Chaput: Freedom ‘fears neither the state, nor death itself’

Deacons sing during a liturgy in Baltimore, Thursday, June 21, 2012, to kick off the "Fortnight For Freedom," a two-week, national campaign to draw attention to religious freedom. Roman Catholic bishops organized the education effort to fight what they consider government attacks on religious liberty. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Patrick Semansky - AP) “True freedom knows no attachments other than Jesus Christ. True freedom can walk away from anything – wealth, honor, fame, pleasure. […] It fears neither the state, nor death itself. We’re free only to the extent that we unburden ourselves of our own willfulness and practice the art of living according to God’s plan. When we do this, when we choose to live according to God’s intention for us, we are then – and only then – truly free. This is the kind of freedom that can transform the world. And it should animate all of our talk about liberty – religious or otherwise. [...] The political and legal effort to defend religious liberty – as vital as it is – belongs to a much greater struggle to master and convert our own hearts, and to live for God completely, without alibis or self-delusion."

— Archbishop Charles Chaput said Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during the closing homily for the a two-week long religious liberty campaign called Fortnight for Freedom.