Cardinal Francis George of Chicago Clueless or not?
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is at it again. In a talk he gave to the Library of Congress, on February 13, 2007, the Cardinal takes American Democracy to task for not maintaining a narrow agenda the Cardinal subscribes to. He believes Freedom of religion, and all freedom, can be placed at risk by an "aggressive secularism" that asserts its dominance in society. One wonders if the Cardinal understands what he is speaking about, or for that matter if others understand what he is speaking about. Secularism is the belief that religion and religious bodies should have no part in political or civil affairs, or in running public institutions, especially schools. Aggressive does not enter into it. Secularists have as much right to their beliefs as the Cardinal does to his.
The talk focused on What Kind of Democracy Leads to Secularization?" -- Cardinal George weighed in against both legal and cultural expressions of secularism that marginalize the importance of religion in society. The Cardinal is famous for speaking in none relative language when it comes to the reality of the daily lives of people. We live in a secular country no religion decides what rights citizens should, or should not have. The US Constitution is alive and well in this country even if the Teaching Magisterium is not.
He goes onto say the secular must provide legitimate ground for religion in society, furthermore "When the secular is legitimized without freedom of religion, persecution of religion becomes inevitable." What the Cardinal is really talking about is privilege. Religion is given the ground to grow in this country and thrive. However, it is not the place of government to promote or fund religious bodies. If the Catholic Church has fallen from grace I would surmise it has more to do with the human fraility of its leadership in not handling the clergy abuse scandal. Don’t blame secularism for the Church’s fall from grace
Cardinal George took aim at the Supreme Court. "Their jurisprudence is admittedly incoherent." No, what is incoherent is a Cardinal who feels more comfortable under a feudal system than he does a thriving democracy. He uses it as justification for the failures of the Catholic Bishops in the United States, and to attack the institutions of this democracy.
I believe the Cardinal goes to far when he said a "radical secularist" society would resemble Soviet-era Russia by "limiting freedom of religion to the freedom of private conscience and worship." Why has this Prince of Church ignored the growing scandal in Poland about former Archbishop of Warsaw Stanislaw Wieglus, and the involvement of it's priests with the secret police. Does Cardinal George deny that even Pope John Paul II tried to keep the lid on this scandal?
One only has to look to see the Churches and Synagogues freely practicing their religion. Religious schools abound. No religion in this country is hampered in its practice to infer so is to mislead people. What the Cardinal is really arguing for is privilege. He wants freedom of religion without accountability for its actions.
The real question is why does the Cardinal not address his own failures in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and that of his brother Bishops around the whole issue of clergy/bishop sexual abuse of children. What is confounding to those within the Church, and outside the Church is the repeated instances of cover-up and total lack of accountability for egregious crimes against innocents by this Catholic leadership.
As we enter the sacred time of Lent I would ask Cardinal Francis George to publically apologize to the American Catholic Community for his irresponsible statements, and also take this opportunity to call for a public appology from the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and clergy for the way they have treated the victims of sexual abuse.
