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Our Cherished Liberty
A Statement on Religious Liberty
We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other. Our allegiances are distinct, but they need not be contradictory, and should instead be complementary.
That is the teaching of our Catholic faith, which obliges us to work together with fellow citizens for the common good of all who live in this land. That is the vision of our founding and our Constitution, which guarantees citizens of ail religious faiths the right to contribute to our common life together.
The Right to Religious Freedom
Editor: These reflections and readings from the Vatican II document Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae) are intended for daily use during the Fortnight for Freedom, a national campaign designated by the U.S. Catholic bishops for teaching and witness in support of religious liberty. The readings and the questions that follow can be used for group discussion or for personal reflection.
The Vatican Synod declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all (people) are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that in matters religious no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs. Nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately or publically, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.
Never Again
As we continue to recover from the Boston Marathon bombing, the sobering effect this event has had on many of us brings back for me personal memories of another place where tragedy struck but on a very different scale.
A colorful sign welcomes visitors
to the city of Dachau, Germany
One summer in the mid-1970’s as I visiting Germany with some friends, I suggested that while in Munich we should visit the Concentration Camp at Dachau, about ten miles northwest of town. Although my friends were initially hesitant, I was stubbornly insistent that we just needed to go there, to experience that unimaginable tragedy of epic proportions. So we left the next morning under cloudy skies.
On our way by car we stopped on the road and asked a man fixing his car if we were indeed on the right road. He simply turned his face away, saying, “Sorry, I don’t know where it is.” He was obviously embarrassed at our question and refused to help us. In little more than three miles, we came upon a very large colorful sign indicating that Dachau is a town noted for its artists and music.
One Nation Under God
In the words of Emma Larazus from her sonnet, "The New Colossus", forever engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the lower level of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, we can sense the complexity of who we are as Americans: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
We Americans are not stamped out in some efficient assembly line; rather we come from countless countries, united often only by our inalienable right to be free… from whatever oppresses us. Oddly our differences are precisely what makes America great! What draws us together is our sense of being American – a true mixture of languages, ethnic backgrounds, histories and connections.
No Greater Love
Editor: When Jesus said: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13), this is exactly what the following twelve people did in 2012. Several of our La Salette Missionaries in Burma (Myanmar) also gave their lives “for the sake of the Kingdom.” Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord…
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Once again this year, Fides – the Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies – has published their annual document of all the pastoral workers who lost their lives in a violent manner over the course of the last 12 months.
According to information in our possession, during 2012, twelve pastoral care workers were killed, almost all priests: 10 priests, 1 religious sister, 1 lay person.
For the fourth consecutive year, the place most affected, with an extremely elevated number of pastoral workers killed is South America, where 6 priests were killed (Brazil, 2; Mexico, 2; Colombia, 1; Guatemala, 1.) Following is Africa, where 3 priests and 1 religious sister were killed (D.R. Congo, 1; Mozambique, 1; Tanzania, 1; Madagascar, 1). Asia, where 1 priest and 1 religious sister were killed (They died in Lebanon and the Philippines).
Fr. Emil Kapaun
When we think of war heroes, we probably think of people like Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. George Patton and the like. But there are other less famous and more ordinary people like us who did quite extraordinary things. One such person was Fr. Emil Kapaun, an Army Chaplain of remarkable courage and valor.
His Early Life
He was born in 1916, just a farm boy from Pilsen, Kansas. He proceeded through school as a normal boy and decided to enter the Conception Abbey Seminary College in Conception, Missouri, in June 1936. From there he continued his studies and in 1940 was ordained a priest at what is now Newman University in Wichita, Kansas.
In 1943 he was appointed auxiliary chaplain at the Herington Army Airfield near Herington, Kansas. After serving in the Pilsen area within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Fr. Kapaun joined the army in July 1944.
U.S. Army Service
He began his military chaplaincy at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, in October 1944. He and one other chaplain ministered to approximately 19,000 service men and women. He also served in India and Burma. Discharged in 1946, he earned an MA in education from Catholic University, Washington, DC.
Pope Francis – Bridgebuilder
Editor: This is the text from Pope Francis’ audience with the Diplomatic Corp accredited to the Holy See, on Friday, March 22, 2013.
"Your presence here in such numbers is a sign that the relations between your countries and the Holy See are fruitful, that they are truly a source of benefit to mankind. That, indeed, is what matters to the Holy See: the good of every person upon this earth! And it is with this understanding that the Bishop of Rome embarks upon his ministry, in the knowledge that he can count on the friendship and affection of the countries you represent, and in the certainty that you share this objective.
As you know, there are various reasons why I chose the name of Francis of Assisi, a familiar figure far beyond the borders of Italy and Europe, even among those who do not profess the Catholic faith. One of the first reasons was Francis’ love for the poor. How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure!
Working to Build Peace
Many People, Many Faiths
The famous Irish poet and literary figure, William Butler Yeats, once said: “There are no strangers here; only friends (we) haven't yet met.”
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| “Golden Rule" (Do Unto Others) by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) famous artist and illustrator |
In my pastoral experience as co-pastor of a Catholic parish in Orlando, Florida, one day I was approached after Mass by two older women. Since I had made the announcement that we needed help with a parish social outreach program, one of the women came to me and said, “I’m sorry, father, that we can’t help with that wonderful program. We’re busy elsewhere at that time.” Then, somewhat embarrassed, she added, “I hope you don’t mind but we have offered to help with our neighbor’s church’s food kitchen down the street; it’s Methodist. Is it alright for us to do that as Catholics?” I was initially a bit taken aback by her question. I smiled and said, “That’s fine. After all, it is the same God!”
Having been brought up in a time when members of various denominations or congregations never went to each other’s services and often look askance at members of other denominations, I could understand their uneasiness and their sincere question. Unfortunately many of us are still not comfortable going to each other’s services or, even more perilous, helping with each other’s people-to-people projects.
Charity is Politics!
Compassion is the foundation of charity. But true service of one’s brother necessarily requires creating just structures that enable the fair application of law and ensure that each person has the wherewithal to relate harmoniously to others with dignity: education, training, work, food, lodging. That’s politics!
Service and Power
“Minister” comes from the Latin minister, which in turn derives from the word minus, inferior. A minister is thus a servant, one who helps, who serves. However politics is the domain where both service and “power” are exercised. Power implies finding the means to act effectively, finding the means to serve. “Words are wasted on a starving man,” they say. This has to do with hunger for one’s daily bread, of course, but also the hunger and thirst for justice, acceptance, dignity and meaning of a life that is open to harmonious relations. This power provides to those who are served the means of taking charge of their own lives and assuming an active role in their own lives and in society: “Whatever you do for me but without me, you do against me.”
Stations of Light
John Henry Cardinal Newman once said: “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” As we have seen in the Eucharistic Liturgy over the centuries, in order to remain a celebration which is truly “of the people” – the word liturgy coming from the Greek leitourgos meaning “a work of the people – our Mass has changed in order to remain connected to God’s people.
John Henry Cardinal Newman
by Sir John Everett Millais
At the onset of the new millennium, the Vatican offered the “Stations of Light (Via Lucis)” as a new way of meditating on the Easter events as celebrated in the scriptures. The Diocese of Manchester, NH, offers the following information:
“The Stations of the Light is a spiritual journey with Christ that takes one through fourteen of the most inspiriting events of his post-Resurrection life on earth. In the early Church this practice was known as the Via Lucis, or Way of the Resurrection. It invites participants to walk along a path of transforming joy by following in the footsteps of the Risen Christ and his friends. Although known and cherished since the first century, the Stations of the Light were never gathered into a precise devotion until recent years.