Catholic News Agency reports (December 18, 2025) that Donald Trump signed an executive order downgrading marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substance. The article notes opposition from CatholicVote, whose president Kelsey Reinhardt called the move “reckless,” citing increased addiction rates and health damage in states that legalized cannabis. While acknowledging Church teaching that drug use constitutes a “grave offense” except for strict therapeutic use, the report neutrally presents claims about marijuana being a “less risky alternative to opioids” and mentions “Catholic hospitals” conducting related research. Notably absent is any substantive engagement with the magisterial condemnation of drug legalization as societal suicide or the intrinsic evil of recreational intoxication.
Naturalism Triumphs Over Divine Law
The executive order constitutes open rebellion against Regnum Christi (the reign of Christ) over civil affairs. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) explicitly taught that “rulers of states… must serve [Christ] religiously and govern in accordance with His commandments” (#19). By framing drug policy through utilitarian arguments about “medical applications” and pain management rather than moral absolutes, the Trump administration – like its predecessors – subordinates eternal law to pragmatic hedonism. The Catechism’s exception for strictly therapeutic use (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, Q. 723) becomes weaponized to justify mass pharmaceuticalization of a psychotropic substance when the Church Fathers universally condemned substance abuse. St. John Chrysostom warned: “Wine produces madness, but cannabis obscures the mind entirely” (Homilies on Ephesians, 19), yet modern technocrats dare redefine temperance as dosage optimization.
Conciliar Silence as Complicity
That the “United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has not taken a position” speaks volumes about the conciliar sect’s apostasy. Contrast this cowardice with Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of drug legalization efforts in Mexico (1937): “The state which permits vice becomes ipso facto an accomplice in crimes against God and humanity.” The article’s reference to “Pope Leo XIV” (the antipope occupying the Vatican) merely calling drugs an “invisible prison” exemplifies the modernist reduction of sin to social pathology. True shepherds would echo St. Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (1907) condemnation of those who “place theological opinions above divine revelation” (#22), not tolerate “research” that implicitly validates chemical escapism.
Therapeutic Excuses as Gateway to Decadence
Trump’s assurance that rescheduling “in no way sanctions recreational use” is demonstrably false. Historical precedent proves reduced penalties inevitably normalize consumption – exactly as occurred with alcohol after Prohibition’s repeal. The article’s uncritical repetition of opioid comparison arguments ignores that Rerum Novarum (#28) requires addressing root causes of pain through just labor conditions and family support, not palliative intoxication. St. Thomas Aquinas’ principle applies: “Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu” (A good action requires all elements to be good; evil arises from any defect). Even medical use becomes immoral when divorced from the telos of health ordered toward salvation.
Masonic Roots of Drug Normalization
The push for marijuana legalization bears hallmarks of Masonic subversion condemned in Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864): “The Church ought to be separated from the State” (#55) and “every man is free to embrace… that religion which he shall consider true” (#15). By removing criminal penalties, civil authorities abdicate their duty to uphold public morality – effectively establishing the Freemasonic ideal of laissez-faire degeneracy. The Catechism’s warning that drug use “constitutes a grave offense” (CCC 2291) becomes meaningless when civil law winks at personal possession.
True Catholics must reject this latest assault on Christian civilization through pharmacological dissolution. As Our Lord warned: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). The executive order constitutes state-sponsored endangerment of souls – an offense demanding non possumus resistance from all who profess Christ as King.
Source:
Trump eases marijuana regulations amid industry backing, Catholic concerns (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 18.12.2025