(Spanish version)
The July 4 closing of the Fortnight for Freedom at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington drew a standing-room-only crowd, a fact that stunned organizers given the holiday, intense heat and state of emergency situation around the District of Columbia due to power outages.
I suspected we were headed into an overflow situation at the Mass when I arrived 40 minutes early and could find only illegal parking on The Catholic University of America campus, where the shrine is located.
In the church, the crowd was unusual, so dense that the procession of bishops and priests to and from the Mass could not take its usual route up the side aisle and down the middle but had to be led outside into the sweltering heat. That turned out to be nice for the people who were on the steps and couldn’t even get into the basilica.
The shrine church holds an estimated 3,500 people and about 5,000 made it inside. The congregation far exceeded the crowd when Pope Benedict XVI visited there in 2008, because the U.S. Secret Service charged with his safety wouldn’t tolerate the scene on July 4: blocked aisles with people sitting everywhere, including on the floor.
Spirit was high and the crowd burst into applause several times during the afternoon Mass. People clapped several times during Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s welcome and Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap’s homily. Such applause happens occasionally at Mass, but this much clapping was unusual.
“Unusual” characterized the entire Mass, especially when Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who concelebrated the Mass, called on the congregation to open their cellphones and text the word “freedom” or “libertad” to 377377. It was part of the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty text campaign, and in two minutes about 2,500 people suddenly joined the effort. Those who texted signed up to receive text messages about the campaign, which still continues. Archbishop Lori admitted that asking people to turn on their phones at Mass was a first for him – and likely a first for everyone in the congregation. (People who want updates on religious liberty can still text “freedom” or libertad” to 377377.)
Showing posts with label Fortnight for Freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fortnight for Freedom. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
From Fortnights to Faith: When Ideas Collide
It's difficult to walk into a parish, visit a diocesan website or even tune into the secular news media without seeing or hearing something about the Fortnight for Freedom, the bishops' two-week (June 21-July 4) campaign of prayer and education on the value of religious liberty.
Garnering less attention in the media right now is the upcoming opening of the Year of Faith, which the Vatican is kicking off globally on October 11 (the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). The goal of the Year of Faith is to encourage Catholics, active and inactive, to experience a renewed sense of their faith through a personal encounter with Christ (a phenomenon commonly referred to as the New Evangelization).
On the surface, these two initiatives might not bear much resemblance to one another, but recent talks by leading figures in the U.S. Church at two major Catholic gatherings would suggest otherwise.
Addressing the U.S. bishops at their spring general meeting in Atlanta, June 13, John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, outlined some of the ideas associated with the Fortnight for Freedom and the general erosion of religious liberty experienced in the United States, such as the HHS mandate, Catholic Charities being driven out of adoption services under same-sex marriage laws, and Catholic social services in general being discriminated against for government contracts for their refusal to provide or endorse contraceptives and abortion.
But then Garvey took it a step further and asked why this is happening. As he sought an answer, Garvey briefly departed from his prepared remarks (around 21:40 in the video below), observing, "This is a really depressing message." Basically, he said, "we protect religious freedom because we think that religion is a good thing," and "Perhaps the reason we see a loss of religious freedom today is that we are turning a corner in our collective view of religion." He cited dwindling-to-nonexistent Mass attendance in Europe and the rise in popularity of combative atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins as part of the same trend and concluded, "Our society won't care about religious freedom if it doesn't care about God."
(Here's full video of President Garvey's address.)
A week later, June 20, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., tackled the topic of religious liberty in an address to members of the Catholic Press of the United States and Canada, who were gathered in Indianapolis for their annual convention.
Just as Garvey's address raised themes associated with the Year of Faith and New Evangelization— decreased religious observance, greater secularism, etc.—Archbishop Chaput also zeroed in on Year of Faith themes as underlying causes of the current struggles surrounding religious liberty. He described how the actions (and inaction) of believers themselves create the need for a renewal of faith.
"I think it's fair, in part, to blame Church leaders for a spirit of complacency and inertia, clericalism, even arrogance, and for operating off a model of the Church—often for well-intentioned reasons—rooted in the past and out of touch with reality," he said, adding, "Too many ordinary Catholics have been greedy to lose themselves in America's culture of consumerism and success. Too many have been complicit in the dullness—the acedia—that has seeped into Church life, and the cynicism and resentment that naturally follow it. These problems kill a Christian love of poverty and zeal. They choke off a real life of faith. They create the shadows that hide institutional and personal sins. And they encourage a paralysis that can burrow itself into every heart and every layer of the Church, right down to individual Catholics in the pews. The result is that Philadelphia, like so much of the Church in the rest of our country, is now really mission territory – again; for the second time." Enter the New Evangelization.
This dovetailing of ideas gives the current struggles over religious liberty broader context and deeper meaning. As Catholics speak out in the short term, they can reinforce their message and goals by rekindling their faith for the long term. Catholics who live out their faith with a sense of energy and authenticity provide a more powerful witness to the world, one that makes clear both the loving mercy of God and the saving work of his Church. This will benefit all Catholics, the cause of religious liberty and all of society.
Garnering less attention in the media right now is the upcoming opening of the Year of Faith, which the Vatican is kicking off globally on October 11 (the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). The goal of the Year of Faith is to encourage Catholics, active and inactive, to experience a renewed sense of their faith through a personal encounter with Christ (a phenomenon commonly referred to as the New Evangelization).
On the surface, these two initiatives might not bear much resemblance to one another, but recent talks by leading figures in the U.S. Church at two major Catholic gatherings would suggest otherwise.
Addressing the U.S. bishops at their spring general meeting in Atlanta, June 13, John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, outlined some of the ideas associated with the Fortnight for Freedom and the general erosion of religious liberty experienced in the United States, such as the HHS mandate, Catholic Charities being driven out of adoption services under same-sex marriage laws, and Catholic social services in general being discriminated against for government contracts for their refusal to provide or endorse contraceptives and abortion.
But then Garvey took it a step further and asked why this is happening. As he sought an answer, Garvey briefly departed from his prepared remarks (around 21:40 in the video below), observing, "This is a really depressing message." Basically, he said, "we protect religious freedom because we think that religion is a good thing," and "Perhaps the reason we see a loss of religious freedom today is that we are turning a corner in our collective view of religion." He cited dwindling-to-nonexistent Mass attendance in Europe and the rise in popularity of combative atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins as part of the same trend and concluded, "Our society won't care about religious freedom if it doesn't care about God."
(Here's full video of President Garvey's address.)
A week later, June 20, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., tackled the topic of religious liberty in an address to members of the Catholic Press of the United States and Canada, who were gathered in Indianapolis for their annual convention.
Just as Garvey's address raised themes associated with the Year of Faith and New Evangelization— decreased religious observance, greater secularism, etc.—Archbishop Chaput also zeroed in on Year of Faith themes as underlying causes of the current struggles surrounding religious liberty. He described how the actions (and inaction) of believers themselves create the need for a renewal of faith.
"I think it's fair, in part, to blame Church leaders for a spirit of complacency and inertia, clericalism, even arrogance, and for operating off a model of the Church—often for well-intentioned reasons—rooted in the past and out of touch with reality," he said, adding, "Too many ordinary Catholics have been greedy to lose themselves in America's culture of consumerism and success. Too many have been complicit in the dullness—the acedia—that has seeped into Church life, and the cynicism and resentment that naturally follow it. These problems kill a Christian love of poverty and zeal. They choke off a real life of faith. They create the shadows that hide institutional and personal sins. And they encourage a paralysis that can burrow itself into every heart and every layer of the Church, right down to individual Catholics in the pews. The result is that Philadelphia, like so much of the Church in the rest of our country, is now really mission territory – again; for the second time." Enter the New Evangelization.
This dovetailing of ideas gives the current struggles over religious liberty broader context and deeper meaning. As Catholics speak out in the short term, they can reinforce their message and goals by rekindling their faith for the long term. Catholics who live out their faith with a sense of energy and authenticity provide a more powerful witness to the world, one that makes clear both the loving mercy of God and the saving work of his Church. This will benefit all Catholics, the cause of religious liberty and all of society.
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