April 30 - "Being Catholic Today in an Age of Challenge" Fourth Theme

Several weeks ago now I began what will be a series of columns on Being Catholic Today:  Catholic Identity in an Age of Challenge, a Pastoral Letter that Cardinal Wuerl issued on May 24, 2015.  The Cardinal identified five key themes of being a Catholic today.  I want to devote this column to the fourth theme:  Religious Liberty.
Catholic teaching presents a beautiful vision of life even as we struggle to live it and to understand it fully.  Yet Jesus did not change his message because it was difficult to understand or a hard saying.  The Church continues to be faithful to the teaching of Jesus; we are not free to change it.  Truth and freedom go hand in hand or they perish in misery.  Human freedom is not absolute autonomy to do whatever we want to do, but whatever we ought to do, and to do what is true and be who God made us to be.  Religious liberty is part of our human identity and the dignity with which we are endowed by God.  As Catholics this gift is the freedom to witness with our whole life to the truth of the Gospel.
Today there are threats to this freedom:  laws and policies are being enforced with restrict the exercise of Catholic ministries, and individuals have been threatened with lawsuits or disciplinary action for expressing Catholic teaching.  Religious liberty means that there is a limitation on the power of government; it is not within the authority of the state to intrude upon matters of faith generally and in the Church specifically.  We coexist with others, and so freedom is necessarily a shared freedom.  Invariably there will be conflicts of interest and belief, yet we must be free to protect our Catholic mission and identity.  Disagreement is not discrimination.  No Catholic institution should be denied its freedom simply because it wishes to follow the Catholic faith.
The Church has the right to recognition and protection of her true Catholic identity. To be clear on this point, among other things, as set out in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is entitled to be respected in her:

• Freedom of expression, teaching, and evangelization;
• Freedom of public worship;
• Freedom to express her moral judgment on human reality whenever it may be required to defend the fundamental rights of the person or for the salvation of souls;
• Freedom of organization and of her own internal governance;
• Freedom of selecting, educating, naming and transferring her ministers;
• Freedom of constructing religious buildings;
• Freedom to acquire and possess sufficient goods for her activity; and
• Freedom to form associations not only for religious purposes but also for educational, cultural, health care and charitable purposes (426).

The Church proposes; she imposes nothing.  She respects individuals and cultures, and she honors the sanctuary of conscience.  We simply ask for the freedom to live by that teaching ourselves.
Until next week,
Fr. John Dillon