"Students of Faith" Video
"Alas, our freedom is wounded. ... While the United States remains by and large a believing society, a growing number of people are settling for a style of life that marginalizes God, a way of living in which God and the things of God don't count." - Archbishop William Lori
The city of Boston denied Camp Constitution a permit to fly their flag on a "public forum" flagpole in front of city hall, saying the application form referred to the flag as a "Christian flag." Liberty Council has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing Boston violated the First Amendment.
Over 12 years, the city had approved 284 flags from private organizations including the Turkish flag with an Islamic symbol, Ethiopia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico as well as Communist China and Cuba flags, pride & transgender flags.
"Censoring religious viewpoints in a public forum where secular viewpoints are permitted violates the First Amendment."(1) "We look forward to the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledging the city's obvious and unconstitutional discrimination against Camp Constitutions Christian viewpoint," said Liberty Council.(2)
Catholic Healthcare International (GHI) is suing a Michigan township for violating its 1st and 14th Amendment rights, after it denied permission to build a chapel and prayer trail dedicated to St. Padre Pio on 5-acres of a 40-acre property it already owned.
"The Township's rejection of our clients right to religious worship on CHI's private property is not in keeping with our proud tradition of accommodating people of faith, and, in fact, it violates our clients' fundamental rights protected by the United States and Michigan Constitutions and federal statutory law," said American Freedom Law Center.(3) "The Townships denial of the Final Submission was not based on any measurable, objective criteria, (but instead) based upon amorphous, subjective considerations that were contrary to the facts and which permit an anti-Catholic animus to drive the Township's decision."(4)
(charismanews.org, 7/11/19(1); lc.org, 6/21/21(2); onenewsnow.com, 6/23/21; catholicnewsagency.com, 6/4/21(3)(4); ncregister.com, 6/4/21; canadafreepress.com, 6/5/21)
"Broad cultural disapproval of religion, the exclusion of faith from almost all public institutions, ... is what Pope Francis calls 'polite persecution.' ... Just because this polite persecution is bloodless, it is not victimless. These structures of sin contribute to the inflicting of deep spiritual wounds in the hearts and minds of many people." - Archbishop William Lori
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN A MINUTE
Continued Assaults on Religious Liberty:
A Christian Flag and a Chapel and Prayer Trail
CLICK BELOW TO LEARN ABOUT & DEFEND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST:
By submitting this form, you are granting: Catholics for Freedom of Religion, Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, 440 West Neck Rd., Huntington, NY 11743 permission to email you.
You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email. (See our Email Privacy Policy for details.) Emails serviced by Constant Contact.
Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
DONATE NOW!
AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.
NATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY
Click here to view a video about National Religious Freedom Day 2014.
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
-
To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
-
To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
-
To invite and include other faith communities
-
To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
-
To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
