We don’t like to talk about being “soldiers for Christ” too much anymore. We ditched the symbolic slap on the cheek at Confirmation a long time ago, and expunged the hymn “Onward, Christian Soldier” from all our hymnals years before that. Generally, our Church has assumed a rather kinder, gentler -- humbler? -- disposition. That isn’t all bad. But in a world where so many spiritual casualties pile up every day, maybe it’s time to rethink the position of setting up camp just for the sake of observing the world around us go to hell in a handbasket.

The whole notion of the “Church Militant” hasn’t been very popular for quite a while now. Certainly, the sexual abuse scandal didn’t make it easy for any of us to stand up and tell the truth with any authority. But I’m tired of seeing the soul’s equivalent of “body bags.” And when I see one of our bishops unafraid to speak and act prophetically, I don’t only want to stand up and cheer: I want to enter the fray again myself.

Thank you, Bishop Tobin. I don’t thank you because I want to see a “Catholic” politician from a well known family publicly humiliated. Actually, I want to see him saved: saved from error, from arrogance, and from the very serious matter of misleading others at the cost of their spiritual welfare. “The supreme law of the Church” after all, “is the salvation of souls.” Those are the last words of the Code of Canon Law.

Thank you, too, for telling the truth about what it means to be a Catholic in good standing, and for letting us all know that our actions -- and our votes -- do, in fact, matter. Thank you for fully recognizing that while we all struggle, we ought to engage our faith not just to inform our consciences, but to form them in the first place.

I am grateful to Bishop Tobin for demonstrating the kind of courage our times are calling forth from every believer. It’s the same kind of guts it takes for a fireman to run into a burning house to save an endangered child. A first responder rushes in, not because he has no fear, but because he fears for the one trapped inside. He does so because he believes the person at risk worth the risk of himself.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who think that Bishop Tobin has no business even suggesting that actively advocating abortion might compromise a Catholic’s relationship with Christ or his Church. But people who are ready to criticize a bishop for holding someone who claims to be part of his flock accountable are sorely mistaken. Why? Because admonishing the sinner is a Work of Mercy, not an act of arrogance. One who attempts to correct a brother does not condemn him. He does so because he believes in his goodness, and is not willing to count him as unredeemed or irredeemable.