The Consequences of Silence in The Public Square

By F. K. Bartels
8/14/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Let us fall in love with the fullness of truth; then, let us live and speak what we love.

Our nation and the world is in desperate need of an infusion of Catholic principles and values. It is time to learn our Faith, live it and speak it in our daily lives without compromise. Only then will we begin to turn back the unrelenting tide of relativism which continues to erode the shores of America.

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GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) -- It was St. Francis of Assisi who said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words." This quote is often used to emphasize the importance and value of living the Gospel life by example. Obviously, we cannot evangelize for Christ if our own lives fail to bear the marks of ardent discipleship. There is, too, the healing salve of Christian love and joy, which has the power, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to soften even the hardest hearts. The value of living the Gospel in a spirit of Catholic fellowship and charity cannot be overstated.

However, the above quote is often used in another way: that is, to imply that silence in the public square, in the workplace and at social gatherings is entirely appropriate -- so long as one is living rightly. One wonders which came first: did Christians simply begin to lean toward silence of their own accord, or, on the other hand, was this notion imposed on the faithful by the unrelenting drumbeat of secularization which is so common today? I cast my vote for the latter.

Further, religious demographic surveys show that, presently, Americans are broadly Christian. So, with that in mind, promoting the Gospel often involves engaging others in such "forbidden" subjects as living the Gospel life in its entirety, the authority of the Catholic Church, the moral law, the necessity of the sacraments, the importance of sincere and active repentance, the attacks on the institution of marriage, and so forth. Of course, these subjects often arouse negative reactions: many refuse to listen, others resent the notion that they ought to examine their own idea of religion or lifestyle or morals.

Consequently, it is often thought that mere words are rather powerless in combating the many troubling and serious issues of our age: they cannot, so it goes, persuade magisterial dissidents toward loving obedience; nor are they an effective agent against the evils of abortion, contraceptives, same-sex "marriage," embryo harvesting, et cetera. Thus the unspoken contemporary code is: remain silent. Those who do speak are labeled negative. "First remove the speck from your eye," they say. In a word, labor quietly.

There is also another dimension to this silence: the notion that if one should speak the truth, it must be liberally couched in euphemism so as to avoid conflict. Simply, it is unloving, judgmental, intolerant and inflammatory to speak plainly. For instance, sin is no longer sin but only a "mistaken good intention"; and human beings are incapable of committing evil, rather they "only fail to choose wisely." If this is taken far enough, the important distinctions evaporate in a haze of relativism: there is no longer good and evil, but only good and less good.

It goes without saying that rashness, anger, hatred -- all of these -- are to be avoided. The governance of charity, prayer and humility is to always be employed. However, this is not to say that the truth should be watered down or left unspoken. Is it charitable to remain silent while our society continues to wire itself for self-destruction through its numerous immoral addictions? Are we loving our neighbor if we offer no opposition to relativized notions of truth or, as another example, an impoverished understanding of the inviolable dignity of the human person?

In September of 2010, Archbishop Charles Chaput spoke about "Catholics and the Next America." He observed that "traditionally, religious faith has provided the basis for Americans' moral consensus. And that moral consensus has informed American social policy and law. What people believe -- or don't believe -- about God, helps to shape what they believe about men and women. And what they believe about men and women creates the framework for a nation's public life."

The health of our nation, or rather the healing of its present malady, hinges on infusing Catholic principles and values into the public square. This means we live the Catholic life always and everywhere. We breathe it. We labor for it. We speak it.

But let us return to St. Francis for a moment. Was he advocating silence? Better yet, let us ask: Did Jesus Christ teach his disciples to refrain from actively speaking the truth? Perhaps we should first look to Jesus' own example: after his temptation in the desert, Jesus withdrew to Galilee, and "from that time on," he began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17).

We cannot for a moment suggest that Jesus advocated silence: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15); and, "Go and make disciples of all nations, . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). So seriously did the Twelve take Jesus' command to go forth and teach that all of them, save St. John, soon won the martyr's crown.

Next, we should look to the ...

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1 - 9 of 9 Comments

Theresa
1 year ago
Yes, indeed, the troubles we're in as a nation are due to our succumbing to the secularistic, materialistic and, yes, even hedonistic (= pleasure-seeking) culture that even we, Catholics, have swallowed (albeit, to a greater or lesser extent) "hook, line and sinker." These "trains of thought" run counter to everything the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches..... At best, we "pick and choose...." (moral relativism) what we believe. I would wager that today most Catholics don't know their Catholic Faith as expressed in the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," nor do we want to! This situation has been gaining ground for two generations. Even among the 25% or so Catholics who attend Church every Sunday, there is little or no interest in knowing, in learning what the official Magisterium of the Catholic Church ("Peter" and the Bishops united with him) have to say in "matters of faith and morals" today. I had a conversation with a young man, recently, at work who I thought might be "Catholic" (though he has a picture of Buddha on his office door!).... So, I asked him: "Are you Catholic?" He said: "No, I'm one of those people who is not 'religious,' but 'spiritual.' But, my wife and I are going to have our child baptized!" I wonder: how will that child grow up....? In his book: "Faith and the Future," (Ignatius Press, San Francisco) Pope Benedict has described the situation we are facing today this way: "From the crises of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge--a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh, more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, she will lose many of her social privileges.... But in all the changes at what one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh...." (p.116-117). Sobering words, and consider that they were written in 1970, as today we march on, along our merry way! God help us.... Let us pray for one another, for the Church, and for the United States of America!
TW
1 year ago
Thank-you!! You have described what happens to me whenever (and however) I speak up - whether at family gatherings with apostate brothers and sisters or at work. I teach in a Catholic high school run by extremely liberal nuns. I have been called an extremist for objecting to teaching birth control (PP style) to my freshmen biology students, or for wanting a pro-life club, or for suggesting the chapel be used for adoration rather than group guidance sessions. There's so much more.......
I desperately need the support an article like this provides!
DLL
1 year ago
In America religion means narrow-mindedness. Morality means forcing ones set of values on another and is associated with a mean spiritness. These two concepts are reshaping all government policy away from protecting the innocent to laws that protect the licence to be any old way that one chooses to be all others be damned. Amoral laws are replacing moral traditional secular laws straight across the board. Agenda is the driving force for electing politicians and they must not vary from their promised agendas if they wish to stay in office. Amoral laws condone same sex marriage,abortion,pornography,errant economic policies,free birth control for women especially poor women,global eugenic government policies,war policies,constant changes in fair tax policies,regulations in trade and prices of commodities,etc. With amoral government,our government turns into a series of individuals that collectively become a dysfunctioning group of racketeers,incapable of setting any sort of a fair set of any governing laws at all. Amoral government soon becomes a corrupt third world immoral government that is oppressive government. Moral and religious values are the foundation for sound judgement to accept sound advice and to the making of reasonable and workable sound laws. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is not a bad idea for the way to deal with each other. Religion is tradition and tradition is religion. Where would the New York Yankees be today without the legend of Babe Ruth or the careers of Lou Gehrig,Joe DiMaggio,Mickey Mantle and the like as they formed a Yankee tradition that has made the club great in their winning tradition and their legacy as the greatest team in professional sports. They are obviously a very wealthy organisation because they respect their tradition,making money off of it and selling relics that celebrate it's past stars and their accom
lishments and don't try to reestablish some new sense of it by minimising it as if history had no part in the greatness of the current ball club. The New York Yankees are a tradition and a religion and an entity in it self with it's inherent sense of accomplishment that is self respect for it's past,present and the goals that the club has for it's future. The bar for the teams continued success is what respect for the organisation must be and the goals must never be corrupted by any agenda that would serve to compromise the organisation in any way to preventing it from maintaining it's very highly set standards for continued success. Christ is the way,truth and the life,the only way to God the father,so he is the standard of perfection that all must strive to imitate. The bar is set very high for the Christian sense of faith and tradition.If you simply can't accept that because of some other system of contrived viewpoints,than do not look at moral values as imposing and restricting,see them as liberating and respectful of the tradition for all of humanity as it
has advanced through the ages to the current time we are all living in now. All law must respect the tradition of morality or government is impossible to implement fairly. Amoral government is the way to reverse any pride for a winning tradition and the way to a losing season year after year after year.
Bill Sr.
1 year ago
There are plenty of voices out in the public blasting away 24/7 and most of them are drowning out the few we so desperately need to hear. Good life living examples are always best but with the explosion of technology in recent years which created instant worldwide communication that is in the hands of everyday citizens there is no excuse for Christians to remain silent while the world around us has mounted an all out attempt to destroy us and our values. We must, when ever we can, use our lives and the life of Christ we receive in the Euchurist to give voice to the truth which He has requested the Church to proclaim the gospel to the world which is now available, even at our fingertips, to all of us.
K C Thomas
1 year ago
The silence of the catholics is the reason for all the deterioration.The catholic intelligentia must wake up and do overtime to defeat the evil May God bless us
Rob
1 year ago
I think vance has hit the nail on the head. Folks can't speak what they aren't taught. I am somewhat fortunate that in our diocese our Bishop tries to get in front of these things, but unfortunately for many of them, it's too little too late. Our Church's silence on these issues has paved the way for the forces that want to undo our society to have free reign. But I can't pin it all the Church and it's clergy or even our joke of a "media." All of the baptized have a responsibility as well and this functional atheism that Bishop Chaput characterizes, is pervasive in the Catholic church. We cannot expect the gospel to be proclaimed in word and action if the folks who are supposed to preach it (laity) have never committed their lives to it. And we can't be suprised at the result. A nonbeliever is looking for lived faith and if they don't see much difference in the way the believer lives versus the non believer or non-catholic, why on earth would they think we are committed to the gospel? For most non-believers talking about faith in the public square is merely a gimmick that is used during election time. Sadly, I can understand why they have that impression.
techwreck
1 year ago
One needs to look no further than Great Britain to see the consequences of Christian silence and Christian advocacy of secular humanism disguised as "social justice". England's government programs were adopted with the silence of faithful Christians and the support of misguided Christians who believed that government programs were a worthy substitute for Christian charity.

But, St. Paul tells us that Christian charity is based on the love of God, and there is no love nor God in government "social justice" programs. As a result, we find the British government subsidizing the lifestyle of government dependency which robs citizens of their ambition and feeling of self-worth and makes them crave ever more benefits from the government that the economy simply can not afford, resulting in anger and violence.

Britain presents us with a picture of America in 10 years if we continue to adopt left wing progressive programs with the silence of faithful Christians and the support of misguided Christians advocating more government social programs in the name of "social justice". Sadly, the majority of Catholic bishops and the staff of the USCCB are at the forefront of the "social justice" effort in the U.S. in support of President Obama.

If they are successful, we will see European style misery and violence in the U.S. because Christians failed to be Christian or lacked the courage to speak out against the "social justice" programs of the secular humanists.
Mary
1 year ago
"To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life." Hallelujah! Excellent article. May our heavenly Father, Christ and his Mother who always intercedes for us, keep us on our path and keep our country (and world) in profound prayer.
vance
1 year ago
Outstanding article, very good. The key word to your article is 'Silence'. The Liberal Establishment tightly controls media for the last 40 years. They, in effect, have successfully bound and gaged Christian speech. After Archbishop Sheen, the Catholic voice went silent. During the 1980's, the Protestants lead the way on standing up for Morality, Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage, Anti-Drug use, and Anti-Homosexuality. The Catholic Church has been dead silent. If it wasn't for this website, I wouldn't know who Bishop Chaput is. My local Bishop is an exact opposite of Archbishop Chaput. He is invisible and silent on important moral issues. I am a Pro-Life Activist with other Catholic Brothers and Sisters but we have ZERO support from our dioceses. We are out infront of Planned Parenthood praying and holding signs that tells passersby to turn to Jesus and keep and love your babies. As I look around and see those few people who are involved in Pro-Life and church activities are there not because of the Bishops and clergy but inspite of them. It is very tough for the faithful to be engaged in evangelist activities when they have no leadership from their bishops or priests but instead see their bishops and priests in bed with the Anti-Catholic Liberal Establishment.

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