Archbishop Chaput on Human Dignity and Dignitatis Humanae

Over at First Things, you can read Archbishop Chaput's March 17 lecture, "Of Human Dignity:  The Declaration of Religious Liberty at 50."  In his address, "outline[s] what the Church teaches about religious freedom"; "list[s] some of the key religious liberty challenges heading our way"; and "talk[s] about why the Council was right."  Like the man says, "highly recommended."

Here's a bit:

In the mind of the Council, religious liberty means much more than the freedom to believe whatever you like at home, and pray however you like in your church. It means the right to preach, teach and worship in public and in private. It means a parent’s right to protect his or her children from harmful teaching. It means the right to engage the public square with moral debate and works of social ministry. It means the freedom to do all of this without negative interference from the government, direct or indirect, except within the limits of “just public order.”

And, in his discussion of threats and challenges, there's this:

The biggest problem we face as a culture isn’t gay marriage or global warming. It’s not abortion funding or the federal debt. These are vital issues, clearly. But the deeper problem, the one that’s crippling us, is that we use words like justice, rights, freedom and dignity without any commonly shared meaning to their content.

We speak the same language, but the words don’t mean the same thing. Our public discourse never gets down to what’s true and what isn’t, because it can’t. Our most important debates boil out to who can deploy the best words in the best way to get power.

And he concludes, quoting St. John Paul II's "be not afraid!", with this:

There’s too much beauty in the world to lose hope; too many people searching for something more than themselves; too many people who comfort the suffering; too many people who serve the poor; too many people who seek and teach the truth; too much history that witnesses, again and again, to the mercy of God, incarnate in the course of human affairs. In the end, there’s too much evidence that God loves us, with a passion that is totally unreasonable and completely redemptive, to everstop trusting in God’s purpose for the world, and for our lives.

I must admit -- or confess -- to an increasing inability to really embrace and express the hope that Archbishop Chaput holds up.  As my friend and colleague, Bob Rodes (RIP), put it:

Gods plan made a hopeful beginning 
man spoiled its chances by sinning
we hope that this story
will end in Gods glory
but at present the other sides winning.