The Year of Faith

“A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. This “standing with him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes.”

So states Pope Benedict XVI in PORTA FIDEI, his apostolic letter which opened what he has declared to be the “Year of Faith,” which begins now and continues until November 2013. The beginning of this “Year of Faith” coincides with national elections, and so it is a timely reminder that faith informs our choices, and calls us to action.
Our first President, George Washington, reminds us as well of our responsibility: “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”

In preparing to zealously execute this annual ritual of a good citizen, the timely release of PORTA FIDEI provides inspiration to deepen our faith, educate ourselves, and live our faith publicly,—even (or especially) at the ballot box.

One cannot “stand with the Lord” only in private. We all will be called, and perhaps often, to do so publicly. At times, we may, like Peter, fail. Peter feared for his very life, but often the worst we risk is  embarrassment or discomfort.

Some risk more than others by “standing with the Lord” publicly. Candidates for public office are one obvious example. What is a politician’s “social responsibility for what one believes”? To adopt a stance in  opposition of popular opinion (or powerful groups), is to risk losing one’s elected position. And so we often observe politicians decline to pursue (or even actively oppose) policies based on principles they profess to personally embrace, such as the belief that life begins at conception. Often such beliefs are compartmentalized as personal religious convictions, which cannot be “imposed” on others.

There certainly are personally held religious convictions that would be inappropriate to impose on others through public policy and law. A Catholic president should certainly not dictate that all citizens should abstain from meat on Friday, or legislate that all public school students must recite the rosary in class daily, and a president who is an Orthodox Jew would be rightly criticized if he proposed the law of the land dictate Kosher observances for all. But defense of human life from the moment of conception is the only moral response to scientific fact, not a personal devotion. And PORTA FIDEI reminds us, “the Church has never been afraid of demonstrating that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine science, because both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth.”.

It is a true test of a politician’s character if he has the courage to “stand with the Lord” even if unpopular. And we see where this lack of courage can lead us, when  citizens and religious institutions are denied their freedom of religion, and  when the price of citizenship is to abandon core beliefs about the dignity of human life and love.

These politicians could learn a lesson in courage by observing the integrity of our NFP only physicians, who witness in a very public way, often at a personal and professional cost, when they decline to prescribe contraception. They are a source of inspiration to us all, and I see them, and all our CANFP members and supporters, in these words, also found in PORTA FIDEI “By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages, whose names are written in the Book of Life (cf. Rev 7:9, 13:8), have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to the fact that they were Christian: in the family, in the workplace, in public life, in the exercise of the charisms and ministries to which they were called.”

When called to this witness, we can all find inspiration in the final words of a great statesman, St. Thomas More: “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”