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The Criterion must put its bias against President Trump aside, reader says

“We would be remiss if we did not recognize President Donald J. Trump, who became the first sitting president to attend the national March for Life and address participants in person.” This was mentioned two-thirds of the way into The Criterion’s editorial by Mike Krokos in its Jan. 31 issue. The first time a president addresses the March in 47 years, and The Criterion says, “We would be remiss if we did not recognize …”

President Trump has been the most pro-life president in history, and yet the editors of The Criterion cannot seem to accept the good that he has done. Rather than praising his actions, they write about them as an afterthought. It would appear that their apparent bias against him has clouded their judgment.

They take every opportunity, it seems, to slam him about immigration (something that is legislated by Congress) and question whether or not he is racist (strange, considering his approval among African-Americans is more than 40 percent). So when he does something that they should celebrate, they downplay it.

In three years, President Trump has radically shaped the federal judiciary by naming more than 180 judges and two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who are conservatives. Not only does this positively affect the culture of life in this country, but it allows for the protection of religious liberty.

He has been a clear and consistent spokesman for life. His speech at the March for Life was the strongest pro-life speech given by any president in history, and he has been the only one to have the guts to show up. The speech certainly was a more forceful pro-life argument than most any homily I have heard in a Catholic Church or from most Catholic bishops in the last 20 years. That’s sad.

Why is it that President Trump speaks out so forcefully for life while Catholic leaders seem to be so timid? What are they afraid of? Why doesn’t The Criterion question these leaders? Why has there been not one national collection in the Church to support the pro-life cause since 1973?

The editorial staff of The Criterion should put its anti-Trump bias aside and objectively give the president the credit he deserves for speaking up and acting definitively while many in the Catholic Church remain silent.

- Dr. Stephen O’Neil | Indianapolis