Catholic Group’s Star Rises Defending Religious Freedom

The lay faithful at Catholics for Freedom of Religion are a growing force in raising awareness about religious freedom and rights in the public square.

(photo: Register Files)

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. — As the battle for protecting religious liberty in the U.S. advances in the wake of Friday’s Supreme Court decision redefining marriage, a Catholic grassroots organization dedicated to promoting and defending religious liberty in the United States has expanded its reach and drawn the attention of the U.S. bishops.

With three years under its belt, the nonpartisan Catholics for Freedom of Religion (CFFR) has grown from its first chapters on Long Island to spread to Florida, South Carolina and Texas.

“Lay Catholics and Americans of other faiths don’t realize that they have a role they must play in religious freedom,” said Barbara Samuells, CFFR’s president and co-founder. “They don’t realize that, but they know things aren’t quite right, and our culture is moving in directions they don’t quite like and is becoming inimical to open religious expression.”

CFFR wants to change the conversation on religious liberty and is educating Catholics — and even non-Catholics — about their rights to express their religion in the public square.

The organization has been working closely with the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., in promoting awareness of religious liberty. Samuells said the Diocese of Rockville Centre and CFFR partnered in planning the June 25 Fortnight for Freedom Rally for Religious Freedom, where they invited professor Robert George, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, to deliver the keynote address. The event drew more than 700 participants, including representatives of the Mormon and Evangelical churches.

George told the Register that religious freedom must be “defended today with renewed vigor” and lay Catholics need to take the initiative.

“It is critically important that America’s Catholics heed our bishops’ call for activism in defense of religious liberty,” George said. “Although little noticed to the general public, there has, over the past several years, been a significant erosion of people’s freedom to act on their religiously inspired moral convictions in various domains.”

 

Growing Chapters

Lay involvement in religious freedom has been spreading. In addition to its close relationship with the Diocese of Rockville Centre, CFFR has also been welcomed into South Carolina in the Diocese of Charleston, Samuells said. It also has established a presence in New Braunfels, Texas, and set up a new chapter in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Catholics for Freedom of Religion has used a variety of tools to educate and raise awareness about religious liberty: hosting speakers, creating videos, conducting prayer events, holding an art and essay contest and distributing flyers promoting religious liberty. The group also provides weekly short bulletin items on religious freedom that any parish can use.

“What I’m finding is that as people are hearing about it — different church groups and even different churches, when I have an opportunity to talk about what we’re doing at Catholics for Freedom of Religion — the interest is remarkable,” said Carol Walters, CFFR’s state director for South Carolina.

Walters has been building up CFFR’s presence at St. Andrew in Myrtle Beach and St. James in Conway, and St. Martin de Porres in Columbia. CFFR also has a Presbyterian church on board with its mission.

“It’s an important ministry — defending freedom of religion — because without this, everything else will crumble,” she said.

A 40-page manual, available upon request from CFFR, outlines how to create chapters in parishes with the pastor’s approval.

Samuells said the CFFR has invitations to visit interested parishes in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and “will go there after we go to the World Meeting of Families in September.”

“We have a booth there and plan to share our experiences with lay leadership for religious freedom and our ‘Free to Speak’ materials,” she said.

 

Activities for Freedom

Samuells said the CFFR developed a “Free to Speak” program that has helped educate close to 20,000 students in public and Catholic schools about their rights to religious expression, particularly in public school.

“Based on the U.S. Department of Education guidelines, we teach Catholic children they may, in America’s public schools, speak and write about their faith and Jesus, may pray and read the Bible and may join other students in prayer or in Christian clubs — all at appropriate times during and after the school day,” Samuells said. 

The Diocese of Rockville Centre made it part of its confirmation class prep, in an effort to reach both Catholic public and private-school students, Samuells said. She added that Charleston Bishop Robert Guglielmone invited CFFR to implement its program there as well.

“We know if we don’t use that freedom, we don’t have it anymore,” she said, adding that the program had been developed after hearing “story after nightmare story” from parents who heard from their children that they could not talk or write about Jesus in school or give religious gifts or sayings.

“These are things that happen all the time, and most of the time we believe young children don’t even tell their parents because they think they’ve done something wrong,” Samuells said, adding the problem is that many parents think that the teachers or school administrators are right.

“They’re intimidated into leaving their faith outside the school door, and that just shouldn’t be.”

Samuells said that they are also planning to reach out to each school district where CFFR members reside, by using the public-comment period to present the Free to Speak pamphlets to those present as well as share their interest in students’ freedom of religious expression.

“We’ll ask what the school districts do to educate their administration and staff about the students’ rights to religious expression,” she said. She said in her home school district this has met with “very positive results,” with the superintendent giving examples of how he protected and encouraged lawful religious expression.

“We see this as such an important thing for parishes, dioceses and DREs (directors of religious education) to pick up and understand,” she said.

 

USCCB Recognition

As part of this year’s “Fortnight for Freedom” preparations, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, mentioned CFFR’s activities with the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

“It’s so important to have the laity involved in efforts for religious freedom,” said Hillary Byrnes, assistant general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We’re the ones who are in workplaces and have the ability to reach out to them and talk about religious freedom.”

Byrnes said that while the involvement of bishops and priests is important to teach on the subject, it is up to laity, such as those involved with CFFR, to engage society with that message.

“We here in the U.S. should not become complacent," she said, adding that Catholics must be “vigilant in regard to our religious freedom, because we serve as a beacon of hope by our example to people in other countries.”

Peter Jesserer Smith is the Register’s Washington correspondent.