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Writings of the Bishop
Lincoln Day Address
February 2012
Posted in Selected Homilies/Addresses
Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus SK Anthony William "Bill" Harrick, of Bishop Fenwick Assembly 100 in Norwalk, still dresses out whenever Assembly 100 calls for the Honor Guard, even though he turned age 100 in May of last year. He is pictured here, sitting beside Bishop Lori, who is the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus. The photo was taken prior to a Lincoln Day dinner, at which Bishop Lori was a principal speaker. Other Assembly 100 Honor Guard members pictured are, standing left to right, Sir Knights Anthony Cossuto, A.J. Cossuto, William Berger, Donald Hunter, Stephen Haywood, Robert Kramer, Patrick Finn and James Wardwell.
I. Introduction
A. It’s good to be here this evening.
And you’ll be glad that with me you are getting two talks for the price of one.
For a moment I’ll speak about the State of the Church, and then,
with Abraham Lincoln as my inspiration, I’ll speak briefly on Church and State.
B. So how is the Church doing?
Perfect. It couldn’t be better. People couldn’t be happier.
If we tried there could not be more joy and unanimity.
No one wants to leave and everyone is paying rapt attention.
And there are no legal or financial problems.
. . . by now you’ve guessed I’m talking about the Church in heaven.
There’s where I’d like to be a bishop but they don’t need bishops up there!
(In fact, some wonder if any of us will go there!)
C. The Church on earth? That’s a different story.
We’re doing what we’ve been doing
since the Lord founded the Church 2000 years ago.
To use St. Paul’s words, ‘We’re working out our redemption in fear and trembling.’
We are community of saints and sinners and those in between.
We have some of the noblest people imaginable, some of the holiest,
and we have others who say and do things, even in public, that are against the Gospel.
And we have a lot of people in between who are being swayed
by bad example and by the culture to leave behind their religious faith.
And yes, we have our disagreements also.
Making saints is a messier business than making sausage.
D. Along the way, however, some pretty wonderful things are happening.
Some forty young men in our diocese are studying to be priests.
Forty per cent of our schools are Blue Ribbon Schools –
recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Education as being in the top 10% of all schools.
Enrollment in our Catholic schools this year is up 5% in contrast with the region.
Catholic Charities, through the Merton Center, the New Covenant House,
and Morning Glory in Danbury, and our services to the homebound –
served 1.1 million meals last year, provided untold hours of counseling,
immigration services, employment, low cost housing –
we remain the largest non-governmental provider of social services in the county.
This past year, a number of parishes were consolidated in the city of Bridgeport,
by no means an easy process, but something that had to be done.
Behind the scenes is a lot of hard work, uncelebrated work,
that entails difficult administrative decisions to help keep the diocese viable.
No, we’re not perfect. No, we’re not the Church in heaven.
We’re pilgrims making our way thru a challenging time toward the Kingdom of God.
E. To be sure, the church is a non-stock corporation – but we all have a stake in it.
Our initial public offering was that first Pentecost Sunday
when the apostles went out to preach the Gospel, made converts,
and with just a handful of people spread the faith through the Roman Empire,
praying, working hard, and laying down their lives in the process.
The state of the Church depends on whether we’re receptive of God’s grace:
whether we pray; whether we go to Mass on Sunday; whether we know our faith;
whether or not we are willing, and able to pass our faith along to our children;
whether or not with God’s help we live our faith and bear witness to the truth
amid our personal and professional responsibilities each day.
And the more open we are to God and to the Kingdom of Heaven,
the better able we are to create a truthful, just, and humane society on earth.
II. Church and State
A. . . . Which is a pretty good segue into the next part of my talk: Church and State.
Right before hurricane Irene struck late last summer,
I decided to get on my elliptical one last time before the lights went out.
Whilst torturing myself, I noticed that my neighbor, Archbishop Dolan was calling.
Answering the phone, I was already out of breath,
. . . but he took away what little I had left
by asking me to chair a new committee of the bishops’ conference
that would be dedicated to the promotion of religious liberty.
I didn’t know exactly what it would involve but I had a pretty good idea
that if I accepted I’d have a tiger by the tail and that’s how it’s turning out.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying this work quite a bit.
It’s a committee made up of great bishops who work together
with lay experts from all around the country.
It’s one of the finest groups of people I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.
But it’s a challenge – religious, cultural, and legal.
B. Religious liberty was not in the crosshairs in Lincoln’s day
but that doesn’t mean it was unimportant
nor does it mean that Lincoln didn’t take his religious faith seriously.
This little story will illustrate what I mean.
One of Lincoln’s oldest friends from Illinois was named Joshua Speed.
After Lincoln became President, Speed came to visit him
and stayed with Lincoln at the Soldiers’ Home in N.E. Washington.
When Lincoln was younger, he was something of a skeptic
and he had his complaints about religion.
For that reason, Speed was surprised to come upon Lincoln absorbed in his Bible.
Speed said to him,
“If you have recovered from our skepticism, I am sorry to say I have not.”
“You are wrong, Speed,” replied Lincoln,
“Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance on faith,
and you will live and die a happier man.”
C. Amid his personal struggles and the immense challenges he faced,
Lincoln came to understand the importance of faith in God,
a faith reflected in the biblical cadences of his speeches
and a faith that strengthened him for crushing responsibilities
as a wartime leader and as the eventual emancipator of those held in slavery.
Lincoln’s faith helped him not only in his daily decisions and dilemmas,
some of which were agonizing – but it also gave him a larger frame of reference.
It helped him ponder the role and destiny of the United States in world history
over against the designs and purposes of God in history.
It reminded him constantly that human dignity and freedom were given
not by the generosity of the government but by the hand of God,
as John Fitzgerald Kennedy would say a century later in his inaugural address.
Lincoln’s 1862 message to the Congress reflected his belief in a special role
that the Divine Providence had marked out for the union he was trying to save:
“We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”
D. Lest we forget, the abolitionist movement was essentially religious.
And while Lincoln had a complicated relationship with some abolitionists,
especially in his overarching goal of saving the union,
he recognized the humanity of those held in slavery
in contrast to the Supreme Court’s toxic Dred Scott decision.
And Lincoln became their emancipator.
III. Letter from a Birmingham Jail
A. A hundred years later, we meet Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Birmingham jail.
Reverend King continued to struggle for freedom and human dignity
and he believed that this was the specific contribution
that Christians are obliged to make to society.
In his famous letter, he quoted St. Augustine who said that,
“an unjust law is no law at all…”
Reverend King told us that one can tell the difference between a just and unjust law
because a just law “squares with the moral law or the law of God”
whereas an unjust law “is out of harmony with the moral law.”
Reverend King went on to refer to St. Thomas Aquinas who said that
“…an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”
B. There is no denying that religious faith played a major role
in ending the unjust institution of slavery in the United States
and it played a major role in the modern civil rights movement.
It continues to play a major role
in defending the humanity of the unborn, the frail elderly, & those with special needs.
Religious faith continues to play a major role in defending the family
as between one man and one woman who are “different for a reason” –
and that “reason” is bringing children into the world, giving them a loving home,
and providing them with a father and a mother as role models.
C. Sometimes it is only in retrospect that the nobility of a cause becomes apparent.
The goodness and genius of our nation is that our founding documents acknowledge
our God-given freedom not only to worship,
but also the God-given freedom of churches, church institutions, and individuals
to engage in faith-based works of charity, education, and health-care
and to bring into the public square convictions
which, at any one given period of time, may not be considered popular.
Lincoln clearly saw that the relationship between
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Alluding to the Book of Proverbs he spoke of “apples of gold in a setting of silver.”
The apples of gold are the principles of the Declaration of Independence
whereas the setting silver is the Constitution which makes those principles secure.
D. Among the principles which need to be re-secured in our times is religious liberty.
We are keenly aware of the current struggle over the HHS mandate
which would force churches and private employers to violate their consciences.
Tonight I thank you for your strong support of concerted efforts
to overturn that unjust regulation that is being imposed
on people of faith and conviction.
Tonight I am here to assure you that the United States Bishops will not back down.
There is only one right course of action: to rescind the HHS mandate!
E. But that mandate is just the tip of the iceberg.
Think about the Administration’s recent attempt to challenge
the freedom of churches to choose their ministers
or the injustice when state governments refuse
to license excellent the Catholic Charities adoption programs
because they uphold the Church’s teaching on marriage and family.
Think of the Administration’s refusal to renew the contract of
Migration and Refugee Services, an excellent agency of the Church
which for years has effective served victims of human trafficking.
The reason? Because it will not agree to provide abortions to those victims.
Or think of Christian student organizations on public college campuses
that are denied recognition if they refuse to admit those
who are squarely opposed to their principles.
IV. Conclusion
A. President Lincoln, Reverend Martin Luther King
and all the founding fathers were unanimous in affirming religion
as essential for limited self-government, our democratic form of government.
They never dreamed that government would try to define any church’s mission
or try to interfere in the internal affairs of churches
or regard public religious expression as offensive and divisive.
We’ve gone a long way on that path and the road ahead is dangerous
for any group or individual taking religious faith seriously.
It’s a good night to think seriously about Lincoln’s legacy.
B. One great way we might celebrate his legacy is to be absorbed in our Bibles,
and become familiar with the social teaching of the Church and her worship,
by which human dignity, human solidarity, the common good,
and institutions like families, schools, and social groups are valued and fostered.
We need to equip ourselves intellectually and spiritually to defend religious liberty
for it is God’s gift to us entrusted to us to hand on to the coming generations.
Thanks for listening. God bless the Catholic Club and God bless our United States!
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