Fortnight For Freedom, June 21 - July 4, 2012: Posts, and 'Closing Thoughts'

I've been writing about some aspect of Fortnight For Freedom each day since the start of this "great hymn of prayer for our country:"¹

• Day One (June 21, 2012)
  • "Decide: Life, or Death"
• Day Two (June 22, 2012)
  • "Supporting Freedom, and Other Subversive Activity"
  • "Annus Fidei/Year of Faith: New From the Vatican, Online"
  • "John Fisher, Thomas More, and the Big Picture"
• Day Three (June 23, 2012)
  • "Freedom to Act Like God Matters"
• Day Four (June 24, 2012)
  • "Curing the Sick, Helping the Poor; Yes: Killing the Innocent; No"
• Day Five (June 25, 2012)
  • "We Pray For Freedom"
• Day Six (June 26, 2012)
  • "Decisions: Ethical, and Political"
  • "Freedom Rosary: Another Day,
    Another Hour of Prayer "
• Day Seven (June 27, 2012)
  • " '...A Time to Stand Up' "
• Day Eight (June 28, 2012)
  • "Memoirs of a Lab Rat"
  • "Freedom Rosary: For Me, It's Personal"
  • "Power Outages, Mosquitoes, and Prayer"
• Day Nine (June 29, 2012)
  • " 'Legal' isn't Necessarily Right: My Take on Supreme Court Rulings"
• Day 10 (June 30, 2012)
  • "College Kids, '100% Organic Sex,' and Me"
  • "A Non-Event That Never Happened "
• Day 11 (July 1, 2012)
  • "The Gospel According to Chicken Man"
  • "Heat Advisory: But I'm Praying, Anyway"
  • "92: Not Bad, for Such a Hot Evening"
• Day 12 (July 2, 2012)
  • "Freedom, Responsibility, and Quotations"
  • "Feels like 101 Degrees F - and I'm Going Where?!"
  • "Freedom Rosary, Photos, and Heat: Lots of Heat"
• Day 13 (July 3, 2012)
  • "Independence Day: A Reflection About Freedom, from Milwaukee"
  • "Catholic Bishops & Religious Freedom in America: a Reality Check"
  • "Fortnight For Freedom Photos: Sauk Centre, Minnesota"
  • "Religious Freedom: Resources; Backgrounders"
• Day 14 (July 4, 2012)
  • "Conscience, Natural Law, and Religious Liberty"
  • "Independence Day, 2012: 236 Years of Freedom"

Predictably, not everybody wants Catholics talking too much about religious liberty. Also predictably, the establishment press wants Americans to think that those Catholic bishops are pretty much just like those 'narrow-minded' 'homophobic' conservative American Protestants:

• "'Fortnight for Freedom' distorts true religious liberty"
  Laura W. Murphy, Guest Voices, The Washington Post (June 22, 2012)

I've been over this sort of thing before:

• "A Non-Event That Never Happened"
  (June 30, 2012)
• "Supporting Freedom, and Other Subversive Activity"
  (June 22, 2012)
• "Catholics aren't Calvinists"
  (May 7, 2012)
• "What's With "the Establishment" in this Blog?"
  (September 15, 2011)
• "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
  (April 1, 2010)

Concern about "Romanism" is very much part of America's cultural history. I'm inclined to see many reactions to Fortnight For Freedom as the old anti-Catholic bias trotted out with a fresh coat of paint and new slogans.

Other objections seem to reflect the wishes of folks who don't want God to exist: and want everybody else to agree with them. That's a new wrinkle. It's also a notion of what "freedom" means that I reject as much as the old 'kill a commie for Christ' flavor of religious beliefs.

I'm a practicing Catholic, so there are some things I have to believe. Starting with:

• 'Love God, love your neighbor.'
  (Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:29-31, Luke 10:25-27; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1822)
• Everybody's our neighbor
  (Matthew 5:43-44, Luke 10:29-37; Catechism, 1825)

Other rules include:

• Some actions are always wrong
  (Catechism, 1789)
  • Even if the President says it's okay
    (Catechism, 2242)
• Human life
  • Is sacred
    (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258)
  • Begins at conception
  (Catechism, 2270, 2274)
• Murder is wrong
  (Catechism, 2259-2262, 2268-2269)
  • Even when
    • It's legal
    • Called something else
    (Catechism, 2270-2275, 2276-2279)

Finally, about religious freedom:

• Religious freedom is vital
  (Catechism, 2104-2109)
  • For everybody
    (Catechism, 2106)

If that's 'not what you read in the papers,' I'm not surprised. And that's another topic.

Bottom line? I'm Catholic, so I have to love God, love my neighbors: and see everyone as my neighbor. That was counter-cultural two millennia back, and it still is. But I believe that it is true.

Related posts:

• "Having Good Judgment isn't Being Judgmental"
  (October 12, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Splinters, Wooden Beams, and Hypocrites
• "No Open Season on Transgendered People, Please!"
  (April 26, 2011)
  Particularly
  • "Love" isn't "Approval"

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(from H.E. Fowler, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission)

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¹ Source:

"Fortnight for Freedom"
Religious Liberty, Issues and Action, USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

"The fourteen days from June 21 - the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More - to July 4, Independence Day, are dedicated to this 'fortnight for freedom' - a great hymn of prayer for our country. Our liturgical calendar celebrates a series of great martyrs who remained faithful in the face of persecution by political power - St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. Dioceses and parishes around the country have scheduled special events that support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty."