Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
Posted on 11/23/2012 1:24:38 PM PST by NYer
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, Nov. 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict’s emissary to the United States warned earlier this month that Catholic professors and public officials who rebel from Church teaching on key issues such as abortion and marriage represent a “grave” threat to religious liberty.
“We have witnessed that some instructors who claim the moniker ‘Catholic’ are often the sources of teachings that conflict with, rather than explain and defend, Catholic teachings in the important public policy issues of the day,” said Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. “This, my brothers and sisters, is a grave and major problem that challenges the first freedom of religious liberty and the higher purpose of the human person.”
In an address at the University of Notre Dame, the papal nuncio said the Church is weakened and thus “more easily persecuted” when she is divided by Catholic faithful who support “a major political party [with] intrinsic evils among its basic principles.”
The persecution of Christians is a reality even in America, he said, though it can present itself in forms that are not immediately obvious.
He pointed to the “legitimate concerns” over Obamacare, particularly the HHS mandate. But he also mentioned the Parker v. Hurley decision in Massachusetts, where parents were forbidden to withdraw their young children from discussions of “family diversity,” and Judge Vaughan Walker’s decision overturning Proposition 8, California’s traditional marriage amendment.
“The problem of persecution begins with … reluctance to accept the public role of religion in [public] affairs, especially but not always when the protection of religious freedom involves beliefs that the powerful of the political society do not share,” he said.
But the nuncio also said there is reason for hope, because “throughout her history, the Church has gained strength when persecuted.”
“With God’s help we can prevail, but without Him, even our greatest human strength is insufficient because it is frail,” he added.
See Archbishop Viganò‘s full talk here.
Ping!
Sounds like some a$$ kickin’ be in store at Notre Dame.
Thanks for this article. Its origin at Notre Dame is significant to me because I was seriously considering study there until it became apparent that the college does not honor basic church teachings. Maybe this speech there might do nd some good?
Have you considered Franciscan University at Steubenville?
yitbos
Yes! From what I’ve heard, that’s a very good school.
(There was/are a couple of scholars at Notre Dame whose research interested me. Since then, other things have changed a bit in my life so that I won’t be going now, at least not for awhile —... but Franciscan at Steubenville did come to my attention and always favorably.... THANKS for taking the time to suggest it!)
The wider problem in the Western World is that the very word “liberty” has taken on its narrow purely mechanical meaning. Pillars of a construction, for example, do not have a freedom to swing around. If a construction had such “free” pillars, it would have collapsed. A wheel of a machine, on the other hand has a freedom to rotate and if it lost its freedom the machines would not work. If, however, the wheel somehow also gain a freedom to spin off its axis, that freedom would not be good as the machine would break down and loose its own freedom for which it has been designed; and further the individual freedom of the wayward wheel be gone as well as the wheel would come to a rest in the ditch. An engineer does not therefore treat freedom of parts as a universal good; it is the just amounts of right freedoms that constitute a successful project.
In social science, however, we forget that the same principles apply. An academic certainly has, like any human being a freedom of opinion, but once vested with the authority of a professor in a Catholic institution, he properly looses the freedom to teach whatever he wants and still be in the Catholic institution’ employ. If that constraints fails, the institution itself fails, and once the institution fails, the hapless academic no longer has a pulpit from which to teach anything.
Freedom of speech is a complex machine; when principles of radical individualism are injected into it, freedom of speech does not flourish, it dies.
Indeed. Excellent point.
‘The wider problem in the Western World is that the very word “liberty” has taken on its narrow purely mechanical meaning. Pillars of a construction, for example, do not have a freedom to swing around. If a construction had such “free” pillars, it would have collapsed. A wheel of a machine, on the other hand has a freedom to rotate and if it lost its freedom the machines would not work. If, however, the wheel somehow also gain a freedom to spin off its axis, that freedom would not be good as the machine would break down and loose its own freedom for which it has been designed; and further the individual freedom of the wayward wheel be gone as well as the wheel would come to a rest in the ditch. An engineer does not therefore treat freedom of parts as a universal good; it is the just amounts of right freedoms that constitute a successful project.
‘In social science, however, we forget that the same principles apply. An academic certainly has, like any human being a freedom of opinion, but once vested with the authority of a professor in a Catholic institution, he properly looses the freedom to teach whatever he wants and still be in the Catholic institution’ employ. If that constraints fails, the institution itself fails, and once the institution fails, the hapless academic no longer has a pulpit from which to teach anything.
‘Freedom of speech is a complex machine; when principles of radical individualism are injected into it, freedom of speech does not flourish, it dies.’
Very well put.
Thank you.
... but Franciscan at Steubenville did come to my attention and always favorably...
___________________________________
It is INDEED an excellent institution of higher learning....and the Holy Spirit is quite active there. ;-)
Thanks for the link. I have wanted to read the full talk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.