Archbishop Chaput Looks at the Secularist Attack on the Catholic Church

Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap has written an article for Where are the Helpers? (University of Notre Dame Press), a forthcoming book on the foundations of Christian charity edited by Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. A part of his contribution has been reprinted in the November 2009 issue of First Things. It looks at the rise of secularism that is attacking the Catholic Church & in particular, its charitable mission.

A Charitable Endeavor is an excellent article that looks at the real history of the relation of Church & state in the USA. The article can be read in its entirety at the link. But I would like to share a few quotes to give you the flavor of the article.

"To understand Catholic charities in the United States today, we need to remember two simple facts. First, the Catholic experience in America has been different from the Church’s history in Europe. Second, while the founders’ belief in religious liberty remains deeply ingrained in the American spirit, a new and belligerent kind of secularism, alien to the American character, now threatens the mission of Catholic charitable ministries.

It also attacks America’s historic commitment to religious freedom."

"Historically, Americans have been—and remain—a religious people. They have found it quite normal for religious charities, including Catholic ones, to make use of public monies in serving the poor, the homeless, and other needy populations. This arrangement has worked well for everybody. Government gets skilled, cost-effective, and compassionate help in meeting social needs. The Church gets funds for her works of love demanded by faith in Jesus Christ.

But Americans have always known that the Church’s charitable purposes are religiously inspired, not merely humanitarian."

"Unfortunately, these understandings have broken down in recent years. Too often, public officials no longer respect the Church’s service to the common good or the guarantee of her freedoms under the Constitution. More and more, Catholic ministries find themselves bullied by civil authorities that seek to meddle in their operations and dictate the terms under which they provide their services. What these public authorities often demand would result in bad public policy. It would also cripple the Church’s character and mission.

So far, the Church in the United States has usually managed to defend her rights in the public square. But attacks on her autonomy grow every year—in courts, legislatures, and in federal and state bureaucracies. I believe that today’s growing harassment of religious charities flows out of a crisis in America’s governing philosophy. And this crisis in public thought stems, too often, from America’s knowledge classes, who have forgotten, or rejected, the vision of the country’s founders."

"Government was never meant to be a large presence in our American life. But too often today our knowledge classes—leadership groups in politics, law, higher education, and the media—no longer seem to believe that. America was built on the premise that the power of the state should be modest, because real life is much larger than politics."

"But we should remember that the Church’s tax-exempt status is a form of public respect for religious freedom and the importance of religious institutions—combined with a pragmatic realism about the government’s own limited effectiveness. The power to tax is the power to control and even to destroy, as Daniel Webster once observed. And the American government has never—at least, until very recently—tried to wield it as a club in working with the Church."

"The right to define our mission as a Church and to select the people who can best transmit Catholic beliefs and values is at the heart of our religious freedom. No Catholic ministry can ensure its identity if its leaders and staffers cannot be required to be Catholic."

"A small social subgroup—for example, active homosexuals and supporters of homosexual-related issues—demands that the government defend their right to a controversial lifestyle, a right that is “alleged, . . . arbitrary, and nonessential in nature,” as Benedict puts it. To meet this demand and promote this ambiguous right, public officials attack the “elementary and basic rights” of defenseless children without parents.

When we look closely at Church–state conflicts in America, we see that they now often center on a group of behaviors—homosexual activity, contraception, abortion, and the like—that the state in recent years has redefined as essential and nonnegotiable rights."

"In the face of modern critics who would crowd out the Church’s ministry of love, American Catholics must reclaim the vision Benedict speaks of here. We need to insist on the guarantees promised by the founders at the beginning of the American proposition: autonomy and noninterference from civil authorities.

But a more important task also remains. Catholics must come to a new zeal for that proposition, a new faithfulness to their own Catholic identity as they live their citizenship, and a new dedication to renewing the great public philosophy implicit in America’s founding documents."

Something tells me that this article won't win him any brownie points with the Obama administration or their allies (see Cavey's post What Greatest "Active Measure" Could There Be... for several examples of those allies) & especially the "Catholic in Name Only" gang. But that doesn't matter, instead it strikes me that he has issued a clarion call for faithful Catholics to stand up & speak out to defend the faith & its true place in the public forum.

Yes, we are under attack. what eles is new. From the start there have been attempts to destroy the Church. & at times it seems like they were coming close to suceeding. But in the end, it is the Church's enemies that lost, the Church surviced & grew stronger & purer in the process. We are in 1 of those times when the Church seems to be under assault from without & within. Things may seem dark, The enemies may be gloating at what they perceive as our destruction. Well, I have news for them. The Catholic Church will not be destroyed. Nor will it be silenced in speaking out the truth. Our enemies may do all the can. The may arrest & put us in jail. They may even kill us. But they will never be able to stop us. God will raise up others for those of us who are shot down. In the end, the truth will triumph. God will ensure that His Church endures until the day when Jesus returns.