On the Frontlines of Freedom

Jan. 1, 2023

As challenges to religious liberty grow, Catholics are called to bear faithful, fervent witness with charity

By Brian Caulfield

Jan. 1, 2023

on-the-frontlines-of-freedom — Photo by Pu Ying Huang

“CONGRESS SHALL MAKE no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech …” These familiar words of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment are being tested in cases that purport to pit the civil rights of same-sex couples against religious freedom. In December, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a suit brought by a Colorado website designer who declines to create sites for marriages that she finds in opposition to her Christian faith. The case is similar to the one involving a Colorado baker who claimed that his religious views on marriage prevented him from designing a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. In that 2018 case, the high court ruled in favor of the baker on narrow grounds but did not decide the larger issues touching freedom of religion and speech.

As fathers, we may hope that such complex legal issues would remain within the confines of the courts, far removed from the daily care and protection of our families. But aggressive efforts by secular social activists are bringing such issues into our neighborhoods, schools, libraries and businesses, where we are forced to either resist or acquiesce. How are we to respond?

Author Helen Alvaré has provided valuable guidance in her new book, Religious Freedom After the Sexual Revolution (Catholic University of America Press, 2022). A professor of family law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, Alvaré has a long record of Catholic advocacy in the public square, serving as the inaugural communications director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 1990s. Just as important, her first-rate legal mind comes with the warm heart and sharp insight of a faithful Catholic mother.

To assist Catholics in this arena, Alvaré outlines both the serious threats we and our institutions face and the ways we can counter them. Noting that “sexual expression” is now considered an integral part of personal happiness and identity — to the exclusion of other, more traditional values Caulfieldsuch as religion, family and community — Alvaré notes that governmental, academic, medical and societal forces have accepted new notions of sex and gender. “They exert powerful influence even though they regularly contradict common sense and empirical data,” she writes. “As a result of their influence, religious institutions today maintaining norms admired until recently are often deemed socially pernicious.”

In response, Alvaré calls for awareness and action. “It seems increasingly undeniable that Christianity is being asked to step up at this time in history to preserve individual and community well-being in the realms of sex, marriage, and parenting. … Even small Catholic institutions can’t duck and run.” These institutions include Catholic dioceses, parishes and families — which means we Knights must enter the fray.

A key step, Alvaré advises, is to reject the common yet superficial claim that the Church is obsessed with sexual issues and relies on guilt and fear to enforce its code. Rather, she explains, Catholicism upholds the beauty of marital love and sex while its detractors obsessively pick a fight with the Church. The Gospels call for a “radical love” not only of your spouse but also to neighbors, strangers and even enemies.

“Are these norms radical, out of step with the world?” she asks. “Yes. But Christians are instructed to love God as He loved us, and to love our neighbor in the same way.”

In time, Alvaré contends, this self-giving love, humbly offered, may eventually lead current adversaries of the Church to echo what pagans said about Christians centuries ago: “See how they love one another.” To achieve this end, she calls for us to pray and fast to cleanse our own hearts and intentions so that we might be more convincing witnesses to the culture of love and life that will heal our societies and build a better future for our children.

*****

BRIAN CAULFIELD is vice postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Michael McGivney and editor of Fathers for Good.

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On the Frontlines of Freedom

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