Posted on 06/05/2015 1:08:19 PM PDT by xzins
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) (CNSNews.com) - Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, has delivered a sermon warning that religious liberty is under attack in the United States and that American Christians “are being increasingly subject to a soft despotism.”
A transcript of the archbishop’s sermon--which was delivered at a special mass for Catholic lawyers in Broward County, Fla.--is now linked to a page on the USCCB’s website that is dedicated to the issue of religious liberty.
“While atrocities are committed against peoples and institutions of all the world’s religions, the International Society for Human Rights estimates that 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians and that some 150,000 Christians are killed for the faith every year,” said the archbishop. “So the Age of Martyrs did not conclude with the Peace of Constantine; it is still with us.”
“Even in our Western liberal democracies, discrimination against religion in general and Catholic Christianity in particular is growing--albeit in perhaps more sophisticated and less violent ways,” the archbishop said.
“But even as de Tocqueville pointed out almost 200 years ago, despotism comes in both soft and hard forms,” said the archbishop. “Your patron, St. Thomas More, beheaded for refusing to consent to King Henry VIII’s takeover of the Church, fell victim to a hard despotism. This type of hard despotism is decimating the Christian populations of the Middle East. But, in this country and other liberal democracies, people of faith are being increasingly subject to a soft despotism in which ridicule, ostracism, and denial of employment opportunities of advancement are being used to marginalize us.
“We see this when butchers, and bakers and candlestick makers are being put into the legal dock for refusing to renounce their religious beliefs,” said the archbishop in the sermon that was delivered on April 23 at St. Anthony Church in Fort Lauderdale.
“A new religious intolerance has established itself in our country--and it is being propagated by those who claimed to have been victims of previous instances of intolerance,” said the archbishop. “Christian pastors are stalked and threatened for being ‘Christian’ pastors, social scientists are expelled from universities for having turned up ‘politically incorrect’ facts, charitable organizations and confessional schools are harassed if they take seriously their faith’s moral precepts and required their employees to support their missions.”
The archbishop said that anti-religious forces in the United States are trying to limit freedom of religion to mean merely “freedom to worship.”
“In order to fit new political agendas, religious freedom is being reinterpreted narrowly to mean merely ‘freedom to worship’ but excluding the freedom to serve and/or the freedom to witness,” he said. “The Catholic Church in this country is currently battling in legislatures and in courts against this tendency. And it is not clear that we will prevail. Education, family law, healthcare are just some of the areas in which narrow readings of religious freedom are paving the way for antireligious policies.”
The archbishop called on the lawyers he was addressing not to surrender to this trend—not to “neuter” themselves in the pursuit of money and status.
“In an environment increasingly hostile to faith, you as Catholic professionals will also increasingly experience the soft despotism of this new intolerance,” he said. “May the integrity and courage of St. Thomas More inspire you – and may his prayers strengthen you so that you will not consent to neuter yourselves just for worldly status and wealth.”
King Henry VIII beheaded Thomas More because More refused to take an oath recognizing the king as the supreme head of the church in England.
Hard despotism is around the corner if Scotus decides in favor of homosexual marriage.
It seems the Church says some things on immigration I disagree with but if one reads their documents, they still recognize sovereign borders, the rights of a country to maintain their national character.
However, I certainly admit, the things the Church says in the news don’t give that impression.
Unless the Pope writes some sort of document, the previous doctrines remain official. Not sure what this encyclical coming up next week is going to be. Sounds like it will be pro-GW.
But as far as I’m concerned, the Church still believes in the integrity of borders.
Excellent point. Like the doctors and health insurance companies who stupidly favored Obamacare because they wanted to help the poor and sick — without realizing Obama would eventually come after them, too.
Thank you for your starting this thread and for your Christ-like comments. I wonder in some of the comments if their political party trumps their Christianity. I believe this rears its head particularly on immigration. It's not the incoming Christian they fear, is is that they will vote Democrat. There is always the lingering accusation of who is the most Christian causing separation.
ROTFL
The church is a leading force for the mexican Catholic invasion
The Church Catholic as the Mystical Body of Christ will prevail. The Church as a social institution will be, most likely, underground soon.
And im not Catholic. Ill argue with Catholics all day long. But against what we face, we are brethren and should never lose sight of that. Its our only hope.
The Church believes in the Church and that’s about it from what I can see.
L
Church is against Capital Punishment one would think but that is not officially the doctrine.
Francis Cardinal George said this...”I will die in my bed, my successor will die in Prison, and his successor will die a MARTYR”. Frankie was a very smart man who could read the tea leaves of what’s happening in this country.
I’m an American infidel.
I am on the side of persecuted Christians.
“Still waiting to hear from “black Christians” about this. Oh, that’s right...they are too busy going for their 30 pieces of silver from the democrats.”
That’s part of it, to be sure. But I think there’s more than that.
We have been spectacularly bad at reaching out to the black community, even the areas which ought to be our natural allies. And we sometimes allow our hatred of Obama to express itself in ways which will push those allies away - I cringe every time I see somebody write “the White Hut”.
We must have an open hand before we expect them to shake it.
I’m not a catholic either, but I think he’s on the money with this sermon.
This guy needs to talk to his worldly boss.
The Archbishop sounds like Mark Levin. :)
Small wonder why a priest called Mark Levin’s show to thank him for all he’s done, and another priest had a Mark Levin link on his blog.
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