The Reality of the Fight

Running from June 21 through July 4, Bishops across the nation have called Catholics to pray and fast for our nation as part of the Fortnight for Freedom. In speaking to a group of Catholic School teachers and Catechists recently, I was shocked to realize that over 2/3 of those in attendance had not heard of the Fortnight and were unaware of the threat to our religious liberties that the US Government's Human Health and Services (HHS) Mandate imposes. Even sadder was the lack of alarm or flat out care. This air of apathy is not unique to the particular group gathered, but plays out across parishes and communities as the Bishops sound the clarion regarding this threat to our Constitutional right of freedom of religion.

Blessed John Paul II in his document on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) writes:

The protection and promotion of the inviolable rights of man ranks among the essential duties of government. Therefore government is to assume the safeguard of the religious freedom of all its citizens, in an effective manner, by just laws and by other appropriate means (DH, 6).

Some may feel the Church has no rights in this fight--after all, what about the separation of Church and State? George Washington, Father of our Country wrote that: "It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."

The writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution felt so strongly about our right to freely practice our faith that they included a Bill of Rights to accompany the Constitution--of which the First Amendment guarantees:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The proposed HHS Mandate, as it stands, forces religious institutions to pay for health insurance covering items which go against the very teachings and fiber of the faith. This is a direct conflict of the First Amendment--we cannot freely practice our faith if we are going to be fined or penalized if we do not comply with laws that are cause for sin.

The Bishops have taken a stance. As leaders and shepherds of the faithful, we should  look to them for guidance and leadership. Instead, what I am finding, are Catholics who are so poorly formed in their faith that their 'opinions' are the foundation of their beliefs--the Truth of the Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Church is no of importance. Society lives by the mantra, "As long as I am happy, it must be okay"--and many Catholics buy into that hook, line, and sinker.

Abraham Lincoln, in reflecting on the state of the nation as the threat of Civil War loomed, said "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." I pray his words do not come true. Our government leaders, despite how they are trying to sugar-coat it, are denying Catholics and others of faith who cannot, by reason of faith, support contraception, abortion, and other morally offensive items in the HHS Mandate, their rights to freely practice their religion.

Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) called out to the women of pre-World War II Germany saying, "The nations doesn't simply need what we have. It needs what we are." These words ring true for us today. The nation and the Church needs Catholics who will stand for Truth; who will stand for freedom. Will we stand among the silent ones as our freedoms are slowly eroded away, or will we stand up and be a voice for all those who have shed their blood over the decades so that others may be free?

I want to close with one of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt as he spoke in 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris on Citizenship in a Republic. Let these words inspire us as we pray about how we can be a voice to protect the freedoms for which our forefathers so bravely fought:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us!