Catholic Review Online: Intimidated? | Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien

In his weekly column, "Thoughts on Our Church," Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien recounts a brief lesson in Maryland history:

The seeds were probably sown centuries ago in a hostile atmosphere for Catholics in the New World. In 1633, as the earliest colonists were about to set sail for “Mary Land”, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, instructed “his said Governor and Commissioners” that while sailing and upon arrival at their destination “they instruct all the Roman Catholics to be silent on all occasions of discourse concerning matters of religion...”

His Excellency then goes on in his thoughtful essay to demonstrate the modern results of this mindset:

From those days and even to the present, many Catholics have too often felt that we have still to prove ourselves as truly American. Nothing has seemed capable of persuading the Protestant majority that Catholicism could be compatible with American democracy. It has been said that Catholics’ participation in World Wars I and II brought Catholicism a new acceptance. But the rejection of Al Smith, the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928 and the first Roman Catholic to run for President, largely on religious grounds, and the compromise of faith that John F. Kennedy felt it necessary to make in becoming the first Catholic president, gave evidence of a viral anti-Catholicism, a low-grade prejudice the famed American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., once called “the deepest bias in the history of the American people.”

I think that a good case can be made that the subtle effect of such bias has often been to intimidate us Catholics. And now and then the subtle intimidation seems to work.

Is that why Georgetown University, founded as a Catholic institution, recently yielded to the White House and removed a crucifix and other religious symbols from behind the stage where the President spoke during a recent visit there?

Was it a fear of being “too Catholic” and a hankering to be “mainstream America” that prompted the University of Notre Dame’s invitation to our President not only to give this year’s Commencement address but also be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University?

This is a marvelous essay that must be read. His Excellency is calling us as Catholics to demonstrate our Catholic identity at all times and in all places. We are all called to bear witness to the Truth.

Bravo!