True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty

True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty.  By Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Random House, Inc., Kindle e-book, 2012.

 

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is a prominent figure in American Catholicism, and increasingly, world Catholicism.  After severing as Archbishop of Milwaukee for several years, Dolan was transferred to New York City and promoted to Cardinal.  In recent months, Cardinal Dolan has been a vocal critic of the federal government’s mandate that requires Catholic employers and medical institutions to violate their religious principles by providing or funding for contraceptives and sterilizations.  In an effort to define his argument for why the government’s new policy is not just unconstitutional, but also unconscionable from a Catholic moral perspective, Cardinal Dolan has written a brief monograph, True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty, available online as an e-book, in order to explain Catholic teachings on these matters and why the government mandate ought to be opposed.

 

The title of this monograph comes a quote by Pope Leo XIII, who declared that, “True freedom… is that freedom which most truly safeguards the dignity of the human person. It is stronger than any violence or injustice. Such is the freedom which has always been desired by the Church, and which she holds most dear.” 

 

This monograph is meant to outline Catholic teaching in a succinct and readable manner, and Cardinal Dolan succeeds in his objective, coming across as an intelligent and principled man of faith.  There are no preachy overtones, no plaintiveness, and no demonizing of his opponents. The justifications for his arguments come from multiple sources, ranging from theology to discussions on natural law.  Cardinal Dolan describes natural law thusly:

 

“Natural law is a concept of objective truth, known by anyone with the power of reason. For instance, it is always and everywhere wrong to deliberately take the life of an innocent person. This is an objective truth, and it is not relativized by the special interests of religious preference, class, gender, or individual bias. Natural law is also at the heart of our first freedoms declared so boldly in our nation’s Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” 

 

It is a question of endowments that are intrinsic to us by the very fact of being human. And thus the rights appropriate to us are “unalienable.” They cannot be taken away by any state, power, law, or choice of individuals. 

 

And what specifically cannot be taken away? Our life, our liberty. No human institution or individual has given us these rights. They have been given to us by God.”

 

All people, regardless of creed or political persuasion, have a duty to themselves and to their fellow citizens to protect their rights and freedoms.  Increasingly, however, there is increasing social and political pressure to limit certain freedoms that have long been enjoyed by people of faith.  Much of the political effort to create laws that force certain religious people to violate their consciences has been driven by an ideology that is often referred to as the Culture of Death.  Pope John Paul II popularized the use of the phrase “the Culture of Death.”  This term refers to an ideological approach to life and society that holds virtue, innocence, and even life itself in contempt.  The Culture of Death spreads by making it unfashionable, unpopular, and even illegal to act in a manner in accordance to certain principles, particularly those held by the Catholic Church.  Cardinal Dolan explains the attraction and allure of the Culture of Death, for after all, the adherents of the Culture of Death do not refer to it by that name.

 

“Such a culture of death can only thrive, of course, in a world in which God has been excluded, and in which everyone can evade the responsibility of solidarity by claiming to define his or her own morality. Personal freedom—the ability to do what I want, when I want, because I want to do it—is seen as the only absolute value. 

 

Can sustained human rights, those unalienable rights with which we have been endowed by our Creator, girded by law, survive in such a culture? The pragmatic, utilitarian worldview, so popular in some segments of government and society, is used to construct a system of laws protecting human rights, particularly that of life itself, that are like blowing leaves—everything is constantly being renegotiated, based on shifting winds of utility, convenience,
privacy, and self-interest.”

 

Dolan argues that the Culture of Death specifically targets children and the most vulnerable members of society.  The reason why the Church opposes the federal mandate and the attempt to legally compel Catholics to violate their consciences is because it wishes to protect the safety of innocent people.  The only way to counteract the forces of the Culture of Death is to identify the problems and to provide an alterative and opposite ideological perspective.  Dolan writes:

 

“Take, for example, the fact of the “being” of the baby in the womb. That “being,” that life, trumps the values of usefulness, efficiency, convenience, privacy, or satisfaction of one’s needs. A culture of life with supportive laws guarantees this. 

 

A baby is useless and impractical from a raw, pragmatic, utilitarian, or consumerist view. A family that I know, with eight healthy, beautiful children, tells me that they regularly feel the stares of disdain and hear the tsk-tsks from enlightened folks who look as if they’re about ready to produce a flyer for vasectomies, tubal ligation, abortion, or chemical contraceptives. I worry this experience is becoming the norm for any mom and dad with two or more children under the age of five! With China’s

 one-child policy—enforced by grave punishment—those who have more than one child may seem to insist on a quaint practice. And Western Europe, I’m sad to say, has its own voluntary one- or no-child policy, enforced by a culture in which nominally Christian couples reject large families, and this is increasingly true in our own beloved country. Modern, secular cultures seem to view the baby as a commodity or an accessory at best and an inconvenience or a burden at worst. 

 

For many couples, babies are now postponed by chemicals and latex, until a couple might decide they’d enjoy one and then are irritated when they can’t conceive, driving them to laboratories where perhaps technology can make up for what only nature does perfectly. I know that this does not apply to all infertile

 couples. I’ve counseled far too many husbands and wives, who are living good, faithful lives, open to God’s plan for them, who nonetheless sincerely long for a child but are having difficulty conceiving. Still, for many, it’s another example of what I want, when I want, because I want. We can read articles about couples who want to design their own baby, essentially ordering one from a catalog. If pregnancy occurs, and the baby is not to their liking, especially if sick or less than perfect, they can always stop the pregnancy and maybe try again. Many people have babies, if at all, to satisfy their own desires, not to sacrifice for the child’s; to fulfill their own needs, not because they long to spend the rest of their lives fulfilling their children’s needs; to reward themselves, not because they want to shower love upon their kids. 

 

To this culture of death, the Church boldly and joyfully promotes the culture of life.”

 

Dolan presents the Church’s teachings in a very clear and colloquial manner.  This monograph is meant to influence not just Catholics, but people of all faiths, especially those who might be unsympathetic or even hostile to the Church’s moral stance.  Only the first half of this e-book is devoted to Cardinal Dolan’s monograph.  The second half is titled “Dolan in Conversation,” written with John L. Allen, Jr.  It contains a concise biography of the Cardinal’s life and career, with a particular focus on his goals for strengthening the faith and religious education of Catholics in America and around the world. The e-book concludes with the following declaration: “Whatever the future may have in store for Dolan—whether he stays in New York until he dies, whether he’s eventually called to Rome to work in a senior Vatican post, or something else entirely—he will be a force in the Catholic Church both nationally and internationally, and it’s well worth trying to discern what that might mean.” 

 

–Chris Chan