It was a subtle change probably few even noticed, but it
is the kind of thing that gets put in a footnote, or in a court brief, that
seems harmless enough at the time to go unnoticed until a future date when it
can be recalled or referenced to justify a position you would otherwise never
support.
I’m talking about the recent change made by the USCCB to
now refer to what was for years the Fortnight
for Freedom, a time of dedication to prayer for the threatened state of
religious freedom in this country. This
year the leaders of the Church in the United States, in their great wisdom,
have cut the period of prayer in half and renamed it the Week of Religious Liberty.
I don’t mind putting a fresh face on some things and I
understand that it is some person’s job to come up with clever marketing ploys
to get people’s attention. However,
there is a big difference between freedom and liberty we should all pay close
attention to.
God has not given us liberty but freedom, the free will
to choose whether to obey or not to obey.
But he did not give us the liberty to do whatever we want. Hopefully it is His will that we choose and
not a will contrary to His commands.
Freedom to believe and act as God has
commanded us
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I attended a funeral recently of a person who belonged to
our parish. He was a convert and his family
was not Catholic. At the grave site, our
pastor allowed his grieving brother to speak about his one and only sibling. The brother was clearly sorrowful and he wanted
to say the nicest things about his brother he could think of. He said at one point, “If my brother could
speak to us all right now he would say, “Do whatever makes you happy as long as
it does not hurt anyone else.“
I cringed when I heard him say this because I know his
brother would not have said any such thing.
None of us is at liberty to do as we please, because even when no harm
appears to be done to another, the worst kind of harm may be done to our soul
because God who knows and sees all that we do.
When it comes to the phrase “religious liberty” I also
cringe because we are not at liberty to choose just any religion, but only the
one given to us by God himself. None
other is acceptable and the idea that they are is the child of indifference
which Pope Leo XIII so often warned us against.
When we pray for an end to the liberal bias against our
religion, remember it is freedom to worship as God would have us do whereas
liberty of religion is a dangerous concept.
A good litmus test for all organizations is the word
"International" It should be a red flag for all of us.
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The mission statement on the webpage for the
International Religious Liberty Association says this:
“The
International Religious Liberty Association will disseminate the principles of
religious liberty throughout the world; defend and safeguard the civil right of
all people to worship or not to worship,
to adopt a religion or belief of their choice, to manifest their religious
convictions in observance, promulgation, and teaching, subject only to the
respect for the equivalent rights of others; support the right of religious
organizations to operate freely in every country by their establishing and
owning charitable or educational institutions; and organize local, regional,
and national chapters as well as seminars, and congresses.”
If that sounds harmless then imagine it
applies equally to Catholics and Satanists, and to Scientology, a well known cult. Are we so sure we want to promote the liberty
of every group that defines itself as a religion? How about the liberty to mutilate the
genitals of little girls? How about the
liberty to offer animal sacrifices?
I’m not sure why the USCCB
decided to jump ship on the word freedom and opt for liberty, but I think it
was short sighted to say the least.
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