Denver Catholic

8 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2020 | DENVER CATHOLIC own nations' revolution, although he intended the statue to stand in Egypt. As an eventual Freemason himself, the torch of "reason" is held high above all other ideals and the statues actual title, "Liberty Enlightening the World" refers directly to the philosophy that formed so many influential Western thinkers, including the founding fathers. Many of our public buildings are adorned with masonic, Egyptian, or other pagan symbols that ultimately point to the masonic ideal of reason alone, to the exclusion of Divine Revelation, as the guiding light of our nation. In a fresco that looks like the Son of Man's ascent to the throne of heaven from the Book of Daniel, the Apotheosis of Wash- ington in the capitol rotunda depicts George Washington ascending to the heavens as a god of the new "enlight- ened" order of reason. Perhaps we are ignorant of American iconography, and by extension, the forces that animate their activities, but what has become evident is that, without the influence of Christian Revelation and the witness of Christians in the public square, the ideals of the American Republic have taken a decidedly sharp turn toward secularism and what the Church calls "neo-paganism." None of these remarks are meant to tear down our past, or to undermine the ideals or icons Americans should rightly remember. We are reflecting on these symbols so that we can see how certain Enlightenment ideals contrib- uted to the silencing of Christian Revelation. T H E R O OT S O F P R I VATIZ I N G R E L I G I O N A R E D E E P Admittedly the rise of secularism did not happen over- night. The story of how we got here is a lengthy and com- plicated one. Secularism has been a long time coming, and it may help your perspective to have a "Cliff Notes" version of this history. The roots of the current crisis date back centuries. When Catholic leaders like Pope Gelasius, Pope Gregory II, St. Thomas Becket, King St. Henry II and St. Thomas Aquinas spoke on the relationship between Church and state, they set up a clear theological basis for the distinc- tion—but collaboration—between government and the Church. Unfortunately, the trajectory of Christian Europe did not follow their framework. Instead, church leaders sought political power and influence, while civil rulers, desiring to resist ecclesial influence over their realms, advocated for a complete secularization of the state. By the 1300s, under the influence and patronage of German princes, a scholar by the name of Marsilius of Padua proposed the basis for a completely secular state. As one scholar states, "The specifically political feature of Marsilus's [philosophy] consists in his completely secular approach to all aspects of the state, including those con- nected with religion, theology, and the Church" (Gewirth, Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Philosophy, Volume I, p. 43). Centuries later, after the conflict generated by the Protestant Reformation had torn Europe apart, the French Enlightenment put a permanent wedge between reason and religious faith, leaving the public square open and exposed to other philosophical ideas that rivaled the influ- ence of Christianity. While the sin of Christians killing each other is our own responsibility, the solution of pri- vatizing religion and secularizing the public square by the "separation of Church and state" has proven to be worse than the problem the Enlightenment was trying to resolve. For the most part, Christians in Europe did not survive the secular spirit of the French Revolution. As the 19th century ended, various Christian groups were increasingly persecuted and compelled to leave Europe for the United States where they could practice their religion openly and without fear, or so it was thought. Sadly, Catholic immigrants experienced prejudice for their tireless devotion and fidelity to the faith, especially their loyalty to the pope. Nevertheless, they flourished until one of our own, John F. Kennedy, became the Presi- dent of the United States. Most Catholics do not realize that Kennedy made him- self electable precisely by privatizing his faith and reject- ing the idea that religion has any objective moral content or "public" significance. He embraced the secular ideal in opposition to the Church's teaching. He declared that his faith was a purely private matter and would not influ- ence his political leadership. For him, politics and religion would remain entirely separate. In a famous speech concerning his Catholic faith, he declared, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote . . . Whatever issue may come before me as presi- dent—on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject—I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise." Thus was conceived within the American Catholic conscience the inviolability of personal "choice" against To make matters worse, while the meek or thoughtful may wrestle with serious ideas or the consequences of what they say, bullies, fools, and the ideologically possessed do not suffer this same timidity."

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