Just last week, Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader, a Catholic, said the following: “I do my religion on Sundays, in church.” That’s certainly consistent with the Obama Administration which sees faith activity as bound inside the walls of a physical church building. Guess I expected those types of statements and feelings from modern secularists.
 

However, in my talks with Catholics — just ordinary parishioners — about religious liberty and the crisis we face in our country today over the First Amendment, I got a shock that blew me away.
 

A couple from my parish raises perennials and thought they’d do something really exciting and take a road trip to Joplin, Mo., where last year’s tornado ripped everything apart. Catholic Charities has been building homes there so this couple thought they would beautify the new home’s landscaping with these flowers. I have been asking ordinary Catholics if they thought this couple’s generous outreach was a religious action. Less than 10 percent of the people I’ve asked believe this couple was doing a religious activity.
 

I was stunned. I’ve asked people, “Haven’t you heard of the corporal works and spiritual works of mercy? You know, feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead, etc., etc.” I just got blank looks. And therein lies our modern day problem. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t much like our faith, and the present Administration is actively hostile to Catholicism, but the folks I’ve spoken to are good and faithful Catholics who love their religion. What’s up with all of this?
 

See, for the past couple of generations, Catholics in America have not been persecuted. We haven’t had to stand up publicly for our faith. It seems that our faith has shrunk within four walls of a church or the grounds of a parish. We’ve forgotten that anytime we do anything in the name of Jesus, we are exercising our faith. The rather stark command at the end of Mass, “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” demonstrates that the Church expects us to take what we have shared at Mass into our public lives. The First Amendment of our Constitution doesn’t talk simply about private worship. It understands that religious faith is part of life and will be lived 24/7. Religious liberty covers all of this.
 

As we come closer to The Fortnight for Freedom, we have to make sure that people know Catholic activities out in the world such as running hospitals, schools, food pantries, adoption services, counseling, etc., are faith activities, actions that Jesus would consider part of the Good News he expects his followers to do. The government cannot dictate which of our beliefs can be followed in our public lives — that’s persecution.
 

Knowing this will help stiffen our spines and shape up our flabby faith. If Catholics allow the government to shut them inside the doors of a church, then the faith will vanish from the public square and Christ will no longer be preached and his message no longer lived. That would mean our faith would fail and we would be one step closer to the darkness that always seeks to extinguish goodness.

Every Catholic in this land is now being asked by the Church, “Are you going to let this happen?”