Monday, October 1, 2012

The Need for Redemption

George Weigel on religious freedom vs. exclusive humanism. To quote:
The Catholic Church asks—and, if circumstances require, the Church demands—two things of any political community and any society.

The Church asks for free space to be itself: to evangelize, to celebrate the sacraments, and to do the works of education, charity, mercy, and justice, without undue interference from government. The Church freely concedes that the state can tell the Church to do some things: to obey the local sanitary laws in church kitchens hosting pancake breakfasts, for example. But the Church refuses to concede to the state the authority to tell the Church what to think and preach, or how to order its ministerial life and serve the needy. Moreover, the Church asks, and if necessary demands, that the state respect the sanctuary of conscience, so that the Church’s people are not required by law to do things the Church teaches are immoral.

The Church also asks any society to consider the possibility of its need for redemption. The “world” sometimes doesn’t take kindly to this suggestion, as the history of the martyrs reminds us. But overt persecution isn’t the only way the “world” resists the Church’s proposal. Societies can affect a bland indifference to the truths taught by biblical religion. Cultures can mock the moral truths taught by God’s revelation to the people of Israel and God’s self-revelation in his Son, Jesus Christ. Educational systems can inculcate an ethos of nihilism and hedonism, teaching that the only moral absolute is that there are no moral absolutes.

On both of these fronts—the political-legal front, and the social-cultural front—the Catholic Church is under assault in the United States today. Over the past four years, the federal government has made unprecedented efforts to erode religious freedom. The gravest assault was the “contraceptive mandate” issued earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: an offense to conscientious Catholic employers who believe what the Church believes about the morality of human love and the ethics of the right to life, and a frontal attack on the institutional integrity of the Church. For with the HHS mandate, the federal government seeks nothing less than to turn the Catholic Church’s charitable and medical facilities into state agencies that facilitate practices the Catholic Church believes are gravely evil.

Rather than truckle to such coercion, Catholic bishops across the country have made clear that they will, if necessary, close the Catholic medical facilities for which they are responsible—a drastic action that would seriously imperil health services for the poor. But it doesn’t have to come to that. Aggressive, hegemonic humanism need not have the last word in the United States. (Read entire post.)
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6 comments:

MadMonarchist said...

And yet, according to the most recent polls, most Catholics support Obama. Even those who attend mass regularly are fairly divided, a majority going to Romney but not a large majority. I am certainly glad the bishops have taken a stand on the religious freedom issue, but I wonder if anyone has noticed.

Given the numbers, I cannot come to any other conclusion than that most Catholics (and certainly "Catholics") do not care at all what the bishops say, do not think they have any credibility OR they are simply weighing what they are saying now against what they have said for years such as calling for greater "social justice", opposing enforcement of the immigration laws, calling for dialogue with Iran, calling for universal healthcare, saying that private property is not an absolute right, opposing any cuts in welfare spending and etc.

If I were just going on what comes out of the USCCB I would probably be thoroughly confused or inclined to vote for Obama too. Of course, I'm not discounting the many other factors, one being the unfailing success of the Republican Party in always picking the one I consider the worst possible candidate...

elena maria vidal said...

The problem is that most of these moral issues were never taught from the pulpit in most parishes. Humanae Vitae was never taught. All of a sudden Catholics are expected to be heroic for their faith but it is hard to be heroic after years of breaking the sixth commandment. The bishops should not close down any medical facilities. Keep them open. Make the government close them down at gun point.

May said...

I don't know how I am going to get through the next month, worrying about what will happen to the unborn, to religious liberty and the country as a whole if this outrageous president is re-elected. I am trying to practice detachment and remind myself that God is always in control, but it's not working very well.

julygirl said...

Matterhorn; God is in control of OUR personal lives when we open ourselves to Him and live in conformity and uniformity with His will. The World, however, is another matter. It is subject to other forces, and people who are wolves in sheep's clothing and who do not conform to God's will. There are powerful forces of evil rampant in the world today and we must pray unceasingly for our Country and its leaders.

elena maria vidal said...

Matterhorn, I struggle with the same feelings. Yes, July, all we can do is pray and try to take a public stand for life.

May said...

July, I just meant that God is able to draw good even out of evil. Not that there are not powerful dark forces at large...