As we wind down the birthday of our nation many of us rejoice in our freedoms and the wisdom of the founding fathers. We have all learned from grade school about the heroic action of our nations first leaders and the ideals that make America great. Religious freedom is one of those ideals.
Most of Catholics enjoying life in America today have no real idea about the state of Catholic America in colonial days and in the period around our glorious revolution. You see there was no greater group of people despised, hated and discriminated against in the earliest years than Catholics.
Catholicism was downright hated by a vast majority of the earliest settlers and colonists. This had its' roots in the dominance of English influence and Catholicism wasn't doing too good there either; remember, just a couple of hundred years after the Protestant Reformation and the emergence of Lutheran and Anglican (Episcopal) Churches. In any case, Catholics were so disfavored that only a small percent could book passage to the new country and less than 1% of America was Catholic.
So despised were Catholics that the colony of Maryland was basically established as the "Catholic experiment". It would be a territory for those Catholics to live, far away from the population centers of New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
After the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War, as well as the establishment of a Constitution and Bill of Rights, would there be an eventual tolerance of Catholics. But make no mistake, Catholics were still mistrusted and were called "papists (meaning allegiance to the Pope) in a manner that resembled allegiance to a king or monarch.
With the eventual growth of the United States west and south, particularly the Louisiana purchase, French and Spanish influence brought a dramatic increase in Catholics. Soon, Catholics were gaining influence in education, politics, military and working shoulder to shoulder with other Christians.
Still, discrimination existed. Fr. Michael McGiveneny began the Knights of Columbus, in part, due to discrimination against Catholics and an inability for Catholic bread winners to purchase insurance.
In order to get along and to participate more fully in many unique American ideals, Pope Leo XIII became concerned and wrote a papal letter on Americanism, a condition he labeled as a potential heresy.
Just as the Church universal has survived so many human failures, the Church in America has long endured. Today, the Church accounts for about 25% of our nations population and is active in all 50 states. Catholic education remains the envy of all educaional systems in America and Catholics are leaders in every facet of our society.
I beleive it important that when we talk about religious liberty and freedom and how our nation was founded on God, Catholics need to know the truth. For Catholics to have endured and actually sowed the seeds for a faith that has blossomed in our democratic republic, it was those same freedom loving religiously tolerant folk that tried, unsuccessfully to supress it.
Fortunately today it is Catholics who proclaim loudly God Bless America, in God we Trust and oh yes, One Nation Under God (in the pledge of allegiance) actually added by the lobbying efforts of Catholic leaders, including the Knights of Columbus.
Should Catholic Americans be patriotic; you bet. But should Catholic Americans ever abandon the faith because of any political or idealistic policy; no way.
And Catholic Americans must remain steadfast in opposing all laws that violate God's natural laws such as abortion, embryonic stem cell research, same sex marriages, discrimination laws, racial profiling, assisted suicide, unfair taxes that especially effect the working class and poor and discrimination laws against institutions like Catholic schools and hospitals.
As a Catholic in America we are called to always promote our Catholic faith and the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church; and be patriotic and proud to be an American that seeks real justice and liberty for all (including the unborn, the poor, the marginalized and the weak).
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