CNA<\/a>).- Religious freedom in the United States has historically been understood as allowing religion to \u201cflourish unfettered from government intrusion,\u201d said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.<\/p>\n\t\u201cSimply put, government has no business interfering in the internal life of the soul, conscience, or church,\u201d said the cardinal, who serves at the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.<\/p>\n
\tCardinal Dolan delivered the John Carroll Society Lecture at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n
\tHe voiced concern that \u201cthe promotion and protection of religious liberty is becoming caricatured as some narrow, hyper-defensive, far-right, self-serving cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNothing can be more inaccurate,\u201d he said. \u201cRather, freedom of religion has been the driving force of almost every enlightened, un-shackling, noble cause in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCardinal Dolan attempted to \u201crestore the luster\u201d of religious freedom by outlining its role throughout American history.<\/p>\n
\tThe American Revolution itself was influenced by the Great Awakening and spurred on by ministers who encouraged participation in the fight for freedom, he observed.<\/p>\n
\tChurches served as \u201can essential partner\u201d in the American Revolution, and freedom of religion was praised in the new nation\u2019s foundational documents, securing \u201ca spot in the public square for the voices of those speaking from a faith-formed conscience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tIn the fight against the slavery, abolitionist leaders were \u201cmostly inspired by religious conviction,\u201d he noted, listing prominent figures whose \u201cdevotion to the cause to end slavery flowed from a conscience formed by faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn a land where loyalty to conscience and freedom of religion were not guaranteed, emancipation would have come at a much tragically later date,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tWomen\u2019s leading roles in the abolitionist movement are sometimes seen as contributing to the \u201cadvancement of women\u201d in American society, he added, and religion also influenced the temperance movement and other reforms.<\/p>\n
\tIn addition, the cardinal continued, the Civil Rights Movement would \u201cnever have flourished\u201d without \u201cthe unfettered preaching of the Gospel,\u201d and \u201cthe leadership of Black southern preachers,\u201d including Reverend Martin Luther King.<\/p>\n
\tCardinal Dolan pointed to Dr. King\u2019s Letters from a Birmingham Jail as \u201cperhaps one of the most cogent proof texts for religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tReligion and religious liberty have also played key roles in more recent movements such as the pro-life cause and other initiatives favoring peace and urban reform, he added.<\/p>\n
\tThe cardinal observed that the Catholics who first came to America \u2013 often settling in Maryland, a colony that served as a \u201claboratory\u201d of religious freedom \u2013 did not seek \u201cany favored status for either their beloved Catholic faith or any other religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNor did they want their faith, however normative in their own life, to have any institutional input in the colonial government,\u201d he said. \u201cMainly, they just wanted to be left alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe explained that today, as when the nation was founded, Catholics do not \u201cwant privileges from the state,\u201d but simply want to be left alone in order to \u201cpractice their faith, and follow their properly formed consciences in the public square.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIt is this \u201cguiding principle of religious freedom\u201d that was enshrined in the nation\u2019s constitution, he said.<\/p>\n
\tCardinal Dolan warned of the modern threat to religious freedom posed by secularists who will tolerate religion only as a \u201cprivate hobby,\u201d refusing to let it have \u201cany voice in the public square.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAlso troubling, he said, is the \u201cdirect intrusion of the government into the very definition of a church\u2019s minister, ministries, message, and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAs patriotic Americans and faithful Catholics, we must fight not only for our right to live out our faith in the privacy of our homes and churches, but also \u201cthe freedom to carry the convictions of a faith-formed conscience into our public lives,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Sep 13, 2012 \/ 04:01 am (CNA).- Religious freedom in the United States has historically been understood as allowing religion to “flourish unfettered from government intrusion,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.<\/p>\n
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