Bishops' Schedules: Bishop Robert C. Morlino Thursday, May 20, 2004 -- Thursday, May 27, 2004 "Ad Limina" Visit, Vatican City, Rome, Italy Bishop William H. Bullock, Bishop Emeritus Sunday, May 23, 2004 10:00 a.m. -- Preside and Preach at Celebration of the Eucharist followed with groundbreaking for the new church, St. Joseph Parish, Fort Atkinson Bishop George O. Wirz, Bishop Emeritus Saturday, May 22, 2004 -- Thursday, May 27, 2004 "Ad Limina" Visit, Vatican City, Rome, Italy

One conscience per baptized believer --
not two

(This week's column consists of the text of Bishop Morlino's homily from the Red Mass, Thursday, April 22, 2004, St. Raphael Cathedral.)

		Under the Gospel Book + Bishop Robert C. Morlino

It is so wonderful to be with those dedicated to the practice of the law. The law is so important. The law is where most Americans get their sense of what's true and false, what's right and wrong. And so you hold a very sacred trust as Catholic judges, as Catholic legislators, Catholic attorneys, and it's not an easy profession.

Sometimes a lot of negativity is directed toward attorneys. I feel very close to you. These days a lot of negativity is directed toward Bishops so we are all in this together. I want to make three points: one about who we are as witnesses; one about the Catholic Church teaching on the relationship between Church and State; and the third item really includes two points about conscience. And at the end of a Thursday it won't be too lengthy a discourse. And I hope it will be rather succinct.

"Better to obey God than to follow human ways."

We are witnesses

The readings during the Easter season keep repeating that refrain of St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, "We are witnesses of this." Witnesses of what -- of the resurrection -- and what does that mean? We are witnesses of many things. Everyday the readings give us insight into what it is to be a witness and today the readings are very succinct. To be a witness means that sometimes we have to say it is better to obey God than to go along with the human way. We have to give that witness.

When we are baptized, we are made citizens of heaven. Sometimes our belonging to heaven, to God's Kingdom by baptism, has to take precedence over our citizenship in this world. There are conflicts and we have to make choices. And when we proclaim as we need to, "Better to obey God than to follow human ways," when we follow our baptismal citizenship in God's Kingdom rather than worldly citizenship, indeed we are witnessing to the resurrection, and in your line of work and in my line of work that kind of witnessing is called for more than not. That's the first point.

Examining church, state relationship

I'd like to suggest today that we can witness to our baptismal citizenship in God's Kingdom by first of all praying and thinking about the relationship between the Church and the State as the Catholic Church understands it, and then proclaiming it. We need to take our time. We need to think it through. We need to talk it through. The truth operates by its own gentle power. We don't force-feed the truth. But we have to think it through and we have to pray it through.

I rarely read from a text during a homily. As a matter of fact I do not think I've ever read in the Cathedral before. But just for a minute permit me to read two short texts from the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Liberty. Now a council declaration affirmed by the Pope is the highest level of teaching that there is in the Church. As Catholics we are called to believe in a definitive way the official teachings of the council affirmed by the Pope, and this is it.

The Declaration on Religious Liberty, number 6 states, "It is an integral part of the duty of every civil authority to safeguard and promote inviolable human rights. The State is therefore obliged to give effective protection to the religious liberty of all citizens by just laws and other suitable means." And get this phrase, "The State is obliged to ensure favorable conditions for fostering religious life." That's the official teaching of the Second Vatican Council affirmed by the Pope.

"The State is obliged to ensure favorable conditions for fostering religious life." Not to show favor to one particular denomination, to one particular sect, to one particular church. It doesn't say that. But it certainly says the teaching of the Catholic Church does not square with the statement that the wall of separation between Church and State is impenetrable. That way of thinking may be arguable among constitutional scholars. That's not my field. But to claim that the wall of separation between Church and State is impenetrable is simply not a Catholic way of thinking. It is directly opposed to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council which says the State should favor religion, not any particular religion but generally favor religious practice.

Now, we seem in our country and in our culture to be drifting in quite a different direction from that. We seem to be. And in another place the Second Vatican Council says, "At the same time the faithful like other people have the civil right not to be prevented from living their lives as conscience directs." (Degree on Religious Liberty, Number 13) "The faithful like other people have the civil right not to be prevented from living their lives as conscience directs." Our conviction about the relationship of Church and State and our conscience directing us to live out our faith convictions unimpeded are basic teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The Degree on Religious Liberty enjoys with the other decrees of Vatican II the highest authority in the Church.

There is only one conscience

This leads me to the third item which is really comprised of two points about conscience. First of all the wall between Church and State according to the Catholic tradition cannot be seen as impenetrable. The State is to favor the practice of religion without favoring the practice of any single religion. No one of us as Catholics can claim that I personally follow the teachings of the Church according to my conscience, but when I exercise the civil office to which I am elected or appointed or in which I function, then that brings me under another set of rules. I have God's rules for my personal life and conscience, and then I have the State's rules for the official civil functions that I perform.

To be sure, there are the rules of the State and there are God's rules. Nothing could be clearer. But there is only one conscience; there is only one witness; one baptized citizen of God's Kingdom who has a conscience meant for the truth of Jesus Christ. And for each individual there is no second conscience which is to be used to calculate how I operate in the civil framework. There is only one conscience.

And if my conscience as a baptized believer says to me that what the civil situation demands of me is impossible, then I have to say, "Better to obey God than to follow human ways." I have to say my first citizenship is in God's Kingdom; it is not the citizenship in this world, in this state or in that state. One conscience per baptized believer, not two. And if Church and State come into conflict the citizenship in God's Kingdom takes priority. We need to think about that, pray about that, ask questions about that, try to understand that, so that we can then live that and we can proclaim that. It has to be proclaimed, and you are in a better position to change the world by proclaiming that than I am, for a lot of reasons that you know better than I do.

Not an ideological battle

The second point about conscience: people will sometimes say that when we as Catholic Christians or we as disciples of Christ seek to live out the teaching of the Church, seek to live out what our conscience demands, we are trying to force our ideology on others. You don't know how it hurts me when I hear that! My convictions in faith are called by someone an ideology that I am trying to force on others. That hurts me so much because there is a judgment of the heart involved in that.

When I try to follow my conscience according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, why do I do that? Because I want my ideology to win out over someone else's? Absolutely not! That's not why I do it. And when somebody says, "Don't push your ideology," they are in effect saying I'm trying to make a winner out of my ideology and a loser out of somebody else's. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

When we follow our consciences according to the teaching of the Church, we are not proclaiming or forcing an ideology, we are trying to save our souls; that's my motive. It's not to force an ideology on someone. We try to live out our faith convictions; we try to accept the salvation that Christ won for us on the cross. It is a terrible thing for someone to reduce my living out the Gospel of Christ to an ideological political battle. It hurts me terribly. It takes the guts out of our faith and reduces it to a kind of rough and tumble politics with which we have become all too familiar these days.

To talk about your faith conviction and mine, to talk about the rights of your conscience and mine as though it were an ideology is the consummate dirty trick, because in a cynical sophistry-laden way it reduces that on which I stake my life to something of quite lesser importance, something of quite lesser importance. I'm trying to accept salvation in Christ when I invoke the rights of my conscience. For somebody to say that I'm trying to win an ideological battle is about the single most disrespectful thing that they could ever say to me. And I hope when they say it they don't understand what they're saying. And to tell you the truth I presume that they don't. But it's a profound act of disrespect, when I invoke the right of my conscience, to call that pushing an ideology or forcing an ideology.

Conscience has to do with salvation. Being a citizen of God's Kingdom rather than a citizen of this world when I have to has to do with salvation. Better to obey God than to follow human ways. We are witnesses.

We have a lot of witnessing to do

I hope as I said that this will be the beginning of a prayerful conversation about these and so many other matters. We're baptized; we're witnesses; that's where we start. By God's Grace where do we go from there? How do we think about Church and State? How do we think about conscience? Are we tempted to condone the "I'm personally opposed but in my official capacity I am obligated" kind of approach? Do we sit quietly by when we invoke our rights and conscience and people call that pushing our ideology?

We've got a lot of witnessing to do. I want so much for all of us to work together to do it; to do it together; to do it with gentleness; to do it with love; so that the truth with love will win out in the end as it always does. Praised be Jesus Christ!