“The present political campaign has brought to the surface of our public life the anti-religious sentiment, much of it explicitly anti-Catholic, that has been growing in this country for several decades. The secularizing of our culture is a much larger issue than political causes or the outcome of the current electoral campaign, important though that is.” – Francis Cardinal George, October 2012
Nothing has happened since Cardinal George said this to suggest he was wrong. In fact, the situation gets worse every day.
I listened to the “Prayers of the Faithful” during Mass at my parish last Sunday, surprised to hear: “That laws restricting the practice of the Catholic faith will be rescinded.”
Did I hear that right? It sounded like something a worshipper might hear in a communist country or a third-world dictatorship – but not in the land of the free, home of the brave.
Yet, laws forcing Christian employers to pay for abortion are a reality. So, too, lurk laws that label as “hate speech” the proclaiming of Biblical truths.
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t think the founders meant abortion, welfare and gay marriage.
I’ll be reading the Declaration today, reminding myself of its reality in the face of the myriad distorted interpretations I likely will see in the news media. And I’ll be praying that Cardinal George isn’t clear in all his visions of the future:
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” – Francis Cardinal George, 2010
