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I am deeply disappointed in the results of the recent election, but still hopeful. We are going to have to make Catholic choices for life, marriage and moral truths. I am not worried about what is ahead because there are plenty of deeply committed Catholics. But  being Catholic will increasingly come with a cost — ridicule, rejections, lost friendships and more.

This will be too much for some who will no longer continue in the faith. The cost will challenge others to reorganize their lives around the cross, the church and the sacraments. They will put family, fidelity and faith as the focus for all their choices. The cost of belief will also produce vocations. Men and women will see clear reasons to lay down their life for Christ.

I do not believe that the next four years will bring about a doomsday but it will continue to provide very real opposition to many faith tenets that the church holds as non-negotiable: the sacredness of life in the womb, the sacredness of the life of the sick and dying, the sacredness of marriage, the sacredness of the least, the poorest, the most lost.

My heart is sad but my faith is strengthened. We are moving into the next phase of witnessing for the faith. The word for witness is martyrdom.  I am not saying we will have martyrs of blood tomorrow, although globally one Christian dies for the faith every five minutes. In fact, Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today, according to the European Union. more…