Two years ago, the then Holy Father Benedict XVI spoke about his concern that religious liberty in the United States was being weakened. He called religious liberty the ?most cherished of American freedoms.?
As a reminder the First Amendment to the Constitution states, ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...?
However, today we find this most cherished freedom under attack on many levels.
Most seriously, I dare say, is the attack that comes from the administration itself. This is so as the administration deliberately, when speaking of this First Amendment, speaks of freedom of worship. Now we know worship is not a synonym for religious freedom. Worship is about people of a particular faith who gather to pray together and oftentimes focuses on the worshiping of God. In other words, the administration is telling us that on Sunday or whatever day we gather for religious ceremonies, we are free to do so in our special places.
Needless to say, what our founding fathers established by speaking about religious freedom was much broader than worship. Certainly, religious freedom embraces worship as well as many other aspects of life. For example, religious freedom up to these last few years preserved a legitimate place for religions to care for the needy, to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless and to do many other things for the good of fellow Americans.
It is significant to realize that the phrase ?Freedom of Worship? does not come from our Constitution, nor from any other official document. No, it comes from a painting done by Norman Rockwell. In fact, he did four famous paintings. The titles of the four paintings are Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in light of what has been happening and is happening invited all of us to become knowledgeable about what is happening all around us. It will be tragic if there are lasting changes to our great American way of life because we were not involved in protecting our real freedoms, especially the freedom of liberty. Thus, the Bishops, including myself, have once again urged the Faithful to join in the recent Fortnight for Freedom which was from June 21 to July 4.
The goal of these two weeks has been about increasing our awareness of the threat that is all around us and to work to preserve our American way of life not only for ourselves but for future generations.
As we celebrate Independence Day and the July 4th weekend, let us know what is at stake and commit ourselves to a cause that is worth our lives to save!
(The above column by the Most Reverend Richard Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland originally appeared in the Friday, July 4, 2014 issue of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Cleveland.)
