May 28, 2012
Few bishops in the United States are so articulate regarding our duty as Christians as Archbishop Chaput, O.F.M. CAP. of Philadelphia. I’ve been watching and reading his public addresses both in this country and around the world for some time now and sense in him the spiritual stature of St. Thomas Becket and St. Paul the apostle. This recent quote is what I mean:
Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other – whatever the cost – so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time.
In our so-called “free” country, religious freedom is being attacked as never before. From the first successes of atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair to the oppressive ACLU, Christianity is suffering the hacks of the sharp axe of oppression. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu of the Anglican Church of South Africa said,
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
This November Catholics along with everyone else of rightful age and standing will enter the voting booth. We laity can, by our votes, either side with the oppressor or “speak the right word.” We have the time to pray for enlightenment and stand up for the true Gospel in our country, not advance the cause of secular humanistic socialism. Will we cast for that which has withstood the test of fire throughout the ages or will we hammer yet one more nail into the coffin of true religious freedom and responsibility?
And in our personal lives, will we be silent or will we speak the truth with charity (St. Francis de Sales), being not cowardly nor evasive and not compromising our convictions?
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R. Now and forever!
(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.)
