john garvey

“The Weapons of Catholics?
Reason and Witness.”
We must “enter into the debate, without fear” and touch hearts with our example. “Then the laws will follow,” according to the President of the CUA.

“The morals to which a culture is committed are reflected in its laws, not determined by them. If we want good laws, then we have to build a good culture. As Catholics, our mission consists, first of all, in changing hearts through witness, explanation, and example. In time, if we do these things seriously, then the laws will follow.” John Garvey, President of the Catholic University of America, discusses with Traces the implications of the law regarding contraceptives, and identifies, in the attempt to privatize and marginalize faith, the most dangerous aspect of the culture of which the Obama Administration is a zealous supporter: “The faithful are obliged to choose which aspects of their faith to follow and which to abandon. If the Church wants to feed the non-Christian poor, visit non-Christian prisoners, and care for the non-Christian sick, she will have to check her faith at the door. Or violate her own principles. The Department of Health and Human Services mandate aims to redefine religion in America. And it implies that religion is limited to what one does in church on Sundays.”
For Garvey, the debate about religious freedom, which–despite the attempts to silence it–has a fundamental role in the November 6th elections, is an occasion to rethink the relationship between Catholics and politics. This fact was brought home by the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who forcefully reiterated that “we are called to be very active, informed, and involved in politics.” “First of all, we Christians must approach this debate without retreating into churches and without abandoning the public sphere,” explains Garvey. “We have to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and to do it we have to be actively involved in the world. Then we must renew our commitment and witness to bring people back to the Church. No person of faith has doubts about the value of religious freedom. But in a society where the churches are empty, it’s more difficult to show our reasons.”
On the one hand, therefore, Garvey invites Catholics to respond point by point to the provocations of reality, even doing “battle with the politicians” who inhibit, by means of artfully created laws, the legitimacy of the presence of the Church in the public debate. On the other hand, the Pennsylvania-native lawyer explains that it is in the soil of personal experience that the Church will flourish again. He insists on the educative dimension, and even quotes Fr. Giussani: “His vision plays an important role in the way in which we look at education at the Catholic University of America. First, because faith has to do with all aspects of reality, from music to architecture to the analysis of our legal system. And since faith is an integral part of all that we do, our mission does not consist solely in passing on information. We are not only interested in what our students learn, but in the people they become. We want them to live lives that aspire to sanctity, to pray, to grow in virtue. At the same time, we desire that they enter into the heart of the public debate, that they don’t shrink from dialogue with secular culture. To use Giussani’s words, our task is to introduce the students to ‘total reality.’” Politics included. 

(Mattia Ferraresi)