American Catholics Must Stand Up to This Dictatorship of Lies
Even more sickening than today’s ICE killing is your government insisting you didn’t see what you just saw.
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Saturday morning on a busy Minneapolis street, federal agents tackled and gunned down a local man in broad daylight. The 37-year-old U.S. citizen, an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti, was wrestled onto the sidewalk by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers; seconds later, agents fired a rapid volley of ten shots into him.
Bystanders screamed in horror, many recording video of the incident. The man lay motionless, killed on the spot.
Shortly after, the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement claiming Pretti had “approached [agents] with a handgun” and that an agent fired in self-defense while attempting to disarm him.
But eyewitness footage showed a very different story — Pretti was already pinned down and was disarmed before officers shot him in the chest and head. He had a cell phone in his hand, not a weapon, in the moments before agents opened fire.
In a scene straight out of a nightmare, the same officers then turned their guns and tear gas on outraged bystanders who rushed in to protest, dispersing the crowd with chemical irritants and stun grenades
Perhaps even more sickening than the killing itself is the government’s insistence that what we all saw with our own eyes didn’t really happen. In the immediate aftermath, officials in Washington doubled down on a false narrative — just as they did two weeks ago when ICE agents killed 37-year-old Renée Good in Minneapolis.
Back on January 7, Good was shot through the temple and the chest as she sat in her car. Witnesses say she posed no threat, yet federal authorities claimed she tried to run over an agent. Even after an independent autopsy confirmed the fatal shots and no evidence of a struggle, the government maintained that Good was a domestic terrorist.
Now it’s the same playbook all over again.
This is gaslighting on a grand scale — a reality-denying propaganda campaign reminiscent of Pontius Pilate scoffing at Jesus, “Truth? What is truth?” before condemning him to death.
The late Pope Benedict XVI, who grew up under the lies of the Nazi regime, warned that society was “building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires”.
His words could not be more applicable to Trump-Vance’s America in 2026. In a dictatorship of relativism, there is no objective truth — only narratives that serve those in power. Right now, our government asks us to abandon the objective reality we saw with our own two eyes in favor of a convenient fiction that protects its own ego and agenda.
Federal officials seem to believe they can shape truth to their will. This cynical disregard for truth — the willingness to say two plus two is five if it protects authority — is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.
It calls to mind George Orwell’s 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Watching DHS officials deny the plain reality of Alex Pretti’s death, it’s hard not to hear echoes of Orwell. This erosion of truth is fundamentally dangerous. If we lose our grip on truth, we lose the foundation of justice.
As Catholics, we know that truth is not some abstract concept — it is a person, Jesus Christ. In the words of Teresa of Ávila, “Truth suffers but never dies.”
The truth may be suppressed, mocked, or momentarily defeated by this dictatorship of lies, but it will never be extinguished. In the end, it will eventually prevail.
American Catholics, in particular, cannot shrug this off or hide in our pews. We are no longer a powerless minority in this country; we are a community tens of millions strong, with resources, institutions, media platforms, and yes — even a pope from our homeland.
We have a voice, and a moral duty to use it.
If we decide collectively that Trump and Vance should no longer lead this country, rest assured, they will no longer be in charge.
If we won’t stand up now against blatant injustice and state violence, who will? If we won’t call a lie a lie, who are we serving? God certainly doesn’t need our complicity with evil. We’re called to be disciples of truth and just. We must not be handmaidens of this dictatorship of lies.
Now is the time for American Catholics at every level — bishops, priests, and laypeople alike — to get off the sidelines. We have to stand up and be witnesses to the truth. That means not only acknowledging what is happening, but actively opposing the lies and cruelty that have taken hold.
Renowned Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who resisted Nazi tyranny, famously wrote, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” We cannot afford silence or ambivalence now. Tyrants want us to look away. They want us to numb ourselves to the constant outrages, to become passive and cynical. But we follow a Lord who said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Our task is to keep proclaiming and living that truth — no matter the cost.
Crucially, Pope Leo and other spiritual leaders remind us that how we resist evil matters. We are not allowed to fight lies with lies, or meet hate with hate.
As Pope Francis warned in an address to the U.S. Congress a decade ago, “To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.” In other words, if we adopt the tactics of the oppressor — if we demonize, dehumanize, or seek vengeance — then we become what we claim to oppose.
Our resistance must be rooted in the “fierce love” of Jesus Christ. This love is not meek or submissive in the face of evil; it is a fierce love that boldly says “No” to injustice.
It is not weakness — it is power perfected in weakness, the power that conquered the Roman Empire not by the sword but by the witness of the martyrs. It is a love that can even be deadly to falsehood, because it witnesses to a truth worth dying for.
This Christ-like love compels us to stay in the fight for justice, but always on God’s terms, not by adopting the venom of our adversaries.
So what does it mean, practically, for Catholics to stand up in this new dictatorship of lies? Here are three concrete steps:
