Catholics are the sole remaining group that it is politically correct to slander and denigrate and nowhere is that clearer than in the consideration of nominees for court vacancies, particularly for the next Supreme Court vacancy, which, judging by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age and frailty, may come sooner than we think.

Democrats in the Senate, members of the so-called party of tolerance and diversity, are no longer hiding their anti-Catholic bigotry but are putting it on display during the Christmas season confirmation hearing of  Omaha lawyer Brian C. Buescher, nominated by President Trump to represent the District of Nebraska on the United States District Court:

In the true spirit of the holiday season, Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) showed their true colors of bigotry and bias against Catholicism in a recent judicial confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill…

Buescher is also a long-time member of the Knights of Columbus, an iconic service group of nearly two million Catholics, worldwide, that recruits members for volunteer work and fundraising for charitable causes…

Originally founded in 1882, the Knights of Columbus started as a society benefitting poverty-stricken Catholic immigrants; now, the organization donates nearly 200 million dollars per year from approximately 15,000 chapters across twelve countries…

“Sen. Harris described the Knights as “an all-male society and asked if Buescher was aware that the Knights of Columbus “opposed a woman’s right to choose” and were against “marriage equality” when he joined,” the Catholic News Agency reported.

Of course he is, as is the Catholic Church the Knights of Columbus were formed to serve in its religious and charitable functions. It is ironic that as the nation observed the birth of Jesus Christ, Democrats in the Senate were busy attacking the tenets of the church He founded -- that life begins at conception, as did the life of Jesus, and ends at natural death and that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. But then it is typical of Democrats to respect lifestyles and not religious liberty and not believe that personal religious beliefs, as Buescher testified, can be kept separate from court decisions:

In response to a written question, per CNA, Buescher defended his judicial impartiality:

“...there is a difference between taking political positions as a candidate for elective office and serving as a federal judge. I believe a judge’s role and obligation is to apply the law without regard to any personal beliefs regarding the law.”

We saw the Democrats’ anti-Catholic bigotry on full display earlier with the confirmation hearing of Justice Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit. Just as John F. Kennedy was said by some to be a stalking horse for the Vatican who would clear each major decision with the Pope, Barrett a practicing Catholic who actually gets it right, was charged with embracing Catholic dogma so tight that there is no room left for the Constitution and those “emanations from a penumbra” that sanctified Roe V. Wade. Catholic League President Bill Donahue addressed the issue on "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox:

Senate Democrats grilled Barrett over how her Catholic faith would affect her views on court precedents concerning abortion cases during her confirmation process after Trump nominated her as a circuit judge in 2017.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in particular, showed what Catholic League President Bill Donahue called anti-religion “animus” during their questioning of her religious beliefs…

"Let’s remember... the seminal statement by Sen. Feinstein -- she said the dogma screams loudly in you," Donahue told Ingraham. "That’s coming awfully close to establishing a religious test."

Feinstein received intense backlash after she told Barrett during her confirmation hearing, "Dogma and law are two different things. And, I think whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. The law is totally different. And I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you."

Let us hope so. The Bible, the same one liberals are waving lately, says Christians, and Catholics, are the light of the world and are to place their light, not under a bushel, but on a night stand where the light can lead all to the ultimate truth. It is unlikely Feinstein would tell a Muslim nominee, “The Sharia dogma lives loudly within you.”

Note the use of the word “dogma” in a pejorative sense, as if the Catholic Church was a cult like the Druids chanting around a fire waiting for the human sacrifice to arrive. In fact, Barrett has in fact been slandered as a member of a cult which is in fact a legitimate Catholic faith group:

Ingraham agreed that she saw "a very strong anti-Catholic bias running through all of this" outrage against Barrett's Catholicism and her membership in the conservative Christian People of Praise enclave.

Donahue replied, "I think I know what a cult is. This certainly is not a cult. It’s a charismatic renewal group, which is a family-oriented Catholic organization. And in fact, the pope -- who’s hardly considered a man of the Right -- welcomed them just last year at the Vatican."

The Catholic Church is not a cult, and neither is the Knights of Columbus a collection of all-male bigots, despite the attempt by Harris, Hirono, Feinstein, Durbin et all to portray them as such. The views and actions of the Knights of Columbus and non-cafeteria Catholics are no different than that of the twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus Christ to lead His ministry in the Catholic Church He founded despite the attempts of Democrats in the Senate to slander them and their adherents:

“This isn’t just about the Knights of Columbus or Catholics, this is an ongoing attack from the extremist left of the Democratic Party to silence people of faith and run them out of engaging in public service based on their religious beliefs,” Penny Nance, the president of Concerned Women for America, a Christian women’s activist group, said in a written statement.

“It is pure and simple religious bigotry,” Nance added…

"This is the kind of thuggish behavior we expect from third world dictators, not United States Senators," Ken Blackwell, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, said in a statement. "That this attack on Catholics comes from the party of John F. Kennedy, who was proudly a Knight of Columbus, is particularly shocking and egregious. There should be no religious test in America, and I call on my Democratic friends to end this tactic of engaging in religious discrimination to destroy people nominated for public office."

Indeed, what Senate Democrats are trying to impose amounts to a religious test for nominees by asking the McCarthyite question -- are you now or have you ever been a practicing member of the Catholic Church:

Sens. Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris, in written questions to District Court judge nominee Brian Buescher, challenged his suitability for the bench because he belongs to this charitable Catholic group.  Hirono claimed that the Knights have taken “extreme positions” such as affirming Catholic belief in traditional marriage and even asked Buescher, “If confirmed, do you intend to end your membership with this organization to avoid any appearance of bias?”  In today’s Democratic Party, the new McCarthyism asks, “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Knights of Columbus?”

The Catholic Church and its doctrine, which dates back to the first Christmas, are “extreme”? The Knights of Columbus, known to conduct those conspiratorial conclaves known as pancake breakfasts, were founded in response to bigotry similar to that of Harris and Hirono:

Kathleen Blomquist, a spokeswoman for the Knights of Columbus, blasted the questions by Hirono and Harris as a throwback to past anti-Catholic rhetoric.

“Our country’s sad history of anti-Catholic bigotry contributed to the founding of the Knights of Columbus, and we are proud of the many Catholics who overcame this hurdle to contribute so greatly to our country,” she told the CNA.

Catholics like John F. Kennedy, a member of the Knights of Columbus. He would be ashamed of his party.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.