Pastoral Message - Fourth of July

Dear Parishioners, Happy Fourth of July! We celebrate our 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence which is indeed a profound document. Many studies of the origins of this famous Declaration point to the fact that the principles in the document did not just drop out of the sky. Many of the impulses for the origin of the document were already swirling around Europe in Christian and

Catholic circles. Thomas Jefferson was particularly influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, like John Locke. Scholastic theology and Thomistic thought also played a part in its evolution. This is found in the statement we all know: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights…. These human rights come from God, rather than a King or Government. In the Declaration of Independence we then read the bulk of the grievances against British rule.

The basis of the document is a basic religious tenet: that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God, and possesses an inherent dignity which cannot be taken away. Saintly thinkers in the 16th century fought to protect indigenous people from Colonialism. The Spanish School of Salamanca stressed the rights of liberty and justice, which are rooted in human nature. A Jesuit Cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, at the same time taught that political authority comes from God, but it is vested in the community of the people, not in an individual ruler.

While the phrase all men are created equal took many generations of struggle to be fully realized in American Law, its very conception lies in the classical Christian understanding of human nature with liberty and justice for all.

For us also that means every person, even the unborn has rights to life! … and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Abraham Lincoln later declared that we are one Nation, Under God. This saying "Under God" was used during the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln taught that our Nation is always to be United under God, and today humbly we should add: One Nation, Under God's Mercy!

Fr. David