however must be prepared to
confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst
the persecutions which the Church never lacks.” (Lumen gentius 42; Dignitatis
Humanae 14). Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation:
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before
my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny
before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32‐33).
Written by Rev. John Corapi on May 14th, 2009
