Catholic. American. Proud to be Both

Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:34 AM

Worried about the direction of the country and don’t know what to do about it?

How about a two week national “revival” movement of prayer and patriotism, to cover the country in grace and re-dedicate ourselves to the basic liberties enshrined in the Declaration and Bill of Rights?

Right, Left, Center or Undecided, any person of good will can take part with pride in the Fortnight for Freedom.

The presenting occasion for this initiative from our US Bishops is the HHS contraceptive mandate.

But as their statement Our First, Most Cherished Liberty enumerates, that rule is only the latest in a stream of national, state and local infringements on the free exercise of religion which is both a human right and our birthright as Americans.

It’s a very Catholic, very Christian, thing to do: to dedicate a period of prayer, fasting and meditation on a theme.

That’s why the Fortnight begins on June 22, feasts of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, who died rather than deny their faith.

It’s a very American thing to do: to exercise our rights to free speech, freedom of assembly and free exercise of religion in an especially conscious way as we prepare to celebrate our independence July 4th.

For prayers, educational resources, ideas and a list of all the dioceses throughout the country sponsoring special events, go to fortnight4freedom.org.

Need even more practical ideas for observing the Fortnight? Simcha Fisher’s take is here.  And my CNA column this week offers 18 Ways to Defend Religious Liberty.

At a more theoretical level, I’m reminded of two speeches.

One of Abraham Lincoln’s earliest political addresses was his lecture at the Young Men’s Lyceum. 

A few weeks prior to his arrival, a terrible lynching had occurred in St. Louis and Lincoln takes the occasion to talk about the rule of law and how mob rule is not a threat only to a specific victim, but an attack on the entire body politic because it undermines respect for the law.

In a particularly lovely and important passage, he reflects on how we as a nation are to preserve the liberties of the revolution.

Freedom doesn’t just “happen” on its own.

If it did, the United States would not be the first nation in history founded on the idea of the dignity of the human person rather than on birth into a tribe or clan.

The first Americans were zealous in repelling any infringement on their liberties because they’d fought a revolution to win them, endured a decade of weakness under the Articles of Confederation and vigorously debated the elements of the Constitution. The “point” of the Declaration and Constitution was fresh in everyone’s minds. Every household practically had a battle scarred veteran to remind it.

But already in 1838 Lincoln sensed that memory and intellectual vigor slipping—as it must.

At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother, a living history was to be found in every family—a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related—a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.—But those histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but, what invading foeman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done; the leveling of its walls.

How does a nation maintain its commitment to an idea when the heroes who championed it have passed and the passions that invigorated the original debate have cooled?

They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.—Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last;

In other words, just as the Founders mutually pledged “their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honors” to give birth to a free nation, in order to keep it, subsequent generations of citizens must each take it as a duty and mutual commitment to study and understand their inheritance—to keep the memory alive—and to be moral persons, because the kind of liberty we enjoy as Americans depends upon the trustworthiness and honor of the individual citizen.

Benedict XVI made a parallel point in a meeting with Croatian politicians during a recent visit.

Addressing the desire of secularizing forces to deny the Christian roots of Europe, the Pope made the observation that eradicating any mention of Christianity is not only flat-out dishonest, it’s a short route to destroying Europe itself.

Why?

Because good and noble institutions don’t preserve themselves. We need cultural memory to understand how and why those institutions came to be. Do people become educated simply by spending time in a building called a university, irrespective of what goes on there? Or is there an inner dynamism and logic that creates a university? 

We need to be reminded of these origins, not least for the sake of historical truth, and it is important that we understand these roots properly, so that they can feed the present day too. It is crucial to grasp the inner dynamic of an event such as the birth of a university, of an artistic movement, or of a hospital. It is necessary to understand the why and the how of what took place, in order to recognize the value of this dynamic in the present day, as a spiritual reality that takes on a cultural and therefore a social dimension. At the heart of all these institutions are men and women, persons, consciences, moved by the power of truth and good.

What both Benedict and Lincoln are observing is that civilizations and cultures are fragile and last only so long as the individuals within them internalize, cherish and practice their ideals.

We aren’t Christian because we were born into a Christian family. We’re Christian when we love Jesus and try to keep his commandments.

We aren’t free because we say we are or because our great-great-great-great-grandparents were. We’re free if we believe and act in the way it takes to maintain freedom.

So: a Fortnight for Freedom.  Two weeks to pray and sacrifice and educate and celebrate for what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom” that is available for the claiming in every generation.

 

 

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