Cardinal Timothy Dolan: Religious Freedom Means Allowing Moral Duty

| 07/2/2023

By: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan

In an editorial in America Magazine Cardinal Dolan noted that threats to religious freedom can, and do, come from any political side

In a new editorial, Cardinal Timothy Dolan drew special attention to the plight of migrants as not just a duty for Catholics, but an expression of religious freedom.

“A sad consequence of polarization over issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and transgenderism is that religious freedom—our first and most cherished liberty—has wrongly come to be seen by many in the United States as a partisan cause. To be sure, threats from the left to people who hold traditional beliefs on those issues are many, real, and severe. But the Catholic Church is not a faction of the Republican Party, and Democrats are not the only ones who sometimes view the defense of religious freedom as a pothole instead of a stop sign.” Cardinal Dolan wrote in an editorial published on June 28 in America Magazine (may require a subscription).

The editorial was published as Religious Freedom Week, observed annually by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, drew to a close.

“Thoughtful people can and do criticize our flawed border policies. I sure do. But we people of faith—Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others—also realize that we have a moral duty to welcome, clothe, feed, and respect newcomers, no matter how they got here. And here in the United States, the government can’t punish us for that belief,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

Cardinal Dolan noted that threats to religious freedom can, and do, come from any political side.

“The Catholic Church is not a faction of the Republican Party, and Democrats are not the only ones who sometimes view the defense of religious freedom as a pothole instead of a stop sign,” he wrote.

Read the full article at America Magazine.