A few days ago, my friend Jason Calvi, Capitol Hill correspondent and reporter for EWTN News Nightly, advanced a now-widely circulated story about how, on September 6, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, while questioning Amy Barrett during her judicial confirmation hearing, [in]famously stated directly: “The dogma lives loudly within you.” In the days since, much has been said in the realm of the fascinating spectacle that comprises the intersection of the faith of American Catholics and public life. These remarks earned such attention that Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C., a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and president of the University of Notre Dame, wrote and publicized a September 9 letter to Senator Feinstein, expressing his “deep concern at [her] line of questioning.” Fr. Jenkins is keenly familiar with Professor Barrett’s qualifications, given her status as both an alumna and seasoned professor at Notre Dame. Fr. Jenkins’s letter was actually preceded by a similarly responsive September 8 statement posted on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website from Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, Chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. Far from these responses being an attempt to provide an individualized incursion against Senator Feinstein, it is worthwhile to note that, as pointed out by Archbishop Lori, “multiple [emphasis mine] senators challenged [Professor Barrett’s] fitness to serve due to her Catholic faith.” This scenario, in light of constitutional protections against religious discrimination, and factoring in a history of overt anti-Catholicism among influential categories of society throughout the history of the United States, does present a dilemma. Yet, like many such polemics, it is not insurmountable.

As I watched the video, as shared by EWTN News Nightly, my initial assessment was that Senator Feinstein used her phrase pejoratively. However, when I shared this news with my wife Bernadette, her first reaction was that it was actually a compliment. I ruminated upon this (not that, as a hopefully prudent man, I am ever inclined to have any misgivings regarding the intuition of a living saint). Archbishop Lori and Fr. Jenkins have said what needs to be said regarding the matter, so moving forward, despite whatever may have been Senator Feinstein’s intentions and the ultimate implications of her remarks, which are known to her alone, Bernadette is right: Catholics should expect that “the dogma lives loudly within [each of us].” And the Blessed Virgin Mary was the prime example of this: at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), and with the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), we see Mary’s combined joy and humility at the prospect of bringing Christ into the world. How timely that the circumstances of Professor Barrett’s judicial confirmation hearings occurred in the lead-up to a week-long sequence of Marian dates on the liturgical calendar: September 8 is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; September 12 is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary; September 14 is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross; September 15 is the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. With September 14 being the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we recall that Mary was one of only a few of Jesus’ followers who looked upon the suffering Christ, her Son, on the cross (see John 19:25-27), and with the next day, September 15, being the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, we recall Simeon’s poignant words about what was to come in Jesus’ accomplishment of the Paschal Mystery (see Luke 2:34-35). From Christ’s conception through his Ascension, Pentecost, and the years following until her own passage from this life, Mary was Christ’s most faithful follower, and we can most properly affirm about her that her life reflected her profession of Christ, of his dogma.

We should hope that we too have the same “dogmatic” resolve as Mary did. Let us recall a few relevant passages from the New Testament, in canonical order: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Matthew 10:32-33); “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to [Jesus], ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’ [Jesus] said in reply, ‘I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!’” (Luke 19:39-40); “If I preach the Gospel, there is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Indeed, Mary lived out the words of her Son, and her life likewise reflected Paul’s expectation of his fellow Christians (admittedly to the people of Corinth particularly, but indirectly to Mary to a considerable degree). As such, it can be resolutely asserted that the reality of who Christ is resounded within both Mary and Paul.

As a relevant aside, the community of Bishop McNamara High School, where I teach theology, recently lost two great men, both suddenly and tragically. On August 22, we lost former teacher and alumni parent George Hunt, who taught at McNamara prior to returning to Saint Philip the Apostle Catholic School in Camp Springs, where he had taught and was preparing for the new academic year at his untimely passing. On September 9, we lost former institutional fixture Br. Francis Ellis, C.S.C., who was actually serving in various ministerial capacities at the University of Notre Dame at his respectively untimely passing. These men both had a deep devotion to Mother Mary that subsequently resulted in their proximity to the Lord and therefore his will. Their involvement in the extended family of the Congregation of Holy Cross – which sponsors both the University of Notre Dame and Bishop McNamara High School – meant that their lives were in accord with the charism of the Congregation of Holy Cross, whose patronage is the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Thus, the “dogma” of Christ and his Gospel was evident within the lives of these two holy men as well, as it was for Mary and Joseph. The broader community of the University of Notre Dame, as testified by the examples of Professor Barrett and Fr. Jenkins, furthers the same charism. Although George and Br. Francis were not aspiring to public office as has Professor Barrett, their lives were still marked by Marian devotion and the desire to live the Gospel that stemmed from it. No matter how a Catholic is called to serve in public life, we should hope to have the same charitable convictions.

To be clear, we must make no mistake: a Catholic living his or her faith beyond church walls is not tantamount to proselytization, nor is there any quest for theocracy or for malignancy; rather, people of faith like Professor Barrett have a great wealth of wisdom and good will to contribute to the public square. After all, in these days of plurality that marks our culture, we must remind societal standard-bearers that true tolerance, accurately understood, should not recognize religious convictions as quaint mythologizing under the guise of religiosity, which cannot rise above the condition of an inertly opinionated persuasion that is intended to whither with the allegedly benignly lilting winds of secularism. Sixteen hundred years ago, when delivering his homily on Psalm 91 (92), Saint Jerome, that celebrated Doctor of the Church, inquired, “Are we not able to proclaim the kindness of God at noon?” Let us hope to have that same drive, as did Mary, to bring the Lord’s love into a world starved of the witness of Christians who, like Mary, internalized the Gospel and the dogmatic principles that stem from it. Though worldly hardships, challenging lines of inquiry, and other manifestations of hesitancy to recognize the merits of the Gospel may come, we should not worry when striving to join Saint Jerome, Mary, Paul, and so many other saints who have gone before us in “[proclaiming] the kindness of God at noon,” given that “[Jesus’s] yoke is easy, and [his] burden light” (Matthew 11:30).