Charles Chaput, the archbishop of Philadelphia, delivered an address at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on March, 17 2015 on the topic Of Human Dignity. The text of that speech is available at First Things.
He begins by talking about the Church's teaching about Religious freedom and ties it to the enlightenment and to the Church's early history. He says:
To put it another way: Early Christians weren't hated because they were religious. They were hated because they weren't religious enough. They weren't killed because they believed in God. They were killed because they didn't believe in the authentic gods of the city and empire. In their impiety, they invited the anger of heaven. They also threatened the well-being of everyone else, including the state. The emperor Marcus Aurelius—one of history’s great men of intellect and character—hated the Christian cult. He persecuted Christians not for their faith, but for what he saw as their blasphemy. In refusing to honor the traditional gods, they attacked the security of the state.
He then begins to talk about the second Vatican Council and its' document (Dignitatis Humanae) on religious freedom saying:
To put it another way, Dignitatis Humanae is not just about freedom from coercion. It’s also about freedom for the truth. The issue of truth is too easily overlooked.
He then talks about the issues of our own time. He says:
The biggest problem we face as a culture isn’t gay marriage or global warming. It’s not abortion funding or the federal debt. These are vital issues, clearly. But the deeper problem, the one that’s crippling us, is that we use words like justice, rights, freedom and dignity without any commonly shared meaning to their content.
This speech is extremely important in our day. You should read it.
Fr Robert Barron has a review of the recent live-action movie about Cinderella at ChurchPop.
He begins:
Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” is the most surprising Hollywood movie of the year so far.
I say this because the director manages to tells the familiar fairy tale without irony, hyper-feminist sub-plots, Marxist insinuations, deconstructionist cynicism, or arch condescension. In so doing, he actually allows the spiritual, indeed specifically Christian, character of the tale to emerge.
It is a review well worth reading.
Donald Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, DC, has a blog post regarding new challenges to the Church posed by those who would silence the Church. He writes:
The Church presents a splendid vision for life. Yet, we also struggle to live it. The tension between what we know we should do and what we actually do is something referred to as the “human condition.” Nonetheless, we are called to strive to reach our potential, to manifest our faith in our actions. This is particularly true for those who minister in the name of the Church and teach and provide charitable and social services on behalf of the Church.
But today there is a new challenge. Some who reject the Church’s teaching – who choose to live by another set of values – not only find the voice of Christian values annoying, they would like to see it silenced or at least muted. Thus we have a whole new upside down version of words like “discrimination,” “freedom” and “human rights,” and laws to enforce the new meaning.
He points specifically to recent legislation in DC that would:
deprive the Church of its right to ensure that those whom it entrusts to carry out its mission are faithful to its teachings on human life and sexuality.
This action by the government of DC is more egregious than the campaign in the Bay Area against the archbishop of San Francisco because it involves the laws governing the District of Columbia acting against the Church. It is similar to the move last year or the year before to outlaw circumcision in the Bay Area, essentially outlawing Judaism.
Both situations are very troubling in America. All Americans, not just Catholics, should be deeply concerned for this turn of events.
Cardinal Wuerl closes by saying:
But there is even more. This Lent we all need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to stand up for our beliefs and to speak up on behalf of our schools, parishes and charities.
Yes, Lent is always a time of renewed conviction and deepened faith. This Lent is also a time when we have to deepen our courage not just to hold to what we believe but to be able to speak up on behalf of that faith.
You'll want to read his entire post.
