Bishop Kevin Rhoades's Red Mass homily on religious freedom

My bishop, Kevin Rhoades, gave at the local Red Mass an excellent homily on the importance of, and some of the threats to, religious freedom.  A bit:

. . .  As Americans, we enjoy the guarantee of freedom of religion, enshrined as the first Amendment to our nation’s Constitution.  Religious freedom is something we Americans cherish.  It is something that we as Catholics hold to be a fundamental human right, a right rooted in the very dignity of the human person.  It is rooted in human nature, part of the natural law.  The right to religious freedom, like the right to life, is an essential element of human dignity.

In his address to the United Nations in 2008, Pope Benedict spoke about religious freedom and about the need for recognition of the religious and the social dimensions of the human person.  He said: “it is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens.  It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.”

I am speaking about these things at this Red Mass this evening because of the current situation the Catholic Church is facing here in the United States.  There is a subtle, and increasingly not so subtle, effort by some in our society to restrict our religious liberty.  And they are enjoying some success. . . .