The Responsibifity of the Catholic Citizen in a Free Society

In order to better appreciate and understand the importance of a Catholic citizen’s duty in

a free society, we must first look to the endless examples of those Catholics who are not given

the same freedom we are fortunate enough to posses. Despite tremendous personal suffering,

these men and women bear witness to their Catholic faith in extraordinary ways.

Let me give an example. A few months ago, my sister and I were looking through our

baby scrapbooks and came across a medal of the Virgin Mary. Our mother explained that it had

been given to my sister when she was born by a very holy man named Cardinal Ignatius Kung.

Cardinal Kung had come to Connecticut in 1991 after his release from China where he had been

imprisoned for thirty years for one reason: he refused to denounce the authority of the Pope in

Rome. He was sentenced to thirty years of solitary confinement for keeping the faith. Cardinal

Kung was one of many religious who were, and still are, imprisoned in China for their

extraordinary witness to their Catholic faith. How many of us, if any, would do the same?

In light of examples like these, we as American Catholics must make good use of the

freedom we have been given to fulfill our responsibilities to God, our Church and the world.

There are many ways we can accomplish this. We must first of all pray for God’s help and

guidance to be able to know the right thing to do. We must also go to mass, Communion and

confession in order to stay close to Christ and to gain the graces we need to stay true to our faith.

We must then go out and be an example to those around us by obeying the Ten Commandments

and by living the Beatitudes. We can do this, for example, by helping to feed and clothe the poor,

volunteering in soup kitchens or in homes for unwed mothers. We should also perform corporal

and spiritual works of mercy such as visiting the sick in hospitals and comforting those who are

suffering. We should be humble, forgiving, kind and merciful, just as Jesus was.

In addition, we as Catholics in a free society must work to protect life. We must oppose

abortion in any way we can, by voting for pro-life candidates and becoming infonned on issues

that affect the unborn. We should become involved in politics if possible to try to promote

policies that would make abortion, stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage illegal. We must

recognize injustices and human rights violations and try to correct them. We must stand up,

alone if necessary, for what our faith tells us is right and good, and we cannot worry about what

others may think of us.

There are those people in our society who identify themselves as Catholics, but they pick

and chose what they want to believe and ignore what they choose not to believe. There are

examples ofthis even in our highest levels of government. However, a true Catholic believes in

everything that the Church and the Pope holds true and acts in ways that demonstrate this. The

Pope does not take an opinion poll and then make up rules that are popular. His rifles are based

on two thousand years of Church law that will never change. It is not easy being a Catholic. It

requires us to go against what many people think is acceptable behavior, but we must stand firm.

As Catholics in a free society, we must never be embarrassed of our faith, and we must

be willing to tell others the “Good News”... that Jesus suffered and died for our sins and that He

came to save each one of us. Although we most likely will never be asked to witness to our faith

in the extreme manner that Cardinal Kung has been, we have both the responsibility and the

privilege to keep the Catholic faith no matter what the personal consequences may be. It is our

duty as Catholics.