top of page

"Students of Faith" Video

A teacher’s strong faith and courage are being tested now that a small, personal crucifix on her desk for ten years is suddenly unacceptable to her employer.  Marisol Arroyo-Cortez was unexpectedly called to meet with her vice-principal and a union representative because of “concern” over the crucifix.

 

The teacher was told she must remove the cross because it was an expression of her faith and did not belong in the classroom.  When she explained that the cross was an important part of her faith in her every day life and gave her comfort and encouragement throughout her day, she was offered an unacceptable compromise of putting the crucifix in a drawer or displaying it under her desk so students could not see it. A few days later she was put on leave.

 

Arroyo-Cortez reached out to First Liberty attorneys who defend religious freedom cases and Keisha Russell, a senior counsel, stated that it is a violation of the 1st Amendment freedom of speech and freedom of religion to require a teacher to clear their personal space of anything religious.  Russell referred to the Supreme Court decision re Coach Kennedy v. Bremerton School District which said the coach could not be deprived by his school employer of his right to personal prayer simply because his prayer could be seen by students and the public.

 

Commenting as the Coach Kennedy decision was released, Justice Gorsuch said that the Constitution does not mandate nor tolerate shutting down personal religious expression.

 

Protecting and asserting the religious freedom of students and teachers in America’s public schools is critical to young Americans.  Their heritage of liberty includes the understanding and experience of the inalienable right to chose their faith and express it openly.  Assure them their freedom of religion and speech is declared and enshrined in our founding documents.  

Read more here:

 https://tinyurl.com/4srp24e3  https://tinyurl.com/nzsv27e5 https://tinyurl.com/nfvwwxmd

 

Watch 9 minute video demonstrating the Dept. of Education’s list of students’ rights to live their faith in public schools at  www.cffor.org

LEARN & SHARE THIS WEEK'S LESSON

m.jpg
ILLUMINATION 8 AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH.jpg
12 RULES FOR CHRISTMAS
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 http://www.catholicsforfreedomofreligion.org/ 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.

Thanks for submitting!

Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.

DONATE NOW!
AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION

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.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH

Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.

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

© 2025 by Catholics for Freedom of Religion. All rights reserved.

Seminary of the Immaculate Conception,

440 West Neck Rd., Huntington, NY  11743   

631-896-8331

bottom of page