{"id":357,"date":"2012-06-21T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/defense-of-church-requires-revival-of-faith-archbishop-chaput-says\/"},"modified":"2012-06-21T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T17:05:00","slug":"defense-of-church-requires-revival-of-faith-archbishop-chaput-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/06\/defense-of-church-requires-revival-of-faith-archbishop-chaput-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense of Church requires revival of faith, Archbishop Chaput says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 21, 2012 \/ 11:05 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- While defending their freedom in public life, Catholics must also renew the Church spiritually, starting in their own lives, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a June 20 address to journalists.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPolitics and the courts are important. But our religious freedom ultimately depends on the vividness of our own Christian faith \u2013 in other words, how deeply we believe it, and how honestly we live it,\u201d the archbishop told attendees of the 2012 Catholic Media Conference in downtown Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

\tIn his remarks to reporters and other Catholic media professionals, the Philadelphia Church leader observed that religious freedom \u201cis an empty shell if the spiritual core of a people is weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe worst enemies of religious freedom aren\u2019t 'out there' among the legion of critics who hate Christ or the Gospel or the Church, or all three. The worst enemies are in here, with us \u2013 all of us, clergy, religious and lay \u2013 when we live our faith with tepidness, routine and hypocrisy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tArchbishop Chaput delivered his address on the eve of the U.S. bishops' \u201cFortnight for Freedom\u201d campaign of prayer and advocacy, inspired by the HHS contraception mandate and other threats to the free exercise of religion.<\/p>\n

\tHis remarks touched on the mandate, along with related areas of concern \u2013 including efforts to drive the Church out of adoption and foster care, and the government's attempt to control a religious school's self-governance in the Hosanna-Tabor Supreme Court case.<\/p>\n

\tSuch threats, he warned, could push the U.S. in the direction of Canada and Britain, where the Church's freedom of speech and action is already compromised.<\/p>\n

\tThe U.S. Constitution would prove to be nothing more than \u201can elegant piece of paper,\u201d if Catholics and other citizens were not willing to stand up for their rights, he said.<\/p>\n

\tBut the Church's most serious challenges, the Philadelphia archbishop observed, are internal and spiritual in nature. He urged the faithful to \u201clook honestly at the arc of Catholic history\u201d in the U.S., as a guide to the deeper problems facing the Church at present.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAmerican Catholics began as an unwelcome minority,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe Church built her credibility by defending and serving her people. She developed her influence with the resources her people entrusted to her. A vast amount of good was done in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut two other things also happened. The Church in the United States became powerful and secure.\u00a0 And Catholics became less and less invested in the Church that their own parents and grandparents helped to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSuccess and stability allowed many clergy to fall \u201cout of touch with reality,\u201d while some lay Catholics grew eager \u201cto lose themselves in America\u2019s culture of consumerism and success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThese problems kill a Christian love of poverty and zeal. They choke off a real life of faith. They create the shadows that hide institutional and personal sins. And they encourage a paralysis that can burrow itself into every heart and every layer of the Church,\u201d the archbishop reflected.<\/p>\n

\tIt is partly due to these problems, he suggested, that his own Archdiocese of Philadelphia \u201cis now really mission territory \u2013 again, for the second time.\u201d And so, too, is \u201cmuch of the Church in the rest of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe way forward, meanwhile, lies in the rediscovery of Jesus' true person and message \u2013 as the basis for a faith that can stand against assaults, both from outside, and from within.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe live in a world of illusions when we lose sight of who Jesus Christ really is, and what he asks from each of us as disciples,\u201d the archbishop said, pointing out that the \u201creal Jesus\u201d continues to call the faithful to a \u201clife of honesty, heroism and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOnly by obeying this call, will Catholics \u201cbecome people worthy of\u201d the religious freedom they are called to defend.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe work best for religious freedom by first opening our hearts to God\u2019s will instead of our own; and loving our country and our Church; and renewing the witness of the Church with the zeal and purity and obedience of our own lives,\u201d Archbishop Chaput said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat freedom, that joy, no one can ever take from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tArchbishop Chaput's full text can be found at: http:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/onthesquare\/2012\/06\/launching-the-fortnight-for-freedom<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 21, 2012 \/ 11:05 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- While defending their freedom in public life, Catholics must also renew the Church spiritually, starting in their own lives, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a June 20 addre…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nDefense of Church requires revival of faith, Archbishop Chaput says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 21, 2012 \/ 11:05 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- While defending their freedom in public life, Catholics must also renew the Church spiritually, starting in their own lives, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. 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