The Freedom to Serve

“The Freedom to Serve” was the crucially relevant theme of the third annual Fortnight for Freedom, imploring God to protect America’s threatened freedom of religion and conscience through prayers and special masses, and highlighting the Catholic Church’s claim and commitment to religious freedom. Like those of 2012 and 2013, it began on June 21, followed by an opening mass at the Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore on Sunday June 22, the feast days of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. It concluded on July 4 with a mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

The closing mass began with the hope that faithful Christians will have the grace to continue to live out their faith. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered the homily. He noted that “people of faith have had a profound impact of the life of our nation.” People “have used this freedom to serve others.” This is because the particular kind of faith that Christians hold, and especially the kind of faith that the Catholic Church teaches, sees charity as a vital part of faith. “Faith that does not show itself in acts of service to others is a dead faith” Archbishop Kurtz said. He noted that Jesus was critical of those who do not put faith into action. This clearly indicates that to live out the Catholic faith at least, as the First Amendment clearly supports in its guarantee of the “exercise of religion,” it must be possible to engage in charitable activity in the world. If one cannot act according to the standards of one’s particular faith, such activity is not a distinct “exercise of religion.” He noted the statement of John Paul II that “Christ teaches us that the best use of freedom is charity.”