Denver Catholic

2 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2020 | DENVER CATHOLIC A troubling trend is appearing as our country grapples with social unrest and the impact of the coronavirus, but it's not a new trend. Catholics and other people of faith are singled out for derision and sometimes physical violence. For the sake of our Church and our society, we must respond by defending the right to religious freedom, both when we vote and through our own personal witness. The attacks on Catholics have shifted from the 19th century discrimination and claims that we can't be loyal citizens, to the recent asser- tions that Catholics are judgmental and hateful towards women and sexual minorities. Just as the arguments of the Know Nothing Party in the 1850s and the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s demonstrated a failure to under- stand what Catholics believe, so too do the modern attacks fail to understand and appre- ciate what we believe about the human person. However, the goal of these attacks is the same: to shame and sideline Catholics within society and to increase the influence of those who do not accept God's design for human nature. In recent years, the lashing out against the Church in the U.S. has increased in its intensity, turning from criticizing her in the media and online to labeling Catholics as discriminatory in various ministries like adoption services or health care. Within the last several months this has even turned into physical violence against our symbols, church buildings and people, as frequently occurs in places like France, parts of Africa and elsewhere in the world. The American Founders recognized that our self-government relies on a virtuous people. The increase in intolerance and violence we see today underscores this. John Adams addressed the need for virtue directly in a 1798 letter to Massachu- setts militia officers, writing, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of Religious freedom is on your ballot BY ARCHBISHOP SAMUEL J. AQUILA Follow Archbishop Aquila on Social media: | ARCH B I S H O P ' S CO LU M N If we want our country to f lourish, then out of charity for our fellow citizens and future generations, Catholics need to strongly advocate for the necessity of religious freedom and vote accordingly."

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