Address on Religious Liberty
August 27, 2022
Catholic War Veterans Convention
Remembering Those Who Sacrificed for our Freedoms
Let me once again welcome you to the City of Baltimore and to the Archdiocese. I hope your meetings were productive and your visit here entirely pleasant.
I also want to reiterate my gratitude to you for your service to our country. In defending these United States, you also defend its values, and the freedoms which are embedded in its founding documents, chief among them, religious liberty. Many of you have risked your lives to defend our rights and liberties and many of your compatriots have made the ultimate sacrifice for them. Yet, today many have forgotten the lessons of history, even recent history. Far too many either never knew or no longer remember the struggles of the 20th C to protect our fundamental liberties against aggressive regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan, and later on the Soviet Union. Few have taken stock of the atrocities that society is capable of when God and religion are either marginalized or excluded. Few remember the sacrifices made by so many to protect fundamental human liberties both at home and abroad. This night, we reverently recall their sacrifices.
Pope Francis has spoken eloquently of the importance of religious freedom. He has championed the cause of victims of religious persecution whether in the Middle East, Africa, or parts of Asia. He has also spoken against the more subtle forms of religious persecution in the West, what he termed “the polite persecution” of the West, a persecution of believers that goes on just under the surface of society but which is emerging more and more boldly with the passage of time. But to tell the truth, many people of good will, including Catholics, do not think that religious freedom is threatened in the United States. After all, our churches remain open; our institutions continue to function; and on the surface it doesn’t seem as though much has changed. But threats to religious freedom are real and we need to be aware of them, and we need to address them as individuals and as a community of faith.
The Premier See and Religious Liberty
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the first Catholic Diocese in the United States. Founded in 1789, it is at the very heart of the American democratic experiment in which the God-given gift of religious liberty is recognized and protected. As you know, the First Amendment has two parts: the first prevents the government from establishing a single national religion, and the second guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion – not simply freedom of worship but indeed the freedom of believers to influence the culture, to establish and run institutions like schools and hospitals, and to do so in accord with our religious beliefs and moral teachings.
The American colonists chose to break with England for many reasons, but among them was a deep desire for religious freedom, a freedom which they understood to be granted by God and not by the government. The nation’s first bishop, John Carroll, hailed from a distinguished Maryland family. His cousin, Charles Carroll was a prominent and wealthy Marylander, and the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Although the Carroll’s were wealthy and distinguished, they were not exempt from the unjust legal restrictions that Maryland colonial law imposed on its Catholic citizens in the 18th century. Among them was a prohibition against Catholics holding public office. Nonetheless, Charles Carroll was active in colonial politics and he recognized early on that only independence from the British crown would bring about the dawn of authentic religious and civic freedom in America. He risked his life, family, and property in supporting the revolutionary cause. He did so, and I quote: “to obtain religious as well as civil liberty” – and he added – “God grant this religious liberty may be preserved in these states to the end of time.”
Sadly, the history of our country is replete with anti-Catholic attacks. We have only to think of the Know Nothing Party, the Blaine Amendments, efforts to outlaw Catholic schools in Oregon, the Klu Klux Klan, and the like. Indeed, anti-Catholicism is quite evident in our culture today. Think, for example, of the violence directed against Catholic churches in the wake of the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court. Many criticize the Church’s hierarchical structure and moral teaching not only as being out of step with the culture but also as repressive and discriminatory. Sometimes the polite religious persecution of the West isn’t very polite!
By contrast, the 9th Archbishop of Baltimore, James Cardinal Gibbons, championed the view that it is indeed possible to be a loyal citizen and a good Catholic. Serving as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 until 1921, he defended this proposition against the anti-Catholic attitudes of his day and also, against Old World suspicions of pluralistic democratic government. Named a Cardinal in 1886, he came to Rome to take possession of his titular Church, Santa Maria in Trastevere, located on a site where it is said that Christians worshipped since the 3rd century. There Gibbons said this: “For myself, as a citizen of the United States, without closing my eyes to our defects as a nation, I proclaim with a deep sense of pride and gratitude … that I belong to a country where the civil government holds over us the aegis of its protection without interfering in the legitimate exercise of our sublime mission as ministers of the Gospel of Christ.”
Gibbons understood that the American experiment was not perfect but he championed the view that our form of government protected the God-given gift of religious freedom and respected the role of churches in buttressing the moral underpinnings of democracy, especially the right use of freedom, so essential for true human flourishing. By preaching and worship, as also by organized programs of charity and education, churches point to the fact that, although we live in a secular culture, we human beings and our freedoms have a transcendent origin and destiny, and that, as free citizens, we are obliged to seek the truth and to be formed in virtue. But today, the vision of our founding Fathers and Gibbons’ own keen understanding as to how to actualize that vision is relentlessly challenged by an overarching secularism that seeks to marginalize religion, to silence its voice in the public square, and to force its institutions to conform to secular orthodoxy. And let’s be honest: it has become possible to challenge religious freedom in this way because so many have marginalized religious faith in their own personal lives. Catholics and others who no longer practice their faith contribute to the decline of religious freedom and the marginalization of religion.
Religious Liberty and the Common Good
Secularists marginalize religion by reducing religious freedom to freedom of worship. Now, the freedom to worship God as we see fit is vitally important, but the right to the free exercise of religion includes more than worship. After all, our faith prompts us not only to worship, and not only to help fellow parishioners who are in need, but also to serve the common good of society and those in our society are in most need, whether or not they share our faith. This happens every day in Catholic charitable organizations, in Catholic healthcare, in our inner-city Catholic schools, and much more. But some very powerful forces in our culture try to tell us that the moment we step beyond the walls of our churches, seeking to serve the common good or to influence public opinion then the activities of our Church are in fact “secular” and we are told that we must play by secular rules – the rules that would sometimes compel us to violate our own teaching and belief.
But the responsibility of individual Christians and of the whole Christian community to love our neighbors as God has loved us is at the very heart of the Gospel. From the very beginning, the Church has responded to this Gospel mandate by means of organized charities–pooling resources and sharing them with the needy. Affirming the human dignity of all, but most especially of the vulnerable, and serving the common good of society–this is not a secular “add-on” to church activity but rather flows from our life of faith and worship. What we believe and how we worship, gives rise to “a charity that evangelizes”. whether it is person-to-person, or the charity of Catholic institutions of service, or our advocacy in the public square for a just and peaceful society.
Affirming the dignity of individuals and serving the common good is achieved when persons are given the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential, to flourish physically, socially, and yes, spiritually and religiously. Government has a role to play in bringing about these conditions, not only by providing safety net programs but also by protecting our freedoms. But government is not and should not be the only or even the main actor in society. What is often overlooked is the role of intermediate structures that help promote the common good, the conditions for human flourishing. These include the family, churches, schools, and organizations like yours, the Catholic War Veterans. Think for a moment what the breakdown of the family has meant for our society. Think how many social problems would be headed off at the pass if our children were growing up in strong families, with moms and dads who love each other and their children, who provide role models and teach their children how to live virtuously. We need remember the role of these intermediate institutions in democracy.
Not only do they help form productive and enlightened citizens, they also stand as a buffer between the power of the state and individual conscience.
To reiterate: Without abandoning its legitimate role in seeing to the health and safety of its citizens, our form of government is obliged to protect the religious freedom of individuals as well as the freedom of religion that inheres in our religious institutions that serve not only congregants, but the common good. In a word, protecting the rights and human dignity of individuals and serving the common good through a network of charities and schools is deeply engrained in the Church’s mission and we are seeking the freedom to fulfill that mission in accord with our teachings.
Government Mandates
Until fairly recently, the Federal Government has accommodated churches that seek to serve the wider society in accord with the faith that inspires such service. As a rule, it refrained from entangling itself in the internal life of churches and let them serve the common good according their own lights … that is, until 2011, when the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule mandating employers, including religious employers with conscientious objections, to provide insurance through their employee benefits plans for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. Religious employers could be exempt from complying with this rule if they hired only members of that religion, served only its membership, and existed almost solely to promote religious doctrine. Anything else was deemed by the government as a secular enterprise not qualifying for a religious exemption. If a religious organization hired people of other faiths, if it sought to serve people of all faiths and none, and if engaged in education, social services, and charity – then, according to the HHS rule, it was not religious enough to be exempt from having to insure for surgical procedures and drugs judged to be immoral.
Paradoxically, at about the same time, the Department of Justice argued that a church had no more rights in hiring its ministers than a labor union or a social club, a view that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected in the Hosanna-Tabor decision. Shortly thereafter came a mandate that required religious employers to provide insurance for gender reassignment services, a mandate still on the books.
In recent months, the current Administration has proposed a more draconian rule, one that would require all employers not only to ensure for contraception, abortion, and transgender services but would also require institutions that can provide such services to do so, including Catholic hospitals, and there is no religious exemption at all in this new rule. So, as you can see, the slope is slippery indeed!
There are a many good people and groups resisting this, including the Becket Fund that defended the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Catholic Benefits Association, and others like it. We have ecumenical and interfaith partners who don’t necessarily agree with our teachings but who see the danger of government overreach, of government forcing the hand of church institutions. The bishops and state Catholic conferences meet with public officials and try to get the word out among the Catholic faithful – but, as I said at the beginning, many good people are not seeing the problem because it all looks kind of bureaucratic and not much seems to change on the surface. Yet, unless we stop it now, this attempt to narrow the role of religion in our culture will continue to spread like a virus through our nation’s laws and policies. The future will look like this: either we stay in the sacristy or else violate our consciences . . . not a good menu!
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we will be judged by our fidelity to our responsibilities and how we discharge and sustain that fidelity. Our responsibilities call us to rally for religious freedom in the context of the national common good and as a beacon of hope for people suffering religious persecution in various parts of the world. We are called to engage our fellow citizens and government leaders robustly doing so not with bitter partisan language but in a spirit of hope, respect, and love. This is the pattern given us by the saints and by great leaders in the Church. This is our path too, as we sustain our national promise of freedom and equality to succeeding generations.
Thank you for your kind attention. God bless our Church and the United State of America!