The Institute for Church Life’s “Seed of the Church: Telling the Story of Today’s Christian Martyrs” conference was opened this past Sunday evening,  November 4, by local ordinary, His Excellency, Kevin C. Rhoades, Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. It began with the keynote address “Religious Freedom, persecution of the Church, and Martyrdom” by the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Archbishop Viganò spoke on “important and timely subjects” as the representative of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, addressing definitions of martyrdom and its relevance, particularly for the United States.

First, Archbishop Viganò spoke on the international persecution of Christians. He cited the examples of China, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Nigeria, the Sudan, and countries in East Africa. This persecution has also witnessed to martyrdom, as “the faithful persist in their fidelity to Jesus Christ and his holy Church,” said the prelate. “Throughout her history, the Church has gained strength when persecuted.”

Acknowledging that he speaks as apostolic nuncio at a “distinguished university,” Archbishop Viganò exhorted the audience to be “vital[ly] concerned” on “interreligious matters of religious freedom, persecution, and martyrdom…because this great concern exists, not only abroad…but they also exist within [their] own homeland.”

Archbishop Viganò framed his talk around definitions of martyrdom, persecution, and religious freedom, defining these terms and demonstrating how they were relevant to Americans today. The martyrs witness to the faith accompanies the call to discipleship, a relationship that cannot be divorced.

Archbishop Viganò emphasized understanding the intention of the persecutor.  The objective of the persecutor, according to the prelate, is “to eradicate the public witness to Jesus Christ and his Church.” Persecution also has the “accompanying objective [to incapacitate] the faith by inciting people to renounce their belief, or at least their public manifestations, rather than undergo the great hardship[s] that believers would undergo in resisting apostasy. The plan [of martyrdom] is straightforward: if the faith persists, so will the hardships”

Persecution, additionally, has the objective of harming the faith by ridiculing the believers so that they become outcasts to society, effectively marginalizing them from meaningful participation in the public life.

The archbishop noted another object of persecution: beliefs.  Persecution can consist also in trying to remove the beliefs themselves. By destroying beliefs and their open manifestations, the believer could remain while the faith disappears.

Archbishop Viganò further illustrated martyrdom and religious freedom with the English martyrs Saint Thomas More and Saint John Fisher. “Religious freedom is the exercise of fidelity to God and his holy Church without compromise,” he said, and in the case of More and Fisher, “persecution came first and was followed by martyrdom. In both cases, religious freedom was the target.”

Stating religious freedom to be essential to this citizenship of libertas ecclesiae, the nuncio also believed that religious freedom properly belongs to the human person and is “simultaneously a human, civil, natural right, which is not conferred by the state because it subsists in the human person’s nature.” It “subsists in the truth of God,” and cannot, as such, “impose itself on the human mind by force of its own truth.” It rather overcomes the mind by “gentleness and power.”

The nuncio also addressed the question asked by skeptics as to whether there is a proper role for religion in civic life. The United States has not been contaminated by a culture of deference to religion and the threat to religious freedom has become more significant in this modern age. Examples of attacks to religious freedom in the United States include the concerns of patient protection in the Affordable Care Act and the pressure that Catholic charities and business owners are experiencing in having to alter their beliefs if they are to provide specific services.

“As a man of God, and therefore a man of hope, it is essential to pray for a just resolution of the issues which face the faithful and their fidelity.” The nuncio lauded the efforts of the bishops in leading prayers in defense of religious freedom such as the “Fortnight for Freedom” and a recent novena for the elections.

The nuncio did not want the Church to forget that “religious freedom is not an end in itself because it has as its highest purpose protection of the ultimate dignity of the human person.”

The health care mandate posed a great threat to the vitality of Catholicism in the US with artificial contraception, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization. Many more attacks have been made against religious freedom, such as the review of proposition 8 in California by the federal courts. These rulings in the legal systems developed mechanisms that suffocate the vigorous participation of the Catholic citizen in the public life, argued Archbishop Viganò.

Another great turning point in the apostolic nuncio’s address came in speaking of the role universities and university professors have in either aiding or hurting the Catholic Church and their effective role in society. “…We have observed influential member[s] of the national American  community, especially public official[s] and university faculty members who profess to be Catholic, align with those forces that have pitted against the Church in fundamental moral teaching[s] dealing with critical issues such as abortion, population control, redefinition of marriage, embryonic stem cell commodification, and problematic adoption, to name but a few.”

He continued, “In regard to teachers, especially university and college professors, we have witnessed that some instructor[s] who claim the moniker ‘Catholic’ are often the sources of teachings that conflict with, rather than explain and defend Catholic teaching in the important public policy issues of the day. While some of these faculty members are affiliated with no Catholic institution of higher learning, others teach at institution[s] that call themselves out to be Catholic. This, my brothers and sisters, is a grave and major problem that challenges the first freedom of religious liberty and the higher purpose of the human person.”

Such division in the Church is dangerous, and Archbishop Viganò exhorted the public that the whole Church – the clerical, religious, and the laity – have a “crucial role in temporal affairs as disciples of Christ” to implement the same teaching of the faith that the bishops preach. In the end of his talk, Archbishop Viganò invited the members of the American Church “to go into the Lord’s vineyard together, with love, hope, freedom, firmness of the conviction of our faith, and the help of God [who] so willingly stands with us…The most precious freedom of all which is the desire to be with God forever. This is our destiny and this is why religious freedom is…of paramount importance.”

Sandra Laguerta is a senior living in Lyons Hall. Her culinary trifecta includes pizza, peppermints and pickles. Contact her at slaguert@nd.edu.