Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko: Polish Priest and Martyr

Today the church remembers the Polish Martyr Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko.  He was beatified by Pope Benedict in 2010.  The following comes from the St. Stanislaus Kostka parish in Brooklyn, NY:

Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was born on September 14, 1947 in Poland on the feast of Holy Cross Day. He was  the fourth child born to Marianna and Wladyslaw Popiełuszko. Two days later, he was baptized in his family  parish church in Suchowola. His mother, still in a blessed state, offered him up as a servant God. In 1954, he started elementary school and then continued his education in the local high school. After  graduation, he entered the seminary in Warsaw. After a year of study, he was drafted into the army and  inducted into a special unit created to destroy priestly vocations among young people. Two years in the army  had adversely affected his health. Later it even interfered with his priestly ministry. He was ordained at the hands of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski on May 28, 1972.  During the years 1972-1980 he was a vicar in the following parishes: Holy Trinity  in Zabkach, Our Lady of the Rosary in Anin and Child Jesus in Warsaw. Due to  his failing health and inability to continue the duties of a vicar, he was assigned to  work with students in St. Anne’s Church in Warsaw. In 1979, he began his priestly  ministry as a chaplain to medical workers in the archdiocese of Warsaw.

On May 20, 1980 he was transferred to the St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in  Warsaw. There he continued his ministry and assisted in the parish as a resident.

On August 31, 1980, at  the request of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski he celebrated Mass for striking workers. This was the beginning of  his ministry among workers.  All along, Fr. Jerzy was involved in assisting the needy – especially families with many children, poor, and  close to those in prison camps. He collected food and medicine for them. He attended hearings of those  arrested for interfering with martial law. He supported political prisoners.

In February of 1982 he started  celebrating Mass on the last Sunday of every month for freedom of Poland. As months passed, more and  more people came from near and far to participate in the Mass.  The communist leaders at that time were not pleased with the actions of Fr. Jerzy and the respect he was  enjoying from people all over Poland. More and more often things happened that were meant to scare  Fr. Jerzy and force him to resign from ministry. Twice his home was broken into, he was constantly being  followed, harassed, stopped by police. His home was bombed and his car was doused with paint. At the  same time letters were arriving at the Bishop’s office complaining that his sermons „were consistently taking  aim at the People’s Republic of Poland”. In September 1983, a case was brought against him accusing him  of „excessive use of his rights as a priest in an effort to cause harm to the People’s Republic of Poland.”

In  December 1983 he was arrested. Upon the intervention of the Church, he was released. He was facing a  possible 10 years in prison. From January to June 1984, he was interrogated 13 times. His prison sentence  was later dropped as a result of the amnesty program of 1984. However, simultaneously a slander campaign  was being conducted by Jerzy Urban, the then spokesman for the government newspaper.

On October 13, 1984, near the town of Ostróda an attempt was made on the life of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko  who was returning from Gdansk to Warsaw.

On October 19, along with the driver Waldemar Chrostowski he  travelled to Bydgoszcz. At 6:00pm on that day, he celebrated Rosary Devotions and Holy Mass in Polish  Saints Martyred Brothers Church.

On their return trip at about 10:00pm he was abducted in a place called  Przysiek near Torun by three members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was brutally beaten, he was tied  up in a way that any movement caused the noose to tighten around his neck, and then he was locked in the  trunk of a car. A boulder weighing about 24 pounds was tied to his legs, and he was thrown into a tributary of  the Wistula River near Wloclawek.

His body was finally found on October 30.

Read the rest here.

Those who seek to eliminate faith for the sake of freedom, get only tyranny

The following comes from Msgr. Charles Pope:

On the Fourth of July, in the United States of America we celebrate freedom. In particular we celebrate freedom from tyranny, and a government that is not representative; freedom from unchecked power and unaccountable sovereigns.

Distorted and faithless notions - Yet, as Christians we cannot overlook that there are ways of understanding freedom today that are distorted, exaggerated and detached from a proper context. Many modern concepts of freedom treat freedom as something that faith limits, not enhances.

Alexis De Tocqueville said Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. In America today we are seeing the erosion of all three in reverse order.

Those who want to eliminate faith remove the ultimate basis of morality. For if God, and what he has set forth in Natural Law, and the Scriptures be not the basis of or law and freedom, then we are and there is no real basis to determine right and wrong, it is all just opinion and power struggle. We are our own absolute rulers, answerable to no one. This is dangerous.

And just as it is a bad idea for the inmates to run the jail, so absolute self-governance turns to tyranny. We tend to turn on each other and engage in deadly power struggles.

Welcome to the secular setting wherein freedom is eroded because power struggles have replaced the recognition of a higher law that binds us all. Welcome to the tyranny of relativism, and the bondage and litigiousness of unbelief.

Among the sources of growing and intrusive law is that some refuse to limit their bad behavior, some refuse to live up to commitments they have made, some abandon self control, some insist on living outside safe and proper norms. Many insist that the solution to protect them from others who abuse their freedom, is more laws. And many are successful in getting increasingly restrictive laws passed.

Yes, without a commonly held morality and a salutary fear that we will answer one day to God, bad behavior multiplies and freedom erodes into lots of tedious laws. In this climate, an increasingly powerful and intrusive State seeks to keep a lid on the immoral behavior resulting from the faithless notion that I will never answer to anyone.

Hence, those who seek to eliminate faith for the sake of “freedom” get only tyranny. Even unbelievers ought to be grateful that most people have a vigorous sense that they must answer one day to God. But without God, those in power, and those who act wickedly, think they will never have to answer to anyone and their sociopathic behavior gets more severe and tyrannical.

Those who claim that the truth of the gospel limits their freedom might also consider that the world outside God’s truth shows itself to be far less than free than it claims:

• Addictions and compulsions in our society abound.
• Neuroses, and high levels of stress are major components of modern living.
• The breakdown of the family and the seeming inability of increasing numbers to establish and keep lasting commitments is quite significant.
• A kind of obsession with sex is evident and the widespread sadness of STDs, AIDs, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood (absent fathers) and abortion are its results.
• Addiction to wealth and greed (the insatiable desire for more) enslave many in a kind of financial bondage wherein they cannot really afford the lifestyle their passions demand, and they are unsatisfied and in deep debt.

The so-called “freedom” of the modern world, (apart from the truth of the Gospel), is far from evident. The Catechism says rather plainly:

The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.” (CCC # 1733)

In the end, the paradox proves itself. Only limited freedom is true freedom. Demands for freedom apart from faith lead only to hindered freedom and outright slavery and tyranny.

Ponder freedom on this 4th of July. Ponder its paradoxes, accept its limits. For freedom is glorious. But because we are limited and contingent beings, so is our freedom. Ponder finally this paradoxical truth: The highest freedom is the capacity to obey God.

Note that in the video this song about Freedom, often sung in reference to various political and social struggles, roots the freedom in Jesus. Some seculars eliminate the 2nd verse today, but they thus undermine the basis for freedom. For if there be no Lord to whom we point as the basis of justice, Those who cry for freedom are simply being arbitrary in their notion. Without God and the justice he puts in our hearts, why should the desires of the oppressed have any more merit than the wishes of the oppressor? It is a mere matter of opinion, for there is no outside source for morality or justice. Unbelievers cannot really point to any basis other than popular opinion or raw power to usher in their view. Their notion of freedom without faith ends only in the tyranny of power struggle.

Enjoy the video, especially the second verse:

Pope Francis Makes Surprise Stop at Little Sisters of the Poor

The following comes from the NCR:

Pope Francis paid a short visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor community in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to support them in their court case over the contraception mandate, the Vatican's spokesman revealed.

It was a “short visit that was not in the program,” Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said at an evening press conference during the papal visit to the nation's capital.

“This is a sign, obviously, of support for them” in their court case, he affirmed.

The sisters had filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration for its 2012 mandate that employers provide insurance coverage for birth control, sterilizations, and drugs that can cause abortions employee health plans. The sisters have maintained that to provide this coverage would violate their religious beliefs.

After the Obama administration modified the rules as an “accommodation” for objecting organizations, the sisters held that even under the revised rules they would have to violate their consciences.

The majority of a three-judge panel for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that the Little Sisters of the Poor did not establish that the mandate was a “substantial burden” on their free exercise of religion, and thus ruled they still had to abide by the mandate.

“The Holy Father spoke to each of us individually, from the youngest postulant to our centenarian, and then he spoke to all us about the importance of our ministry to the elderly,” Sister Constance Veit, communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor, said following the visit. “We were deeply moved by his encouraging words.” 

Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the Little Sisters of the Poor in their court challenge against the mandate, said in a email statement, “Today, after Mass at the Basilica, the Pope made an unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor where he spoke to each of the Sisters privately and encouraged them in their vocation to serve the elderly and the poor. Earlier in the day, at the White House, the Pope expressed his support for religious liberty when he stated: [we] all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”

‘An Important Meaning’

The papal visit was not on the official schedule for Pope Francis’ Washington visit, which included Wednesday visits to the White House, a midday prayer service with the U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and the canonization mass for St. Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

It was a “little addition to the program, but I think it has an important meaning,” Father Lombardi said.

He added that the visit “is connected” to “the words that the Pope has said in support of the position of the bishops of the United States in the speech to President Obama and also in the speech to the bishops.”

Pope Francis, with President Obama at the White House, called religious freedom “one of America’s most precious possessions” and had hearkened to the U.S. bishops’ defense of religious freedom. “All are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it,” he had said.

In response to the news of the visit with the sisters, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said that he was “so pleased” to hear of the visit.

“As you know the last thing the Little Sisters of the Poor want to do is sue somebody. They don’t want to sue in court,” he insisted. “They simply want to serve people who are poor and elderly, and they want to do it in a way that doesn’t conflict with their beliefs.”

The archbishop had previously warned against “interpreting freedom of religion in a very narrow way” in the press conference, and emphasized that religion is not something practiced just for an hour on Sunday but something lived out. To prove his point, he used the Little Sisters as an example.

Added Archbishop Kurtz, “We need to make room within our nation for people who have deeply held religious beliefs not to be forced to do that.”

Memorial Day: A Catholic Perspective

Pope Francis: Religious Persecution attacks peace and it belittles our dignity

Why Silencing Christians will Continue

The following comes from Fr. James Schall, SJ at Crisis:

The number of subjects we cannot talk about in public discourse are rapidly multiplying. The older notion of “free speech” as a search for the truth through reasonable argument is being replaced. We no longer want to hear speech if it “offends” someone’s feelings or self-defined identity. We would rather “just get along” than to have to decide about the truth of any issue or confront the consequences of its violation.

We thus have become infinitely “tolerant” of anything but truth itself. Speech is not directed to truth or falsity of an issue but to the “sensitivity” and “compassion” of those who hear it. “Objective” standards are subject to the listener’s “right” to hear only what he wants to hear. Thus, whatever is “permitted” in positive or civil law becomes a “right” for those who follow it. Furthermore, we cannot criticize the law as if there were some “standard” by which to judge its worth. There are no standards as there is no nature on which to base them. “Hate speech” laws become effective tools to suppress any objective judgment about the rightness or wrongness of what is legislated or practiced.

Academia and the press were once considered places where delicate and sensitive topics could be more freely discussed without being compromised by human passions. This presumption is no longer the case. Universities and the media are more likely to participate in the suppression of truth or objective reasoning than their advocates. The phrase “political correctness” accurately describes a culture that seeks to silence challenges to ruling orthodoxies. Arguments become unwelcome because they might challenge our way of life.

Read the rest here.

Bishop Paprocki: ‘Rupture’ Between Church and Modern Culture

The following comes from the NCR:

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., said that Catholics should be aware of an “unconscious hatred for the faith” as they seek to interact with the modern culture.

In an interview with The Washington Times, published Sept. 3, the bishop reflected that, in past generations, “many of the values in our secular world mirrored the values of the religious world.”

“And I think what’s happening now is that relationship — that symbiosis between our culture and the Church — has been ruptured,” Bishop Paprocki said.

He noted that he and many others grew up at a time when secular culture was more friendly to religion, as shown in the production of biblical movies like The Ten Commandments. Now, however, the culture is moving towards the “outright rejection” of Judeo-Christian values.

He pointed to an “anti-Catholic bigotry” in the culture, seen in a Late Night with David Letterman segment where the host joked about the sexual abuse of altar boys.

He said the joke showed a “profound ignorance” in identifying the Catholic Church and the priesthood with sex abuse.

“Certainly, we have had our unfortunate share of scandals and sin, and the Church is dealing with that,” the bishop said.

However, he added that the Catholic Church is now one of the most responsible institutions in dealing with sexual abuse, implementing rigorous abuse-prevention measures, training requirements and safe-environment programs.

Public figures like Letterman “continue to point their finger at the Catholic Church and say, 'You have a problem with sexual abuse,' and people are ignoring where most sexual abuse is taking place. It’s occurring in families. It’s occurring in schools,” Bishop Paprocki said.

“This lets people too easily off the hook to say that, ‘Oh, that’s a Catholic problem.’ … If people are really serious about sexual abuse, I think they need to be looking at some other places as well.”

He said comics like Letterman “think they are being funny” and think their jokes are “where our culture is.”

“I don’t know if it is overt hatred for the Church, but it is probably an unconscious hatred for the faith,” he observed.

“It’s a pagan kind of culture,” he said, adding that Christians have to “mentally adjust.”

Bishop Paprocki warned that the situation of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is becoming more like that of the Church in Poland under communism, where Christians lived in “a very hostile environment.”

The bishop has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration’s HHS mandate requiring employers to provide health-insurance coverage for employees’ sterilizations and contraceptive drugs, including some that cause abortions.

In addition, he has voiced concerns over a 2011 decision by the Illinois state government to ban Catholic adoption and foster-care agencies from receiving state funding on the grounds that they will not place children with same-sex and unmarried couples.

“We still have the First Amendment of our Constitution, but that is being sorely tested,” Bishop Paprocki told the Times.

He said that in response to controversies like the debate over “gay marriage,” Catholics should continue to have “a very articulate, reasoned approach.” They should not let others paint them as “bigots.”

The bishop explained that Catholics’ care and compassion for everyone is “ultimately about their salvation and eternal life.”

“To be compassionate and loving does not simply mean, ‘Oh, you can do whatever you want,’” he said. “That wasn’t Christ’s approach to us. He calls us out of our sinfulness. He died for us. He opens the gates of heaven for us.”

Pope Francis: “Proclaiming the truth of the Gospel is not an assault on freedom”

The following comes from the Vatican Insider:

“Each community is "mature" when it professes faith, celebrates it with joy during the liturgy, lives charity, proclaims the Word of God endlessly, leaves one’s own to take it to the “peripheries”, especially to those who have not yet had the opportunity to know Christ,” Francis says in his message for the 87^thWorld Mission Day which will be celebrated next 20 October, just after the end of the Year of Faith.

“The strength of our faith, at a personal and community level can be measured by the ability to communicate it to others, to spread and live it in charity, to witness to it before those we meet and those who share the path of life with us,” the Pope writes in his message.

The way Francis sees it, faith must be a “secure light” that illuminates people’s path at this time of crisis and conflict. He stressed this in Lumen Fidei, the encyclical he wrote with Benedict XVI.

The papal message also takes into account the difficult social situation many countries are going through at the moment: “We also live in a time of crisis that touches various sectors of existence, not only the economy, finance, food security, or the environment, but also those involving the deeper meaning of life and the fundamental values that animate it,” Francis said.

In the text dated 19 May, the Pope says human coexistence “is marked by tensions and conflicts that cause insecurity and difficulty in finding the right path to a stable peace.” “In this complex situation, where the horizon of the present and future seems threatened by menacing clouds, it is necessary to proclaim courageously and in very situation, the Gospel of Christ, a message of hope, reconciliation, communion, a proclamation of God's closeness, his mercy, his salvation, and a proclamation that the power of God’s love is able to overcome the darkness of evil and guide us on the path of goodness,” the Pope writes.

  

So “the men and women of our time needs the secure light that illuminates their path and that only the encounter with Christ can give.” “The Church’s missionary spirit is not about proselytizing, but the testimony of a life that illuminates the path, which brings hope and love.”

“All too often, we see that it is violence, lies and mistakes that are emphasized and proposed. It is urgent in our time to announce and witness to the goodness of the Gospel, and this from within the Church itself,” Francis recalls, referring to Paul VI’s words in the Evangelii Nuntiandi to illustrate the fact that faith is a tribute to human freedom: “It would be... an error to impose something on the consciences of our brethren. But to propose to their consciences the truth of the Gospel and salvation in Jesus Christ, with complete clarity and with total respect for free options which it presents... is a tribute to this freedom."

Francis points out that “the work of evangelization often finds obstacles, not only externally, but also from within the ecclesial community.” “Sometimes there is lack of fervour, joy, courage and hope in proclaiming the Message of Christ to all and in helping the people of our time to an encounter with him.”

“We must always have the courage and the joy of proposing, with respect, an encounter with Christ, and being heralds of his Gospel,” the Pope writes, touching on a topic that is very dear to him.

Jesus came amongst us to show us the way of salvation and he entrusted to us the mission to make it known to all to the ends of the earth. All too often, we see that it is violence, lies and mistakes that are emphasized and proposed. “The Church – I repeat once again – is not a relief organization, an enterprise or an NGO, but a community of people, animated by the Holy Spirit, who have lived and are living the wonder of the encounter with Jesus Christ and want to share this experience of deep joy, the message of salvation that the Lord gave us. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church in this path.”

Fr. George Rutler on the Man for All Seasons

The following comes from Fr. George Rutler:

Our parish is blessed with a shrine to Saint Thomas More. The young artist who painted the saint’s image after Holbein was a refugee from communist Eastern Europe. He did such a good job that Cardinal Egan, dedicating it, said that he would not be surprised if this were the original.

We recently celebrated the joint feasts of Saint Thomas More, who was Chancellor of England, and Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Their personalities were different in many ways, and it was almost a miracle that an Oxford man and a Cambridge man got on so well and eventually were canonized together. The Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy were the challenges that King Henry VIII threw at them, and the saints returned the challenge. The issues were rooted in natural law: the meaning of marriage and the claims of government. These are the same issues that loom large today. Whatever our courts of law may decide about these matters, Saint Thomas says: “I am not bound, my lord, to conform my conscience to the council of one realm against the General Council of Christendom.” In 1919, G. K. Chesterton predicted with powerful precision that, great as More’s witness was then, “he is not quite so important as he will be in a hundred years’ time.”

For every courageous saint back then, there were many other Catholics who instead took the safe path of complacency. More’s own family begged him to find some loophole, and — after the sudden deaths of eight other bishops — Fisher was the only one left who acted like an apostle. Those who opted for comfort and wove the lies of their world into a simulation of truth had a banal and shallow faith that Pope Francis has called “rose water.” It is a good image, for rose water is not blood and cannot wash away sin.

The “Man for All Seasons” wrote to his beloved Margaret from his cell in the Tower of London: “And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”

The “Fortnight for Freedom” extended from the vigil of the feasts of Fisher and More to July 4th, but its prayers continue, as the Church’s many charitable and evangelical works are threatened by our present government’s disdain for the religious conscience, most immediately evident in the Health and Human Services mandate and the redefinition of marriage. In 1534 Henry VIII’s arrogation of authority over the Church was quickly followed by a Treasons Act which made it a high crime to criticize the King. In contemporary America as in Tudor England, the surest way to let that happen is to say, “It can't happen here.”   

American Church by Russell Shaw

The following comes from Russell Shaw at Catholic Lane:

In the question period after a talk I’d given on my new book, American Church, a woman raised an important point: “If the Church in the U.S. faces as many problems as you say, why is it doing so much better here than in much of Europe?”

Great question. My answer–which I also give in the book–was along these lines:

“It has a lot to do with the First Amendment principle of separation of Church and State. Yes, I know–’separation’ sometimes is used as a club by secularists who want to drive religion out of the public square. But on the whole it’s been a great blessing for the Church and for religion in America.

“For one thing, church-state separation has generally kept government out of religious affairs, while also keeping clerics out of inappropriate involvement in politics. In combination with Cardinal Gibbons’ wise decision to embrace the emerging labor movement in the late 19th century, this spared the Church the sort of virulent anticlericalism found in countries like France, Spain, and even ‘Catholic’ Ireland as a reaction against the political clericalism of the not so distant past.”

Almost always, I might have added, clericalism breeds anticlericalism. That we’ve largely escaped the worst sort of clericalism in America means we’ve also been spared the worst sort of anticlericalism.

But granted all that, the situation of the Catholic Church in America today is increasingly perilous. American Church explains why. In brief, the explanation goes like this:

Nearly 40 years ago, reacting to the Supreme Court’s then-recent decision legalizing abortion as well as other social and political developments, I published a magazine article with the title “The Alienation of American Catholics.”

The point I was making was that American secular culture had lately shifted in directions radically opposed to central Catholic values and beliefs. Hence the rising sense of alienation from that culture being experienced by Catholics like me.

What I wasn’t so conscious of then was that millions of my fellow Catholics had for years been becoming part of this hostile culture–accepting and adopting as their own its world view, its value system, its patterns of behavior, even when these clashed with their Catholic faith.

This was painfully apparent in matters of sexual morality, but it also applied to marriage and the family, many issues of social justice, capital punishment, abortion, and the whole bourgeois consumerist lifestyle. More and more, Catholics were becoming nearly indistinguishable from other Americans on questions like these.

Looking for an explanation for what was happening, I hit upon the process that sociologists call cultural assimilation–in this case, assimilation into American secular culture–that Catholics had experienced since the 19th century and, with great rapidity and in huge numbers, especially since World War II.

It’s a complex, fascinating tale, not well understood by many Catholics themselves, yet central to the situation in which the Church now finds itself. The subtitle of my book sums it up: “The remarkable rise, meteoric fall, and uncertain future of Catholicism in America.”

There’s a solution, but it isn’t easy. It requires rebuilding a strong Catholic subculture committed to sustaining the religious identity of American Catholics and forming them for the task of evangelizing America. Can that be done? Perhaps. Will it be attempted? That has yet to be seen.

This 4th of July, say a prayer that it is. Remember to say thanks for church-state separation. Things would be a lot worse without it.

Fr. George Rutler: The surest way to persecution is to say, “It can't happen here”

By Father George Rutler at New Advent:

Our parish is blessed with a shrine to Saint Thomas More. The young artist who painted it after Holbein was a refugee from communist Eastern Europe. He did such a good job that Cardinal Egan, dedicating it, said that he would not be surprised if this were the original. 

We recently celebrated the joint feasts of Thomas More, who was Chancellor of England, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Their personalities were different in many ways, and it was almost a miracle that an Oxford man and a Cambridge man got on so well and eventually were canonized together. The Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy were the challenges that King Henry VIII threw at them, and the saints returned the challenge. The issues were rooted in natural law: the meaning of marriage and the claims of government. These are the same issues that loom large today. Whatever our courts of law may decide about these matters, Saint Thomas says: “I am not bound, my lord, to conform my conscience to the council of one realm against the General Council of Christendom.” In 1919, G. K. Chesterton predicted with powerful precision that great as More’s witness was then, “he is not quite so important as he will be in a hundred years’ time.” 

For every courageous saint back then, there were many who instead took the safe path of complacency. More’s own family begged him to find some loophole, and — after the sudden deaths of eight other bishops — Fisher was the only one left who acted like an apostle. Those who opted for comfort and wove the lies of their world into a simulation of truth had a banal and shallow faith that Pope Francis has called “rose water.” It is a good image, for rose water is not blood and cannot wash away sin. 

The “Man for All Seasons” wrote to his beloved Margaret from his cell in the Tower of London: “And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.” 

The “Fortnight for Freedom” extended from the vigil of the feasts of Fisher and More to July 4, but its prayers continue, as the Church’s many charitable and evangelical works are threatened by our present government’s disdain for the religious conscience, most immediately evident in the Health and Human Services mandate and the redefinition of marriage. In 1534 Henry VIII’s arrogation of authority over the Church was quickly followed by a Treasons Act which made it a high crime to criticize the King. In contemporary America as in Tudor England, the surest way to let that happen is to say, “It can't happen here.”

Religious Liberty; Rooted In Dignity Of The Human Person

The following comes from Bishop Paul Etienne:

As our Fortnight For Freedom progresses this summer, today seems an appropriate moment to reflect upon the innate freedom of every human person to give expression to their relationship with God. 

Today the Church celebrates the birth of St. John the Baptist.  We read in Sacred Scripture that this birth was announced to Zechariah by an angel of the Lord. The angel even goes so far as to describe the life mission of John.  (Luke 1: 525)

The Sacred Scriptures give plenty of other evidence that we are all created by God, from the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4)  Most memorable is the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary (Luke 1: 26-38) as well as Samson (Judges 13,) and Isaac (Genesis 15:2-6; 18:9-15; 21: 1-8.)

Other passages speak of the work of God forming each of us in the womb.  “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!”  (Psalm 139: 13-14)  Also, the Prophet Isaiah: “The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.”  (Is 49:1)

These Scripture passages teach us that each human person is intimately known by God, who calls us into being.  This fundamental understanding of the origins of every human person speaks to the importance of religious freedom.  This is not just a freedom bestowed upon us by others. 

Religious freedom is a part of our DNA.  We are created by God, for relationship with God and the entire human journey is destined to return to God.  The dignity of every human person is rooted in this Divine Origin of all human life. 

This relationship with God is carried on in the intimate realm of human conscience, and is given visible expression in many ways, not the least of which is worship.  But worship is not the limitation of religious freedom.  One’s relationship with God gives expression to love and service of others.  It is guided by moral light that dictates “Do this. Do not do that.”

The Second Vatican Council in its document on Religious Liberty states:

“…the right to religious freedom is based on the very dignity of the human person as known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.  This right of the human person to religious freedom must be given such recognition in the constitutional order of society as will make it a civil right.”  (Declaration of Religious Liberty, #2)

St. John the Baptist was a voice preparing the people of Israel for its Savior.  Jesus Christ is the Word spoken by God for all eternity.  Still today, freedom is fundamental to exercise our voice in favor of the instructive Word. 

St. John the Baptist did not limit his voice to a temple.  Rather, he spoke wherever and whenever and whatever the Spirit prompted.  This is true religious freedom, in search of and at the service of Truth.  The Truth of our faith, Jesus Christ, desires only the good for all people.  His desire is the desire of the Father, that all come to sanctification.  (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

 Let us continue our prayer for a proper respect for religious liberty, and its due protection from unwarranted intrusion by any individual or institution.  Let us pray that each person will have a well formed conscience and the freedom to live freely according to its guidance toward the Truth and the common good.

+pde

Catholic MIlitary Chaplains and Religious Liberty

The following comes from Fr. George Rutler:

The Geneva Convention’s classification of military chaplains as noncombatants has traditionally been interpreted in the United States to mean that chaplains normally do not carry weapons. This often puts them in precarious positions when they are in war zones. Over four hundred chaplains have been killed in the line of duty. Catholic chaplains are especially exposed to dangerous situations by their obligation to administer Absolution and Anointing. They have received every kind of decoration for valor, and seven have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

All four chaplains awarded the Medal since the Civil War have been Catholic. Among them, Lieutenant Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest and Navy chaplain, who served with the Marine Corps and was killed while aiding the second Platoon of M Company at the battle of Dong Son in Vietnam, has been proposed for heaven’s highest honor, canonization as a saint.

The military chaplaincy is under threat by our own government as part of its social agenda. One year ago, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains tried to forbid Catholic chaplains from reading a statement from the Military Ordinary, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees all priests in the Catholic Ordinariate for the Armed Forces, in which he objected to federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception in violation of the right to religious freedom. Now the government would compel chaplains to acquiesce in “same-sex” simulations of marriage. The Army’s deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel has said that military members who dissent from this agenda are “bigoted” and “need to get out.”

As behavior contrary to Christian morality becomes a civil right, Catholics in particular could soon become, quite literally, outlaws. Our current President recently announced that he will disobey a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by his own hand, which states that chaplains cannot be forced “to perform any rite, ritual or ceremony that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain.”

I am always edified by the sacrificing spirit of good soldiers, and as a chaplain to West Point alumni here in New York, I am pleased when cadets serve at Mass. Governments that have tried to manipulate soldiers and doctors and teachers in perverse ways have always had a short shelf life. The nineteenth-century French political philosopher Frédéric Bastiat warned: “When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.”

Military chaplains do not bear arms, but they have recourse to another arsenal: “Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect” (Ephesians 6:11).

Religious Freedom and You

The following comes from the First American Freedom site:

Religious freedom is our first American freedom. It is a founding principle of our country, protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. It’s a fundamental human right, rooted in the dignity of every human person—people of any faith or no faith at all. It’s not a Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, Mormon or Muslim issue—it’s an American issue, a civil rights issue.

Religious liberty includes your freedom of belief, speech, and worship. But it also protects action—the freedom to serve the common good in accordance with your faith. It means that you and your community—not the government—define your faith. It means the freedom to help the needy in accordance with the principles of your faith. It means the freedom to participate fully and equally in public life, regardless of your faith. It means the freedom to work in business without checking your faith at the door.

In short, it means that nobody should be forced to act in a manner contrary to their own religious beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, unless it is necessary to keep public order.

Cardinal Dolan: Reflections on Election Day

The following come from Cardinal Dolan:

The 2012 campaign is over, and the dust is settling.

After asking me how our recovery from Hurricane Sandy is going, most folks these days then inquire about how I think “the Church did” on election day.

Such a question usually triggers a mini-catechism lesson from me, as I reply that, actually, “the Church” wasn’t on the ballot, and the election was hardly a referendum on “the Church.” The Church, I go on, was founded by the one who stated that “My kingdom is not of this world,” and whose members consider the statement of St. Paul, “We have our true citizenship in heaven,” as inspired by God. The Bible’s caution, “Put not your trust in princes,” would today probably be rendered, “Put not your trust in politicians.”

All true enough, and, in a genuine way, this attitude gives us a benign indifference to politics and elections. We “seek first the Kingdom of God,” not the power and platforms of worldly politics.

But this “indifference” is tempered by the fact of faithful citizenship. We are, as a matter of fact, very concerned about matters in this world, precisely because God has revealed truths about the human person that have serious implications for people of faith. So, yes, while we are much more passionate about heaven than earth, about the teachings of Jesus and His Church than the platforms of any party or the promises of any candidate, we do have a duty to bring the values of faith to the political process.

Did we, Tuesday a week ago?

The data is still coming in, and will be months in arriving and being interpreted. But, once again, it seems as if “we won some, we lost some.”

One issue of deep concern to Catholics and many, many others is the defense of marriage from those who would presume to redefine it to suit contemporary movements (e.g., divorce on demand, “trial” marriage, or “same sex” marriage.) Up until this election day, 32 states had given their people the chance to “redefine marriage” (an oxymoron for us), and 32 said no! (Some states took a more sinister route, ignoring a referendum, and allowing the legislature to tamper with the definition.)

The news last election day was not as bright, as the dilution of the essence of marriage won in three states. So, it’s 32-3. But, there’s no denying that the “winds are changing.” I’m told that the results were close in those three states, and that the exit polls showed that people of faith voted not to redefine marriage.

The death penalty is another issue of concern to those who believe that the promotion of the dignity of the human person and the protection of human life is the normative guide in our voting. Here again the results were not positive. The electorate in California had the chance to reject this lethal and unjust penalty. The Church in California did its best to preach the “Gospel of Life,” but apparently was less than effective. The referendum lost.

Better news in Maryland, where the Church was true to our birthright of advocacy for the immigrant, and was part of a coalition very successful in pushing for the Dream Act, allowing immigrant children to attend college; and a ray of sunshine in Massachusetts, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley led a strong ecumenical and community based effort to defeat euthanasia.

It gets touchy when we try to analyze the presidential election with the lens of faith. Some assume that the re-election of the president was a setback for people of faith. That may be an exaggeration. There is no denying that the president and his party are on record in promoting guidelines that gravely intrude upon religious freedom, and in their desire to expand unfettered access to abortion at all stages. These two issues are of towering import to people inspired by the principles of human dignity and the sanctity of life.

The polls show that Catholics voted for the president, but that such support was lower than four years ago; and that Catholics who attend Sunday Mass regularly heavily supported his opponent. These statistics would support a contention that Catholics do indeed let their faith have a say in the politics.

Of course, through the eyes of faith, neither candidate was perfect, as no political leader ever can be.

Some general impressions and worries do seem dominant 10 days later:

• Thank God we are citizens of a country where campaigns and elections occur peacefully. Not every country, tragically, can say that.

• While we may be weary of conflict over political issues, even within the household of faith, it at least shows that we Catholic take our citizenship seriously, and do try our best to let the light of faith illuminate our political decisions.

• I do worry about campaigns that let candidates off easy when it comes to substantive content on urgent issues, concentrating instead upon soundbites and caricatures.

• I am concerned about the lopsided influence of well-oiled PACs, funded by the rich on both sides. (The bishops in the state of Washington report that they were outspent 12 to 1 in their attempt to defend marriage; Cardinal O’Malley tells us that his opponents, promoting euthanasia, had all the money they needed for ads.)

• I worry that the Democrats have gone from wanting to keep abortion “safe, legal, and rare” to the party that wants abortion at every stage of pregnancy, with no defense at all of the baby in the womb, completely funded by the government.

• I fear the Republicans have turned their backs on immigrants, succumbing to the old American curse of nativism.

• I’m concerned about a growing sentiment in our country that turns John Kennedy’s lofty challenge on its head, as more and more now chant, “Ask not what I can do for my country, but what my government can do for me.”

• I worry about the popular wave of branding people who want to protect the life of the baby in the womb, and defend marriage as traditionally understood and given, as narrow-minded bigots trying to “impose” their outmoded views on others.

• And I fear the dictatorship of the self: those on one side who insist that my money, my property, my income are all mine, and I have no duty to others, especially the poor; those on the other side who claim that my body, my urges, my sexual preferences, my life, my choices are supreme, and will not be subject to the common good. (Even to the right to life of the baby in the womb).

When all is said and done, we plod along, knowing that this side of Gabriel’s trumpet, we’ll never have a perfect setup, that Christ is our King, that “we have here no lasting home,” and that faith and the freedom to live it out is the greatest protection of all to the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life.