Liberty

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   It has been awhile since I tried to post something on my blog.  Every day I think I'll cover something amusing about our life in the country; and every day the news depresses me and I see a lot of black clouds in our future.  Finally, after reading portions of Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical on "The Nature of Human Liberty," which our pastor has been publishing piecemeal in our Sunday bulletin, I thought I would simply quote from the portion in yesterday's bulletin.  The sainted Pope wrote it in 1888. With the threats to our religious liberty increasing, it seems apropos.

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(Italics are my insertions)
   For, to reject the supreme authority to God, and to cast off all obedience to Him in public matters, or even in private and domestic affairs, is the greatest perversion of liberty and the worst kind of liberalism; and what We have said must be understood to apply to this alone in its fullest sense.

   Next comes the system of those who admit indeed the duty of submitting to God, the Creator and Ruler of the world, inasmuch as all nature is dependent on His will, but who boldly reject all laws  of faith and morals which are above natural reason, but are revealed by the authority of God; or who at least impudently assert that there is no reason why regard should be paid to these at any rate publicly, by the State.  How mistaken these men also are, and how inconsistent, we have seen......From this teaching, as from its source and principle, flows that fatal principle of the separation of Church and State; whereas it is, on the contrary, clear that the two powers, though dissimilar in functions and unequal in degree, ought nevertheless to live in concord, by harmony in their action and the faithful discharge of their respective duties.

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   After the French Revolution, with the suppression of religion, and the increasing secularism in the United States, true liberty was in danger. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by our Bill of Rights in the Constitution. The principle of separation of Church and State, as noted in the encyclical, was bound to be "fatal" in its interpretation. As Ronald Reagan said, if the nation is not a nation under God it is  a nation gone under. Remember, however, that Pope Leo XIII was speaking in defense of Catholic Church teaching and the truth of God.

  The Act of Faith is this:  O my God. I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I believe that Thy divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

  "Thou hast revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived."
That sentence is the sum of belief.