"Students of Faith" Video
Each year new cases are brought to defend the religious freedom of members of our military by law firms who defend religious freedom in all relevant situations. Many Catholics wonder why there is an organization such as Catholics for Freedom of Religion. They tell us they can go to church on Sunday so what is the problem.
Freedom of Worship is not freedom of religion. Freedom of Worship is the right to pray within the church of your choice. Freedom of religion is the right to worship in church, in your home and in the public square, as in processions, public rosaries, etc. Freedom of Religion is the right to live your faith openly in every area of your life. So the cases brought against the military are an area of great concern. Many cases in recent years reflect a resistance to God’s presence among the military as service men and women are criticized, marginalized and even dismissed for their religious beliefs and practices which denies their right to freedom of religion.
On Jan. 17, 2025 Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit to defend an Idaho National Guardsman, Major Worley, because he was removed from a command position solely for his religious beliefs which he had stated in a venue off duty and outside of his military service. Major Worley was investigated based on a complaint filed by a guardsman who said he felt unsafe and threatened because of Worley’s beliefs. The investigation showed no wrongdoing by Worley but still he was removed by a general who decided Worley’s Christian views were toxic.
Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/33d36csv
Read here about a VA chaplain whose sermons are being censored because he preaches based on his religious beliefs and his ecclesiastical endorsement. https://tinyurl.com/3pnhvnzn
The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for conduct in every situation of life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations!” -Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
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STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
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Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
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AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.
Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
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To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
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To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
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To invite and include other faith communities
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To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
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To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
