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WASHINGTON — The Fortnight for Freedom began with burning questions about whether an urgent threat to religious freedom would be removed by an immanent Supreme Court ruling.
But the two-week period of prayer, fasting, public action and study closed with that threat still present: The high court upheld the constitutionality of disputed elements of the Affordable Care Act, which authorized the “contraception mandate" opposed by the U.S. bishops as “unacceptable.”
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, the fortnight, an initiative of the U.S. bishops’ conference, appeared even more critical as the Church sustains the First Amendment battle over the months and years ahead, as legal challenges to the contraception mandate wend their way through the courts.
On the 4th of July, the Church's resolve to stay the course was affirmed at the closing Mass for the fortnight at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception celebrated by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington and featuring a homily delivered by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia — two leading figures in the battle for religious liberty.
Thousands of Catholics from the Washington-metro area, Baltimore and Philadelphia filled the huge Basilica and spilled out beyond its doors. The enthusiastic congregation repeatedly gave standing ovations to Church leaders, and applauded the service of local priests, women religious and seminarians.
Rico Estrada, a Nicaraguan immigrant who recently retired from the military, expressed the diverse congregation's palable sense of unity with the U.S. bishops.
"These values are non-negotiable: freedom, marriage between a man and woman and life," Estrada, a Shrine parishioner, told the Register.
Standing in the packed aisles after giving up his seat to a late arrival, Estrada applauded when the papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, read a message from the Holy See for the occasion.
"Conscious of the grave challenges of the present moment, the Holy Father encourages the American Catholic community, and young people in particular, to continue to bring the wisdom and insight born of their faith to the task of building a society worthy of America's highest moral and constitutional principles," the message said.
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, spoke briefly at the Mass, and urged Catholics to stay focused on the defense and preservation of religious freedom. He asked them tosubscribe to receive text message updates on religious freedom issues by texting "Freedom" to 377377.
In his homily, Archbishop Chaput cited passages from the day’s scriptural readings to remind both the congregation that filled the shrine and a national television audience that the court’s ruling did not change perennial truths about whether believers owe their primary allegiance to God or the state and why religious liberty remains the “first freedom” in any just society.
“Most of us know today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew. What we should, or should not, render unto Caesar shapes much of our daily discourse as citizens. But I want to focus on the other and more important point Jesus makes in today’s Gospel reading: the things we should render unto God,” said Archbishop Chaput, in a reference to Matthew 22:15-21.
“The point of today’s Gospel passage is not how we might calculate a fair division of goods between Caesar and God. In reality, it all belongs to God, and nothing — at least nothing permanent and important — belongs to Caesar. Why? Because just as the coin bears the stamp of Caesar’s image, we bear the stamp of God’s image in baptism. We belong to God and only to God.”
If the faithful owe God and his laws ultimate allegiance — even as they fulfill proper duties of citizenship — then they must be free to worship him and follow his laws, said the archbishop, who also cited 1 Timothy 6:6-11 and its reflection on the nature and purpose of human freedom.
“This is the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. It’s the freedom of Miguel Pro, Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and all the other holy women and men who have gone before us to do the right thing, the heroic thing, in the face of suffering and adversity,” he noted.
“This is the kind of freedom that can transform the world. And it should animate all of our talk about liberty — religious or otherwise.”
An Anxious Church
The homily offered a reprieve from recent headlines that left many of the faithful shaken and anxious about whether the Church would ultimately prevail in its battle to overturn the federal law requiring virtually all private employers, including Catholic social agencies, universities and hospitals, to provide co-pay-free contraception, abortion drugs and sterilization in their health plans.
The fortnight provided a spiritual framework for addressing the political challenge, affirming the need for common prayer and action.
Those who participated in fortnight activities throughout the country learned that they are fighting for the soul of a nation that has been a beacon of liberty and a haven for persecuted people from around the globe. Further, believers have been reminded that the experience of U.S. Catholics inspired the Second Vatican Council’s document on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae.
Faced with a new political context, the faithful pondered the lessons of the past, when their forbears experienced religious persecution in this land, with state laws banning Catholics from elected office.
In Washington, where the U.S. Supreme Court and elected officials routinely weigh the proper allegiance owed to Caesar in church-state contests, fortnight activities included lay-organized educational programs and a “Celebration of Freedom” spearheaded by the archdiocese that drew about 2,000 Catholics.
“The Fortnight for Freedom is … a time for us to count our many blessings. The greatest gift humanity has received is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who through his life, death and resurrection brings us eternal life,” Cardinal Wuerl said during his address before an assembly that included the papal nuncio, archdiocesan leaders and staff, students and people served by Church social programs.
“How do we come to know and encounter Jesus today? There is only one living witness to the Lord Jesus, only one witness who can say, ‘I was there when Jesus died, when he rose, when he ascended into heaven and when he sent the gift of the Spirit on us.‘ That one remaining living witness is Christ’s body, his Church.”
During an engaging two-hour program that highlighted the contributions of religious orders and parochial schools, Catholic Charities and pro-life organizations, the cardinal affirmed Catholics’ right to serve the common good in accordance with their religious beliefs.
Acknowledging the particular challenge of addressing such issues during an election year, Father William Byrne, the diocesan priest who helped organize the event, told the assembled Catholics to “check your politics at the door.”
The Celebration of Freedom offered Benediction and hymns led by a parish choir; it was clearly designed to bridge the partisan divide plainly on view since the contraception mandate was approved by Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a cradle Catholic who graduated from a Catholic college in the District of Columbia. This May, after learning that Sebelius had been invited to speak at a Georgetown University graduation event, the archdiocese issued statements that questioned whether the Jesuit university could still call itself Catholic.
‘The Only Question That Matters’
Indeed, the battle against the HHS mandate has forced local Catholics in a deeply politicized part of the world to reassess their political loyalties and exposed fissures within parishes.
While a number of local Catholic plaintiffs, including Catholic Charities, have challenged the HHS mandate in court, media coverage has featured attacks on the bishops’ crusade from skeptics in the pews. These Catholic critics assert that the federal law poses no serious threat to believers.
During the celebration, however, a film produced by the archdiocese challenged such complacency. The film documented the arrival of Catholics fleeing persecution in England and traced the development of anti-Catholic bigotry on these shores. The archdiocese plans to make the film available to the public through a website, built to share and identify resources on the issue.
Meanwhile, the nuncio’s attendance at the June 24 Celebration event, and at the closing mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, reminded local Catholics that Pope Benedict XVI shared their concern about emerging threats to religious liberty in the “land of the free.” When the U.S. bishops participated in their ad limina visits to the Vatican during the past year, the Pope repeatedly stressed the need to defend religious freedom amid rising secularism in the West and fears that the United States will ignore the rights of religous minorities abroad.
The fortnight, then, served as an opportunity to clarify the clear and present danger now facing religious believers throughout the world. But, even more important, Church leaders wanted to remind their flock that there is no easy solution. Even if the Supreme Court had overturned the Affordable Care Act, and thus the contraception mandate, Catholics can expect to witness future threats in the years and decades ahead.
Yet, at the National Shrine on the Fourth of July, Archbishop Chaput told the congregation that “the political and legal effort to defend religious liberty — as vital as it is — belongs to a much greater struggle to master and convert our own hearts and to live for God completely, without alibis or self-delusion."
“The only question that finally matters,” he concluded, “is this one: Will we live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ? If so, then we can be a source of freedom for the world. If not, nothing else will do.”
Joan Frawley Desmond is the Register’s senior editor.
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Need to remind people of what BP Lori said : Text 377377 to stay in touch with Fortnight for Freedom
God bless America! May Religious Liberty always prevail.
Cannot access the link to the homily of Archbishop Chaput in the above article. Please advise. Thank you.
The website from Cardinal Wuerl is www . sacredproperty . org, not in the plural.
So with every priest in EVERY Congregation trying to get out the people for 2 Weeks…
What do we see?
A Few Thousand in the Streets at the Capitol… A Few HUNDRED elsewhere.. All during Good Weather and Holidays (When one would expect the masses could easily attend)..
Compare that to say… OWS.. With Tens of Thousands CAMPING IN EXTREME COLD for weeks at a time.. Or the what HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS Protesting in Wisconsin.. again in Extreme Cold..
Sorry to break it to you guys.. This Fortnight for Freedom Stuff… A Complete and Utter Failure. It has shown just how weak your message even within your own flock really is. Good luck.
We see what happens when courts interpret ‘the letter of the law’...!!! ‘The spirit of the law’ and the means by which this law was enacted is evidence enough that the law supports government power to rule rather than individual freedom…this is not the health care reform we need, but government wanting to decide health care issues…the state above the individual…!!!
This is the land of the free and our constitution is violated by people in the White House. How can we resolve this issue? We have to put people who have strong Christian belief in order to alleviate this issue. As Catholics we will experience pain and suffering, however, this is the battle about principalities where the devil takes it course to deceive us again and again.
This coming November 6, 2012 is election day and all of us should be on the same page when we stroke our pen on the polling place where we change the coarse of history of this country “under God.”
I was very impressed with all that took place at the fortnight Mass yesterday. Our work is not finished. It must go on unil the government decides to give up it was on religious freedom. What is our plan for the future ? I propose now is the time for the Church to help Caholics formulate their consciences regarding voting in accordance with principles established by the Magisterium of the Church. In my opinion this was not done widely in 2008 and we are living with the results now.A long time ago when I grew up in the Church there was no doubt about what one had to believe. Doctrines were well defined and enforced through frequent confessions. Now it seems that the Church is backing away from that obligation and more or less with a wink and a nod saying we do have doctrines but you can have a wide range of options to believe or not believe depending upon how you make up your conscience. Many more people go to communion now with what seems like a disproportionate number waiting on the confession line. Now there is less opportunity for the clergy to assist in conscience formation. Things have changed over the past forty yerars and I an sure that I have contributd to this deterioration by my share of indifference. Some people believe they can support evil such as murder of the unborn in the womb if a candidate for public office ofers pocketbook improvement to that individual or improvement in social standing to a particular social class. Here where people must balance good and evil is where the faithful could use guidance from the Magisterium. I have been taught that one can not endorse evil even if it produces a good conclusion. It was expressed that “the end does not justify the means”. It is fair to say that ststistics combine fallenaway Catholics with faithful Catholics to produce a disturbing impression of religious deterioration in the Church. The government uses this fact to our disadvantage in dealing with our Bishops. I believe we will need the hand of God to help us win this unfair battle with a strong government
Gani we had President Bush is a good Christian and look what he did with our country. He started immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where we lost nearly 5,000 of our kids, not to mention the thousands of Iraqi civilians who died. He left our country in financial shambles for President Obama to clean up. President Obama stated when he won in 2008 that it would take more than his 4 years to clean up the mess. And now you want to place another good Christian albeit a Mormon, Mitt Romney into the White House who could care less about the working poor and the middle class. God help us if Romney becomes president
Truthsayer,
You seem to be unfamiliar with what happened to Gideon since you equate right with might
You might want to go back & read about his experience in the Hebrew testament.
Sorry to break it to you but God is never concerned with numbers
GB… I am not equating Right With Might
We are after all a Democracy… And Numbers matter.. I will not be voting in your Favor.. As The Majority of this Nation (Which uses Contraception Incidentally BTW) will not. This is a Losing Issue for you.. You would lose in the courts (They would not see you trying to force your Beliefs down our throats as Constitutional After all) so you try Public Opinion… POLITICS… But you have no real support there either. This was a fight not worth fighting. A Fight that can only hurt you.. Better to focus more on the PR Disaster that is the Priest Abuse Scandal.. See with the Churches handling of that (or NON Handling for Decades Rather), we simply do not think the Roman Catholic Church has any Business preaching Morality to anyone.
And this is not about Right with Might.. this is about the Peoples WILL, something even the Vatican can not stop.. Remember the Protestant Reformation (While we are on the History Lessons)?
For more than a Thousand years the Catholic Church has LIVED by the Right With Might mantra.. Inquisitions… Burnings at the Stake… Holy Wars… And on and on and on .. What about their Behavior during that whole Protestant Reformation thing I mentioned?
It is not I that has pretty much Made Right With Might the Cornerstone of my Existence. I simply believe in a FREE and FAIR Democratic Society.. that the PEOPLE not the CHURCH choose the laws of the Nation and what BUSINESS can or can not discriminate on.
@Truthsayer
“We are after all a Democracy…”
Hmmm, I thought Benjamin Franklin say we have a “Republic.” But what does he know?
@Truthsayer
“This is a Losing Issue for you.. You would lose in the courts (They would not see you trying to force your Beliefs down our throats as Constitutional After all)”
Hmmmm, again. I thought it was government trying to force its beliefs down the throats of the Catholic Church.
@ Ceci Castillo: So, you are one of the whiners … what did Obama did? He promised everything just to get your vote – however, I didn’t vote for him; I know he has no managerial skill to govern this country. What if we didn’t go to war in Iraq? What then? We have intelligence that advise our president with respect to day to day activity on that region, and based on that intelligence President Bush made his decision.
@truthsayer—what is your basis when you said … “majority of this nation is using contraceptive pills?” Where is your basis – show me the data? It is easy for you to rebut something, but you have to support your contention with respect to this issue. If you are not a practicing Christian, you support abortion and contraception as simple as that. However, if you stand your ground, you are a strong believer.
@Truthsayer
“...so you try Public Opinion… POLITICS…”
Wow, and I thought they were educating their flocks on a spiritual matter, which they have the right to do under the First Amendment of freedom of religion, not “freedom of worship” as this administration is trying to redefine.
How silly of me. I can’t believe I’m making that many mistakes about this Fortnight For Freedom.
@Truthsayer
“I simply believe in a FREE and FAIR Democratic Society.. that the PEOPLE not the CHURCH choose the laws of the Nation and what BUSINESS can or can not discriminate on.”
Hmmm, and I thought we live by the laws that are constitutional. Seems to me “free and fair” are what the Church is having to fight for. Free to practice its religious beliefs without interference from the government. You know, that restrictive First Amendment of freedom on religion that we’ve had since 1787 that prevents the state from telling religion what they can believe or do? And what’s fair about government about a President mandating businesses give away their products for free? And how is government going to prove that those mandated businesses aren’t passing their cost on to other products of theirs for sale?
Hmmm. There is so much I thought I knew, but obviously - don’t according to “Thruthsayer.” How could I even argue about it with a person with the self-assigned name of “Thruthsayer?”
GB - you really don’t get it! Pray for the Holy Spirit to remove hatred from your heart and realize that this issue is about religious liberty. And let me paraphrase Jerry Falwell, former Baptist Minister and Preacher: “if the Catholic Church falls in the spiritual battles of pornography, the agenda of militant homosexuals, same-sex marriage, and beyond, then all of Christianity will fall. In this case, Freedom of Religion, has really helped to unify Catholic laity but unify all of Christianity as well as Judaism. So, GB, I will pray for you that you would receive the gift of humility and be delivered from the spirit of hatred and resentment.
Have it your way Gani. So what if 5,000 of our kids and thousands of Iraqis get killed just so long as your beloved President Bush looks so good. You bet I voted for Obama and I plan on voting for him again because he is more Christian at heart than many of the posters on this board. Yes abortion is an abomination but so is poverty, hunger and war. Roe vs Wade was passed while Richard Nixon, a Republican was in office in 1972. I didn’t see him do anything about it. I didn’t see Republican Ronald Reagan, try to get it overturned nor Republican Bush senior or Republican Bush Junior all who professed to be “pro-life” and if you think everything is going to be hunky dorry if Romney becomes president. Think again. He is a devout Mormon who believes that abortion is ok if the woman was raped, or her life is in danger from the pregnancy. I understand that is called PRO-CHOICE.
CeCi is illustrating why it is useless trying to talk to a liberal. Now you can understand why it is so difficult to get Congressional Democrats to compromise with Republicans in Congress. This closed mindedness is epidemic in the party I used to belong to. I left the Democrat Party I was raised in in south Chicago realizing that if they don’t know when life begins, than all the money they scream they need for education is throwing it down the drain. CeCi cries about our military losses in Iraq and thinks it’s happening because President Bush wanted to look good. She is getting egos of Presidents confused, it’s Obama who needs to look good - that’s why he brags about murdering bin Laden, and steals the spot light a year later on the diversionary. Something that never could have happen if it weren’t for the methods used to get the intelligence that led to the raid on his compound. She and Catholic Democrats like her, assuming she is a Catholic (and God help the Church if she is), have such bleeding hearts for the poor, but I bet she doesn’t accept that her beloved Obama is responsible for more people being poor and on food stamps, for a longer period of time than any President since the last Democrat President to screw up the economy so bad - Franklin D. Roosevelt. Nor does she care because he - is - a - Democrat - and - Democrats - have - hearts - for - the - poor - that - is - why - they - work - so - hard - to - make - so - many - more - people - poor - so - they - can - help - them. They care, don’t you know, they always tell us that. How is it “caring” to close down the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico in violation of a Federal Court, and denied the building of the Keystone XL pipeline from our neighbors to the north, and are setting regulations that are forcing coal mining and coal electric plants to shut down, increasing the cost of gasoline to be two to three times the cost on the day he took over, and worst of all, lied to Americans saying he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $200,000 per year when his Affordable Care Act (what a phony name - but that’s the Democrats for you) is going to force increased taxes on all of us, of which 75% will be paid by people making less than $120,000; he lied about our being able to keep our doctors if we liked them - I get sick just thinking of that lying piece of manure being nothing more than a South American dictator, and there are people in this country like CeCi. That should really prove how awful our educational system has become.
Hi Ceci! Please believe that abortion is a crime. And if you want that Pres Barack Obama will be re-elected, please urge him to issue this mandate: STOP KILLING THE UNBORN.
TO MANY OF THOSE POSTING:
ALL I READ IS A BUNCH OF FINGER POINTING WITH NO DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANY OF THE ISSUES BROUGHT UP. I CAN ONLY GUESS YOUR SOURCE OF INFORMATION BECAUSE YOUR STRONG BIAS AND YOUR WEAK KNOWLEDGE OF THE FACTS. SOME OF YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS - ABOUT IRAQ AND BUSH, ABOUT OBAMA, ABOUT ROMNEY, ETC, AND HAVING BEEN IN THE MILITARY WITH A HIGH SECURITY CLEARANCE, YOU DON’T KNOW SQUAT IF YOU AREN’T INVOLVED IN THE BRIEFINGS. WAR, POVERTY, AND HUNGER ARE NOT AN ABOMINATION BEFORE GOD, THEY ARE A RESULT OF GREED, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND EVIL MOTIVES ON THE PART OF AT LEAST ONE SIDE, MAYBE BOTH. ABORTION, HOMOSEXUALITY, SAME SEX MARRIAGE, PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION, AND THE ATTEMPTS AT CLONING ARE ABOMINATIONS BEFORE A MERCIFUL BUT A JUST GOD, THAT SOON WILL SHOW HIS ANGER, HIS JUSTICE, AND HIS POWER. SO, STOP POINTING FINGERS AND SPOUTING OFF ABOUT ISSUES THAT YOU ARE NOT TRULY INFORMED ABOUT, AND START PRAYING FOR OUR LEADERS, OUR COUNTRY, AND FOR ALL OF US TO BE GIFTED WITH HUMILITY AND LOVE FOR EVEN OUR ENEMIES. THAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND OF THE BIBLE IN GENERAL. ANGER, PRIDE, SELFISHNESS, AND IMMATURE FINGER POINTING ARE AT THE ROOT OF ALL CONFLICTS, WHETHER THEY BE WARS OR CONFLICTS WITHIN FAMILIES. WE ALL NEED TO START BY LOOKING IN THE MIRROR - AND LOOKING DEEP TO SEE IF THERE IS ANY SELF-LOVE, WITHOUT WHICH ONE CANNOT LOVE AT ALL.
GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!
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