You are now
living in a country which is rapidly becoming secularized. Now we have a White
House that begins to make distinctions between freedom of religion and freedom
of worship. Freedom of religion is a right. It’s guaranteed in the First
Amendment. And yet, by euphemism and turn-of-phrase, the present administration
talks about freedom of worship. The Red Chinese speak about freedom of worship;
the old communists and the Soviet Union spoke about freedom of worship. There
is a big difference between freedom of religion and freedom of worship.
Freedom of
religion, guaranteed to us by the Constitution, tells us that we have a place
in the public square, that we have a right and an obligation in conscience, not
given to us by a state, but given to us by Almighty God. That is our
fundamental right, a right to go out and to speak the truth to power.
But instead,
we hear now about a freedom of religion now called freedom of worship. What
does that mean? It means you go to your little church, or synagogue, or mosque
on Sunday, or Saturday, or Friday night, and you make your prayers over there
quietly and don’t bother anybody. And we’ll all get along just fine in this
godless, secular world that we are creating; a world in which there is no truth
except the truth that man manufactures. And without a truth that comes from
Almighty God, all of our rights are in jeopardy.
Will you have
the courage to exercise your First Amendment right, freedom of religion? Or are
you going to be satisfied with freedom of worship?—I’ll say my prayers quietly;
I won’t bother anybody; I won’t disturb the society in which I live.
Right now our
Church is being threatened. You don’t often think of it that way; this couldn’t
happen in America. And so you hear about an administration that is forcing an
HHS Mandate on us, telling us that we must provide in our Catholic institutions
abortifacients, sterilizations. For us, that is a moral aberration. It is
something that we cannot do. And why is it being pushed on us? Because if we do
not obey, then our Catholic colleges, and our hospitals, and our Catholic
outreach institutions will be fined and eventually closed down. That will
remove the presence of the truth of the Church, remove the mission that Christ
gave us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to give drink to the thirsty,
to heal the sick. That will remove us from the public square.
This is no
accident, my sons and daughters in Christ. This is well-planned. Don’t be
fooled. Don’t be fooled.
You’ve heard,
the Catholic Church has had one of the most successful adoption services in the
country for years. And all of a sudden, in some states, and now in the District
of Columbia, there’s a new human invention called same-sex “marriage.” And we
are told that our adoption agencies have to supply babies for same-sex couples.
This is abhorrent to Almighty God. And we cannot put children in jeopardy of
losing their souls and their identity in homes that are now led by same-sex
couples. And so our adoption agencies have had to close in those states because
the states say that we are not practicing “equality.”
We have had
one of the most successful operations to save women who are involved in sex
trafficking, sex slavery. The federal government then tells us, “If you want to
receive funding for your programs, you’re going to have to supply them [the
women] with information for abortion, for birth control pills.” And when we
refuse, they tell us, “We can’t help you anymore.” And once again, they try to
remove us from the public square.
That’s the
secularism that is now engulfing our country. That’s the secularism that you
are going to be called to fight. Do you have the courage? Do you have the
courage?
Let me tell
you what will happen to you. As soon as you take a stand—if you take a
stand, because some of you will not, some of you will—if you take a stand, you
may not be hired by a firm; they find out that you’re pro-life. We’ve had
someone in our class that has had that experience already. If you do become a
part of a firm, if you are hired, you may never get promoted, you may never
become a partner because you stood up for life or you spoke out against
same-sex “marriage.” You may be fired from a position with a corporation
because you’re telling them things that they don’t want to hear. You’re
speaking about justice. And you’re speaking about the dignity of the human
person before profit. And you just might not fit their profile. You may not get
a raise. You may not have friends in the office. And some of you might decide
you want to run for political office. Will you have the courage to say, “I’m
pro-life.”? We have a congressman here now who’s had that courage and he’s been
re-elected year after year. Do what’s right. Do what’s right.
But you will
be tempted. You’ll be tempted to remain silent. You will be tempted to skirt
around the issues. You will be tempted by fame. I want to be a famous lawyer. I
want to be a judge. Power! I want to be a powerful person! I want money. But
didn’t the devil tempt Jesus in exactly the same way? He’ll tempt you: “Change
these stones into bread. Jump off the parapet! Kneel down and worship me!”
You’ll be tempted. Like Jesus, though, you must have the courage to say, “Be
gone, Satan! I will worship the Lord, my God, and Him alone!” That’s what we
call “white martyrdom.”
But then
there is “red martyrdom.” Red martyrdom means that you might be called to shed
your blood for your faith. You say, “Oh Father, that couldn’t happen in
America, could it? Now Oh Father Oh, is really going too far.” Let me tell you
something:
Not even a
hundred years ago, our closest neighbor to the south, Mexico, had a revolution.
And godless secularists took over Mexico, a Catholic country. Churches were
closed. Schools were closed. Priests, nuns couldn’t wear their habits in the
street. Religion couldn’t be taught. But a movement began, the Cristeros
movement, because you cannot suppress the truth; you cannot suppress the Word
of God. One of the members of this movement was Father, now Blessed, Miguel
Pro. (I gave you small cards with Blessed Miguel’s picture on those cards.)
People were being rounded up because they didn’t obey the government. They
taught religion. They worshiped. They prayed. And many of them were put before
kangaroo courts —This is in Mexico, 1927! — and they were executed. Father Pro
— he’s been one of my heroes for years — Father Pro knew that these people
needed the ministrations of a priest before they died. And he came up with an
ingenious plan. He got dressed up like a prison guard and snuck into prison
numerous times. And he heard confessions and he gave the Eucharist before
people met their fate at the firing squad. Eventually, Father Pro himself was
captured, brought to prison, another kangaroo trial, and the next day, he was
brought before a firing squad. Father Pro asked the guards a favor: could he
pray before he died? Father Pro knelt down and prayed. Then he stretched out
his arms, and he shouted the motto of the Cristeros movement, “Viva Cristo Rey!
Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!”
I gave you,
attached to that card of Miguel Pro, a small crucifix. Put it in your pocket.
And when the world challenges you, when the devil comes after you with all of
his enticements, reach into your pocket, take out that crucifix, hold it in your
hand, and recite those words, “Viva Cristo Rey! Viva Cristo Rey.” And remember
what Jesus said your reward would be: The world will hate you; the world will
persecute you; the world will speak every calumny against you; rejoice and be
glad, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Good bye.
Good luck. God love you all.
Rev. Michael
Orsi is a chaplain and research fellow in law and religion at the Ave Maria
School of Law in Naples, Florida.
God Bless
Nathan
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