Catholic News Agency reports on U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s December 29, 2025 interview with EWTN where he credited his parents for instilling his Catholic faith. Emmer nostalgically recounted attending Catholic schools and participating in choir, while emphasizing his opposition to abortion and “radical gender ideology.” The article notes contradictions between Emmer’s professed faith and his legislative record: support for in vitro fertilization (IVF), voting to codify same-sex civil marriage recognition in 2022, and endorsing mass deportations opposed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Emmer rationalized these positions by appealing to “distractions” in modern society rather than doctrinal formation.
Selective Traditionalism as Spiritual Bankruptcy
Emmer’s invocation of his Catholic upbringing serves as pietas sine intellectu (piety without understanding). While emphasizing his parents’ daily Mass attendance and rosary devotion, he systematically rejects Casti Connubii (1930), which condemns IVF as “gravely contrary to the moral law” for destroying embryonic human lives (¶ 24). His 2022 vote for the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” directly violates Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors, which condemns the idea that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55).
The congressman’s claim that “the world gets going so fast” as justification for moral compromise reveals a naturalistic worldview. Contrast this with Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925): “When once men recognize…the royal prerogatives of Christ, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (¶ 19). True Catholic statesmen don’t blame “distractions” while legislating against divine law.
Heretical Equivocation on Marriage and Life
Emmer’s evolution from opposing same-sex civil unions in 2010 to endorsing them in 2022 demonstrates doctrinal indifferentism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane: “Dogmas…are a certain interpretation of religious facts which the human mind has worked out” (Error 22). The article’s phrasing that “the Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex civil unions” dangerously understates reality. Pius IX’s Syllabus explicitly condemns the notion that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Error 80).
His IVF support constitutes formal cooperation with evil. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 2350 §1) mandates excommunication for abortionists, which logically extends to those endorsing embryo destruction through IVF. Emmer’s A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America becomes meaningless when paired with support for technologies that murder embryonic humans.
The USCCB’s Complicity in Moral Confusion
The article’s reference to the U.S. bishops’ “special message” against deportations—while ignoring their silence on Emmer’s IVF and same-sex union positions—exposes the conciliar sect’s disordered priorities. Compare this to Pius X’s condemnation in Vehementer Nos (1906): “That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error.” True shepherds would publicly denounce any Catholic legislator supporting intrinsic evils rather than issuing selective political statements.
Emmer’s attempt to mitigate his sister’s death—”if God comes and calls me today, so be it”—ignores the necessity of in articulo mortis sacraments. The Council of Trent (Session XIV, Chapter 4) declares extreme unction “completes penance and perfects the holy work of justification.” His anecdote reduces death to Stoic resignation rather than a supernatural passage requiring priestly ministrations.
Conclusion: Political Modernism Disguised as Piety
Emmer embodies the conciliar sect’s quintessential error: reducing Catholicism to cultural heritage while rejecting its moral demands. His record proves the warning in Pius IX’s Syllabus against those who “equate the Christian religion with false religions” (Error 16). Until he publicly repudiates IVF, same-sex civil unions, and all anti-life policies, his “Catholic faith” remains a political facade unworthy of credence by the faithful.
The article’s failure to condemn these heresies outright—while framing deportation debates as a “Catholic” issue—reveals EWTN’s complicity in normalizing apostasy. As the Vatican’s 1917 Code mandates (Canon 1325), Catholics must reject all communication in sacris with such betrayers of the Deposit of Faith.
Source:
Rep. Tom Emmer credits his parents’ example in fostering Catholic faith (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 30.12.2025