Excursion: US-Cardinal Designate about Religious Freedom in the West
"We in the United States have always been concerned about persecution and intolerance around the world. I don't think we ever expected it to come in the form it is coming in our own country, where the government is impinging on some very good work we are trying to do, to force on us values that are foreign to the Judeo-Christian heritage."
Cardinal-designate (Former Baltimore Archbishop) O'Brien on Defending Freedom in an interview with www.zenit.org:ZENIT: The Holy Father in his discourse to the bishops spoke about the issue of religious freedom. Throughout the world Christians have been facing persecution, both through the secularization of the West and also with violent persecution in other places. What does it mean for you to be created a cardinal at this point in Church history?
Cardinal-designate O'Brien: Aside from being created a cardinal, I think we in the United States have always been concerned about persecution and intolerance around the world. I don't think we ever expected it to come in the form it is coming in our own country, where the government is impinging on some very good work we are trying to do, to force on us values that are foreign to the Judeo-Christian heritage.
The highlight of this ad limina visit has been the visit with the Holy Father. I don't think any of us expected as magnificent an allocution as we heard yesterday. He was right on, and made the proper distinctions and it applies perfectly to our country. I hope that we can make best use of that to help our fellow Americans realize that slowly but surely, "Big Brother" is closing in on religious communities such as ours and the good work we're trying to do.
ZENIT: Could you speak a little more about this problem of the government infringing on religious freedom, such as regards abortion and same-sex marriage. For instance in Baltimore, there was the instance of the mayor speaking in favor of same-sex marriage.
Cardinal-designate O'Brien: In Baltimore, a couple of years ago, we had a novel requirement which would never have been dreamed of, where our pregnancy counseling centers were told by law, passed by the city council, that they had to put a sign up saying: "We do not provide birth-control or abortion services." Why did we have to do that? That was totally arbitrary on their part, and an attempt to put us out of business in favor of Planned Parenthood. The courts so far have ruled in our favor on this.
[Moreover,] if we imitate other states that have passed legislation regarding same-sex marriage, the next step will be that we have to teach this as appropriate in all our schools, that every one of our institutions has to accept the principle, and the reality in their communities and wherever they work. The next step will be as it is in European countries: if you speak openly about the immorality of same-sex marriage, you're open to prosecution. It's a slippery slope, and it's certainly going to happen.
The basic thing is, that to compare this to discrimination by race, discrimination by color -- that's pigmentation, that's real discrimination. But we're talking about the basic fundamental institution of marriage from the very beginning, from Scriptures and through civilized nations has [always] been between a man and a woman open to children. When we try out of sympathy or emotion to change that, it's a huge and dangerous initiative, and one that is dangerous for our future. We thank Zenit for this interview, conducted by Ann Schneible. Read all at:
http://www.zenit.org/article-34153?l=english