Time for a new Declaration of Independence ?

A New Declaration of Independence

By Scott P. Richert

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... perhaps, we simply lack conviction, because we have lost any sense not only of what government under the U.S. Constitution was meant to be, but of what the Church teaches that all government should be. In 1791, the first bishop of the United States, John Carroll of Baltimore, a cousin of the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote A Prayer for Government, and ordered it to be recited in the parishes of his diocese. The structure of the prayer itself is enlightening, beginning as it does not with secular government, but with the Church and the governance thereof; but even more revealing are Archbishop Carroll’s words about the rightful purpose and aims, not just of government in general, but specifically of the federal government established under the U.S. Constitution:

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

Today marks the end of the third annual Fortnight for Freedom, sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and many of us have joined in by praying the USCCB’s Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty. Yet after reading Archbishop Carroll’s prayer, it is hard not to take note of the rhetorical shift from it to these lines from the USCCB’s:

We ask you to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty. Give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.
Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome—for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us—this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Archbishop Carroll called on an omnipotent God to guide the leaders of a limited state in advancing the ends of the Christian Faith; today’s bishops ask that same God to give us strength to defend ourselves and the Church against the leaders of an increasingly omnipotent state that represents a danger not just to the ends, but to the very substance, of that Faith. The comparison is enlightening, and sobering.

This Independence Day, as we in the United States thank God for what remains of our political liberty, we might consider whether it may be time for a new Declaration of Independence—not from the British Crown, but from the reign of politics over our souls. When you are fighting a losing battle, sometimes the answer is as simple as changing the battleground.

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