Fortnight for Freedom 2013 Launched on Feast of St. Thomas More

2013 Fortnight for Freedom: June 21 to July 4

The U.S. bishops have called for a Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week period of prayer and action, to address many current challenges to religious liberty, including the August 1, 2013 deadline for religious organizations to comply with the HHS mandate, Supreme Court rulings that could attempt to redefine marriage in June, and religious liberty concerns in areas such as immigration and humanitarian services.

We should be free to preach the gospel, we should be free to help the poor in Christ's name, we should be free to heal the sick in Christ's name, we should be free to educate in Christ's name, and now we are being told for the first time that the government has the right to tell us that our ministries are now public services without religious reference… It's chilling and difficult for me to live with that my own government is now saying that what you thought you could do, namely exercise your religion freely as you define it, now depends upon how we define what you do. This isn't just the bishops, we have Catholic University, Notre Dame University, and many others who are saying "You are robbing of us of our identity as Catholics."

– Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago

Mother Church and the Nanny State

By Rev. George W. Rutler

That the film about the Cristero Rebellion, For Greater Glory, has been news to many and highlights the appalling ignorance of history in our culture. That isolation from the human experience has made it easy to confuse conscience with emotion and think religion is irrational. George Neumayer has written, “In one of his memoirs, Obama uses the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac to argue that secularism equals “reason” and religion equals crazy caprice.”

Such was the distillation of President Obama’s commencement speech at Notre Dame University in which he said, “It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us…”  Fast forward and the same university has joined a legal action against the consequences of the presidential speechwriter’s half-baked Kantianism.

If Fidel Castro is the unwitting founder of modern Miami, so Barrack Obama may be remembered for unintentionally energizing the Catholic bishops. He may even have brought some of Europe to a more sober frame of mind about his policies. The throngs in European cities welcoming the advent of Hope and Change during his campaign were unsettling enough for anyone who remembers the cheering crowds gathered in some of those same platzes in the 1930’s. In short order, the Nobel Peace Prize became the Nobel Promise Prize when it was awarded to someone who was expected to do great things even if he had not done so already. L’Osservatore Romano was pleased that the new president might bring an end to Reagan’s “neocon revolution” and hailed this election as “a choice that unites.”

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US Bishops’ Religious Liberty Campaign Taking shape

From Catholic World News

Masses, holy hours, Eucharistic processions, rallies, concerts, and lectures are among the activities planned by various dioceses as part of the Fortnight for Freedom campaign announced by US bishops in April. The campaign will begin on June 21 with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and conclude on July 4 with Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. 

"Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action would emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty," the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty said in April upon announcing the campaign. "Dioceses and parishes around the country could choose a date in that period for special events that would constitute a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty." 

Additional sources for this story
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• Dioceses Gear Up For Fortnight For Freedom, June 21-July 4 (USCCB)
• Archbishops Lori, Chaput to preach during bishops' religious liberty campaign (CWN, 5/21)
• US bishops launch major offensive to protect religious liberty (CWN, 4/12)