Archbishop Chaput at BYU: Religious believers must speak in the public square
Friday, Jan. 30, 2015
Intermountain Catholic
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Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput chats with Brigham Young University students after presenting a lecture in the Wilkinson Student Center's Varsity Theater on Jan. 23. IC photo/Marie Mischel
By Marie Mischel
Intermountain Catholic
PROVO — People of faith have both the right and a duty to fight for their convictions, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., told students at Brigham Young University during his Jan. 23 talk.
His presentation, “Magna Carta at 800: Why It Still Matters, Here and Now” was part of BYU’s “Lectures on Faith, Family, and Society” series.
Lessons from the document, crafted in England 800 years ago, while Saint Francis of Assisi was founding the Franciscan order in Italy, are pertinent to communities of faith in the United States today, he said.
“The terrain of our lives in the 21st century is very different from the world in 1215. But the power of religious faith to limit the power of a sovereign – whether elected to the White House or a king by divine right – might be very familiar to the men who gathered at Runnymede” with King John of England to draft the Magna Carta, the archbishop said.
The Magna Carta, a list of 63 royal commitments and concessions, included a demand for recognition of the rights of the Church, the archbishop said, adding that this has implications in the modern United States because institutions like the family, churches and fraternal organizations are meant to constrain the state.
“So protecting these mediating institutions is vital to our freedoms,” he said. “The state rarely fears individuals. Alone, individuals have little power. They can be isolated or ignored. But organized communities – including communities of faith – are a different matter. They can resist. They can’t be ignored. And that’s why they pose a problem for social engineers and an expanding state.”
He called upon the audience to work for good laws that reflect their beliefs. “Democracies depend for their survival on people of conviction fighting for what they believe in the public square – legally and peacefully, but zealously and without apologies. That includes all of us,” he said.
“Critics often accuse religious believers of pursuing a ‘culture war’ on issues like abortion, sexuality, marriage and the family, and religious liberty,” he continued. “And in a sense, they’re right. We are working hard for what we believe. But of course, so are the people on the other side of all these issues – and no one seems to call them ‘culture warriors.’ In any case, neither they nor we should feel bad about fighting for our convictions. Democracy thrives on the struggle of competing ideas. We steal from ourselves and from our fellow citizens if we try to avoid that struggle.”
While acknowledging the obvious differences in doctrine and practice between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church, the archbishop said members of the two faiths can still be friends and work together, particularly on issues of common concern such as marriage and family, the nature of sexuality, the sanctity of human life, and religious liberty.
“That’s a lot of common ground rooted in the natural law,” he said. “We can’t afford to concede it to people and ideas very different from the beliefs we cherish.”
He urged the LDS Church to avoid the mistake that some Catholic institutions have made in either losing or greatly softening their religious identity, he said. “Brigham Young is an extraordinary university not just because of its academic excellence – or the fact that it occasionally beats Notre Dame – but because it’s a center of learning enriched by its religious identity. Never lose that.”
The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, said he enjoyed Archbishop Chaput’s talk.
“He made the point that democracy must answer to a higher power, that God’s love and truth are above democracy,” the bishop said, adding that he liked that the archbishop stressed the importance of being respectful of others’ opinion, while at the same time “being firm about religious beliefs and that we do have a right to speak our truth in the public square and we mustn’t be shy about that.”
The LDS Church asked Archbishop Chaput to visit Salt Lake City as a continuation of the good working relationship that developed between them when the archbishop was assigned to Denver, said John Taylor, the LDS Church’s director of interfaith relations. “We have doctrinal differences, clearly, but we enjoy so many things in common and it’s important to work together on those areas of commonality.”
While he was in Utah, Archbishop Chaput also met with BYU faculty and administrators, then attended a dinner with leaders of LDS Church leaders in Salt Lake City.
The complete text of Archbishop Chaput’s presentation is available at firstthings.com.
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