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February 4, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Following President Joe Biden’s inauguration, LifeSiteNews’s Danielle Zuccaro caught up with Father James Altman to discuss the election and what a Biden presidency might mean for faithful Catholics across America.

Fr. Altman, pastor of St. James the Less parish, Lacrosse, Wisconsin, explained to LifeSiteNews that, while he has his “doubts about the validity, grave doubts about the validity” of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, “it is what it is, and we are stuck with [it].”

He added that, although some U.S. bishops “actually said the right thing” regarding a Biden presidency, he lays blame for Biden’s win squarely on “the bishops who did not speak up and did not speak out, because not that many did.”

“And so now we’re stuck with somebody who is dead set against the entirety of everything that our Catholic Faith professes, everything in which we then believe, everything that Almighty God wants,” Altman lamented. Despite this characterization, the pastor was shocked to “hear in the news that certain shepherds think it’s perfectly OK to commit sacrilege and give that guy [Biden] Holy Communion,” before adding, “That’s sacrilege! … [I]t just makes me sick.”

Faced with four years of a Democratic administration, Altman described the situation as “nothing but a mess” but that we shouldn’t expect life to be “a bowl of cherries,” quoting his mother.

Continuing, Altman explained that “that’s not what life is going to be. Jesus said, ‘pick up your cross daily,’ so we should actually be joyful, even in the midst of the pain that’s coming and is already here; joyful because it allows us to share in the cross of our salvation.”

“When you stay faithful, the grace that comes is greater than the pain[.] … We go forward in joy and hope because our hope is in the hereafter. It’s not this life.”

Asked about the USCCB statement condemning Biden’s anti-Catholic positions, Altman said he “heard it first on … LifeSiteNews” and that the bishops were “a day late and a dollar short.”

“Why weren’t they [the bishops] saying this before? Why is it that there’s any Catholic … that doesn’t understand the very basic premise that you can’t be Catholic and be a Democrat? Because you can’t. Period, the end, there’s no debate on this.” Decrying the Democratic Party’s moral standing, Altman asked: “How long has it been that their party platform has been godless?”

Following this, Altman offered his thoughts on what the Catholic response to a Biden administration should be, suggesting that Catholics might imitate the attitude of those who opposed Donald Trump’s presidency with “resist and obstruct” after the 2016 presidential election.

Clarifying, he said, “[The] government’s right to impose anything on us ends at the front door of our Church. They can’t come in there and tell us to do anything.” Altman blasted the political left, who he says disregards the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by involving itself in Church affairs: “they only want separation of Church and state when it benefits them.”

He does, however, recognize that “we will be persecuted; we can’t not expect that” and that to combat this, “we have to build our arks, our temporal arks and our spiritual arks.”

Analyzing the circumstances Catholics now find themselves in, fighting lies with truth, Altman said, “It’s like those doctors that get fired for speaking up about how to truly treat this ‘fauxdemic,’ this ‘feardemic.’” Those running the government, Altman predicts, “are going to take from us what we think we need. But really if we seek first the kingdom of God, then everything else will follow. But also … build your spiritual arks, put the oil in the lamps like the wise virgins.”

“How do we do this?” Altman suggested simply: “Go to Mass, be in the state of grace, receive the Holy Eucharist.” On account of this, “the very concept of locking our churches, denying people … the right to the Holy Eucharist,” is of grave concern. This, he said, is why no priest or bishop has the right to deny the faithful access to the sacraments: “There’s a particularly hot fire awaiting them for denying Catholics the right to receive the Holy Eucharist.”

Altman encourages us to make time in the day to pray and be present with Christ. “Take an hour a day. Isn’t that what Jesus talked about? ‘Can’t you spend just one hour with me?’”

Echoing the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Altman instructed us that “[the] time for casual Catholicism is over, so work hard on building your spiritual arks.”

Following his simple advice, Altman quipped, “When you get to heaven, you should kind of recognize it. Well, Mass is heaven on earth, isn’t it, so go to Mass.”

‘Dialogue’ has enabled baby slaughter

Shifting gears, Zuccaro asked what Fr. Altman might say to pro-lifers “in this moment.”

“Dialogue is not the answer,” Altman resolutely responded. “We have been dialoguing for 48 years now. Where has it gotten us? Tomorrow, 10,000 more babies are going to be slaughtered. Wake up, Catholics in America! Wake up, every priest in America! Speak from the pulpit!”

Focusing on God’s divine justice, Altman did say there is some “good news,” despite the president extending abortion legislation.

Although this is a grave situation, the priest revealed he is “not so concerned that there’s suffering here on Earth. Everybody who engages in that [abortion] is going to suffer for the rest of their lives, because even if you repent of that mistake of killing your baby, there is a haunting, and the left won’t admit it, they won’t confess it. So, there will be suffering, but in the end, I know that Christus vincit [Christ conquers].”

“So we can’t lose hope just because it seems that Satan has won another battle, because we know who wins the war in the end.”

With this in mind, Altman asks the faithful to “[s]how some courage.” Referencing David’s unlikely win against Goliath in the Bible, Altman says, “Doesn’t it look like Goliath is kind of winning the battle? So, who is going to be a David amongst us? Who is going to walk up to him and fearlessly say ‘God has got your number’?”

“Just be fearless,” Altman encourages, “Come what may, eternity comes.”

Against the darkness of the age, Altman reminds us that “We still have it pretty good here,” countering that perhaps “that’s why we have this problem of faithlessness.” He explains that “[d]eprivation makes faith grow … if we face deprivation, our faith will grow stronger; if we suffer, our faith will grow stronger; if we’re wounded like Christ was wounded, as we should accept readily, our faith will grow stronger. But in the meantime, Satan is going to win a lot of battles. In the end the ruler of the world is cast out, Satan loses in the end.”

 

“Keep the faith no matter what, because Christ conquers. Amen.”