MADISON Catholics and other concerned believers, remain vigilant!
The sustained attacks that the Obama Administration launched against the positions of the Church and other religions about matters of conscience and religious freedom through overreaching legislation over the past eight years continue today by increasingly hostile liberal and secularist sectors of society. That’s why Robert George, a professor at Princeton University, urged Catholics to “remain vigilant” in promoting and protecting religious freedom — and their faith-based understanding of conscience — against forces that “seek to diminish it, especially when those threats come from overreaching governments.”
Called “the Christian-Conservative big thinker” by the New York Times, George spoke about “Conscience and Its Enemies: Why Moral Truth Matters” to about 100 members of the public and of Advocati Christi, the Diocesan fellowship to Catholic lawyers, on Feb. 15 at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocese’s Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. He delivered his engaging hour-long presentation to a standing-room-only audience in one of the center’s classrooms, focusing on matters of conscience and religious freedom through the writings of two prominent 19th century thinkers: John Stuart Mill and John Henry Newman.
“Freedom of religious has a certain priority — a private place [in society]. It protects an aspect of our flourishing as human persons. Religion is a great good — the asking of existential questions, a spiritual quest and the work to identify the truth and to live in line with one’s best judgment of the truths — or truth — in these matters,” said George, the McCormick Chair in Jurisprudence and founding director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. “Newman believed in conscience to help us realize values that promote the flourishing of men and women as free and rational creatures — made in the image and likeness of God, the free and rational creator of the universe,” he said.
George spoke as part of an ongoing lecture series at St. Paul’s by notable religious and legal minds about faith and the law. Sponsoring the series is Advocati Christi, a diocesan fellowship of lawyers and judges who are committed to the profession their faith. During his presentation, George spoke about the importance of faith in the lives of lawyers — and all believers.
“Our professional life as lawyers is, in part, shaped by our faith commitments. Religion concerns ultimate things. It represents our being able to be brought into friendship and harmony with transcendent sources of meaning and value. It shapes not only what we do in the religious aspects of our lives — prayer, liturgy and fellowship — but also in every aspect of our lives,” said George, who used material from his book, “Conscience and Its Enemies: Why Moral Truth Matters.” “Religion, including Catholicism, helps us view our lives as an integrated whole and direct our choices and activities that have integrity, not just in a moral sense, but in a broader sense by having a life that hangs together — that makes sense,” the speaker said.
George talked about the importance of defending religious freedom and conscience — this after the Obama Administration mounted challenges to those principles with legislation, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law includes a mandate that employers, including religious institutions, provide healthcare coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and artificial contraceptives. The Church and other religious institutions — including the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa — argued that offering such coverage violated the tenets of their faith. The administration prevailed in the courts, arguing that the mandates protected a woman’s freedom and rights of conscience. President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have vowed to repeal “Obamacare,” George said.
For some context, George noted that Mill, a secular humanist, advanced what has become known as the “No Harm” principle that’s popular today: people should be free to do whatever they want as long as it does not hurt anybody. By contrast, Newman, a Catholic convert, believed that society needed to place restraints on people, “so they do not descend into vice and degradation” and noted that conscience “speaks of what one must do or one must not do,” he said.
George’s event started with a 5:30 p.m. Mass in St. Paul’s chapel, followed by 6 p.m. cocktail hour and conversation. It continued with a 7 p.m. presentation and an 8 p.m. gathering of fellows of the Outreach for Lawyers, including private dinner with the speaker and discussion. Lawyers were eligible to earn Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for attending.
Introducing George’s talk, Mark Scirocco, a lawyer and chairman of the event’s steering committee, called the speaker, “one of the foremost stewards and defenders of western civilization in the public square today for Christians and conservatives, who seek to engage the modern world on hot-button moral and social issues.” He said the featured speaker “knows that there is an answer to the problems of the modern world and that that answer is Jesus of Nazareth,” Scirocco said.
“I’m feeling more thoughtful, catching glimpses of the coherent truth that Professor George knows and defends,” said Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, after the presentation. “I am grateful to him as we all are.”
This year’s Advocati Christi speakers’ series continues on Wednesday, March 15 with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr.: and then Tuesday, April 25 with Father Paul Scalia, Bishop’s Delegate for Clergy and head of the Clergy Personnel Board in the Diocese of Arlington, Va., and son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The cost of each talk is $35 for the cocktail hour, presentation and CLE credits; $25 for the cocktail hour and presentation; $25 for the presentation and CLE credits; and $15 for the presentation.
[To register: (973) 377-1004 or go to www.insidethewalls.org.]