Month: June 2012

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 10 – “We didn’t pick the time, nor did we pick the fight”

/ esteban

I had the pleasure to meet Archbishop Joseph Naumann briefly during the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference in Kansas City, KS.

This interview with him, published in the Catholic World Report, has some very interesting comments about the fight for religious liberty, social justice, the principle of subsidiarity and personal virtue.

Social justice doesn’t mean the state taking care of everybody, but empowering people so they can take care of themselves and their families. That’s the real dignity we want to help people achieve.

 

I so agree with this.  We have so many problems to address in our society, but in my belief, very very few of them must be solved by the government, the least effective means of solving any problem.

Does the state have some role to play with the poor? Absolutely, I think, in terms of a safety net. But that doesn’t mean that we keep increasing the number of people who are dependent on the state in some way. That, to me, is the direction we’ve been going for the last 50 years.

When the government purposely strives to have the majority of its people dependent on it for food, health care, etc., it is subverting the true meaning of that wonderful phrase from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

 

 

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 5 – Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

/ esteban

 

We, who by the grace of God are Catholics… must steel ourselves for the battle we shall certainly have to fight to fulfill our program and give our country, in the not too distant future, happier days and a morally healthy society, but to achieve this we need constant prayer to obtain from God that grace without which all our efforts are useless; organization and discipline to be ready for action at the right time; and finally, the sacrifice of our passion and of ourselves, because without that we cannot achieve our aim.”
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Turin, Italy, 1922
(1901-1925)

 

Learn more about Blessed Pier Giorgio here.

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 4 – Bill of Rights

/ esteban

Americans are great at arguing about what they think the United States Constitution says or means.  That’s an important part of being a free people, and it’s a freedom enumerated in the Constitution itself.

The Fortnight for Freedom has as one of its purposes (as I understand it) to stand up and demand that the rights listed in the First Amendment are not only understood as they were meant to be understood, but to be respected as they were meant to be respected.

Preamble to the Bill of Rights

Most Americans are familiar with the Preamble to the United States Constitution, “We the People …”  Did you know that the Bill of Rights has a preamble as well?

It’s not as eloquent as the previous one, but it is critical in understanding the intent that Congress had in passing the Bill of Rights – the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution.

 

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. […]

I added the emphasis, but think about it.  These articles were designed to limit the power of the Government expressly to prevent those in power from twisting the meaning of the freedoms guaranteed, and to give confidence to the people that the Government would be beneficent toward the people.

Many times over the past two centuries we have strayed from this intent.  I have no doubts that the Framers of the Constitution would be livid at how it has been used and abused. What would they think of those currently in power?

I saw a comment online from someone, probably the ACLU, saying that the Catholic Church was being bigoted by promoting the Fortnight for Freedom.  Really???

First, I don’t think this person really knows what the word bigotry means.  If this fight was really about contraception as the media would have you believe, perhaps.  But the educated really know this about defending the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans.

Second, all Americans, not just Catholics, not just religious believers, but all of us have a duty to defend the Constitution when it is being misconstrued, abused and non-beneficent.  Our rights will not defend themselves in the face of ignorance, apathy and despotism.

WE must know our rights, fight for them, and use the most powerful weapons we have in our arsenal:  the power of prayer and the power of the ballot box.

 

 

 

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 3

/ esteban

Set your DVRs for a special program to be broadcast on ETWN:

Life is Worth Living: The Glory of Being an American

Sat., Jun. 23 at 6 PM ET

Archbishop Fulton Sheen discusses the origin of our rights and liberties, the great value that Americans put upon the human person and then thirdly, what America’s done for the world.

Fortnight for Freedom: Day 2

/ esteban

Last Wednesday, on the eve of the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., delivered a speech to attendees of the Catholic Press Association conference, meeting in Indianapolis.

It is a very sobering assessment of the war being raged against religious freedom in our country, and how perilous the situation in the Church is today and its ability to confront it.

I urge you to take the time to read his speech, which can be found at First Things.

Baseball & Aliens

/ esteban / 3 Comments

I spent two days last week in Dallas working on arrangements for the upcoming Catholic New Media Conference.    

While there, I had the opportunity to attend a Texas Rangers baseball game at the stadium next door.  I’m not the most knowledgeable baseball fan, but I do look forward to at least one professional baseball game each summer.

It was a nice evening and an enjoyable start to the game.  Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks.  Neither are my team, but this is baseball, so who cares?

A few innings into the game, this storm showed up.  It was a bit angry at not being invited to play.  It decided to rain off and on for awhile, dropping some lightning and hail just to concern the stadium folks.

This crazy tarp showed up all of a sudden, so it was a sign to go in search of dollar hot dogs.  You see, it was Dollar Hot Dog Night.  Five was the limit, which was five too many when it comes to dollar hot dogs.

Play resumed after the angry storm moved off.  Everyone was glad, except for the grounds crew which had to spread all that fresh dirt in the infield so it wasn’t muddy for the players.

That was when the alien ship from “Independence Day” showed up.  They had the best seat in the house and were much talked about by the fans.

The aliens stuck around for awhile but when the Air Force didn’t come and attack, they got bored.  From what I hear, they moved over to Grapevine, Texas and dropped big chunks of ice on people’s houses.  Not what I call fun, but I’m not an alien.

The game continued, the Rangers eventually won the game in the last 2 innings, which was nice.  If you look closely, though, you can see that the pitcher was a little bit sad that the aliens left.

Eventually, all the people wearing red, white or blue shirts were told to go home.  The bright yellow people didn’t know quite what they were supposed to do, so they walked up stream just to be different.