November 21, 2011
Catholics settled in Southern Maryland 377 years ago seeking a place where they could practice their faith in peace. Fifteen years after the arrival of the Ark and the Dove, Maryland enacted the 1649 Act Concerning Religion, aimed at protecting the right of individuals to religious liberty. It didn't take many years for the pendulum to swing and for Catholics to face discrimination including the loss of political rights. Those rights were not restored until our nation was founded.
Today, the Catholic bishops of Washington, Baltimore and Wilmington are asking Catholics for renewed vigilance in the face of new, multiple threats to religious liberty in the State of Maryland (see http://www.mdcathcon.org/main.asp?page=1492). I write in support of the bishops and the essential and fundamental right of all citizens to practice any faith or no faith.
As Catholics, our opinions are heard on many social issues from the rights of the unborn and the poor to those of the unemployed and immigrants. Moreover, we act. Outside of the government, no entity in our nation has as large a commitment to serving the marginalized as the Catholic Church. Here at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, students are performing robust service every day. We give to and do for others (my own Community 9308 generously put together two large Thanksgiving baskets); those are the easier forms of service. We also seek ways for students to engage in more demanding service by being with and advocating for others. This past summer, six groups of 14 students spent a week living in Camden, NJ. Twenty students will head to El Salvador in a couple of months. Hundreds will attend the Rally for Life in January. Our Justice and Peace team engages with serious social issues and seeks to educate our community about the root causes of injustice. We do these things in response to the call of Jesus, coincidentally affirmed in this week's reading from Matthew's Gospel: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me."
Our beliefs are not active only behind closed doors at church on Sunday or in a classroom from Monday to Friday. We stand up in the public domain because of our faith. Unfortunately, there are some who seek to disqualify us from debate and restrict the exercise of our freedom because our Catholic faith is the lens through which we view issues.
We will be seeking opportunities over the coming months to educate our students about the precious nature of liberty and encourage them to speak up as advocates for the rights of all Marylanders to freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief.