religious liberty

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 12 – The New Anti-Catholicism

/ esteban

A few months ago when the dreaded HHS Mandate was announced, my pastor stood before our parish congregation one Sunday morning and lamented that for the first time in his life his Americanism and his Catholicism were in conflict.  I still feel that way.

It is sad to see the end of the time when religious liberty was a cherished part of our national ideal.  I constantly ask myself, “Who are we becoming that these coercions are acceptable?”

In the article referenced below, written by Francis J. Beckwith, we see how strong the new Anti-Catholicism has become and how lethargic and apathetic the general public is in defending its freedoms.

If these trends continue, I’m afraid our nation is going to get what it wants, not what it needs, and will thus become a faint whisper of the vision it was designed to be.

http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-new-anti-catholicism-occupy-the-vatican.html

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 11 – George Washington, Defender of Catholic Liberty

/ esteban / 1 Comment

If you do much reading about the general public’s opinion about Catholicism during the years of the American Revolution, you will soon note how anti-Catholic many people were and how close our new nation came to outlawing the Church all together.

George Washington, who not only saved our nation during the fight for freedom, but was also instrumental in securing religious liberty for everyone.

You can find many such articles about this online, but here’s one that gives you an example of President Washington’s open-mindedness in this particular area:

http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/11/05/george-washington-and-catholics/

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 10 – “We didn’t pick the time, nor did we pick the fight”

/ esteban

I had the pleasure to meet Archbishop Joseph Naumann briefly during the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference in Kansas City, KS.

This interview with him, published in the Catholic World Report, has some very interesting comments about the fight for religious liberty, social justice, the principle of subsidiarity and personal virtue.

Social justice doesn’t mean the state taking care of everybody, but empowering people so they can take care of themselves and their families. That’s the real dignity we want to help people achieve.

 

I so agree with this.  We have so many problems to address in our society, but in my belief, very very few of them must be solved by the government, the least effective means of solving any problem.

Does the state have some role to play with the poor? Absolutely, I think, in terms of a safety net. But that doesn’t mean that we keep increasing the number of people who are dependent on the state in some way. That, to me, is the direction we’ve been going for the last 50 years.

When the government purposely strives to have the majority of its people dependent on it for food, health care, etc., it is subverting the true meaning of that wonderful phrase from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

 

 

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 2

/ esteban

Last Wednesday, on the eve of the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., delivered a speech to attendees of the Catholic Press Association conference, meeting in Indianapolis.

It is a very sobering assessment of the war being raged against religious freedom in our country, and how perilous the situation in the Church is today and its ability to confront it.

I urge you to take the time to read his speech, which can be found at First Things.