Fr. Andrew Apostoli: "But gradually, all of our religious rights are being taken away...."

From an EWTN article about the 94th anniversary of Mary's appearance on October 13, 1917, at Fatima:

The author of an exhaustive study on the Virgin Mary's 1917 appearances in Portugal says her words are being fulfilled by the rise of aggressive secularism and loss of religious freedom in the West.

“Mary, as I see it, pointed out at Fatima that these things were going to happen,” said Fr. Andrew Apostoli, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal and the author of “Fatima For Today” (Ignatius Press, $19.95), in an interview one day before the 94th anniversary of the last apparition in the Portuguese city.

“She said that an evil will begin in Russia, and will spread its errors around the world,” Fr. Apostoli noted, recalling Mary's words in 1917.

“Those errors – an atheistic form of government, life, and society – have come upon us now, in the form of secularism, and the attack on life, the family, and religious freedom.” ...

Even the anti-Christian French Revolution had publicly acknowledged a “Supreme Being,” whereas Russian Communism went further by making atheism state policy.

The United States, Fr. Apostoli said, “would never have accepted communism if it had that label on it, directly. America would have opposed that.”

“But that's being broken down, and we're gradually getting many things that were a part of communism.”

“Pope Benedict has said that a wind has come over Western Europe, over North America, and has brought a darkness which prevents people from being able to tell right from wrong, truth from distortions,” Fr. Apostoli observed.

“We don't have the secret police, coming into our houses and arresting us for saying the Rosary – we don't have that. But gradually, all of our religious rights are being taken away. Things that we support as part of the moral teaching of Christ are being suppressed, and things are being forced upon us.” 

“They'll say, 'Oh, you can worship any way you want, but don't bring it into the public square. Leave it in church on Sunday, and don't bring it to work on Monday. Don't bring it into society.'”

“That, to me, is a sign of communism.” 

Read the entire article. And here is an excerpt from Fr. Apostoli's book, Fatima For Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope:

Comments

[Charles E Flynn]

President Obama: Ex-Liberal, by Francis J. Beckwith.

[Robert Miller]

What has come into much clearer focus of late is the "free exercise" dimension of "freedom of religion".
Until recent decades, this side of the issue in the US was mainly of interest to snakehandlers, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.
Today, however, we are face-to-face with the question of what happens when free exercise of Catholic faith, the foundational inspiration of Western civilization, collides with free exercise of anti-faith. This collision differs radically from any other faith/anti-faith collision, because all non-Catholic faiths share their distinctive formation with anti-faith (for, even in the case of the ancient Asian "great religions", all now have come into contact with and formed themselves in the faith/anti-faith dialectic). Only Judaism, arguably, has not.

It is marvelous to see how quickly the US bishops have grasped that free exercise of the Catholic faith is the central issue of the moment throughout the world, and that the US is the epicenter of its collision with free exercise of anti-faith.

[John James]

I am uncertain of the legislative regime in place in the United States, but here in Australia, and I think in much of Europe, what is beginning to emerge is a body of law which, while ostensibly seeking to ensure goods and services are not denied groups of individuals on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation, is being extended, in scope, to ensure there is no expression of opposition, in action or expression of opinion, to the beliefs of different groups within the community.
A campsite here in Australia, conducted by a Christian group, which declined to accept a reservation from a community group wanting to conduct a seminar promoting a homosexual lifestyle, was found guilty of discrimination against this group, on the basis of sexual orientation.
The directors of the campsite argued that their opposition was not based on the sexual orientation of the group, but on the ACTIVITIES the group were proposing to conduct.
The directors argued they would have taken a similar position had a heterosexual group wished to conduct such a seminar.
This defence was dismissed.
Effectively the law is being interpreted to mean that ACTIVITY based discrimination is identical to IDENTITY based discrimination.
So what is clearly emerging are laws that seek to regulate speech and opinion.
A body of law is emerging which simply states that it is enough for someone to take offence at what has been said for a crime to have been committed.
A medical colleague of mine was recently compelled to appear before a tribunal because a homosexual activist had complained about an article my colleague had written, defending the concept of traditional marriage.
Eventually the matter came to a conclusion, but only because the activist withdrew his complaint.
However, it cost my colleague much time, effort, and money, because he was compelled, under law, to appear before a tribunal, and with a busy medical practice, he was forced to rearrange his schedule, and appointments, with his patients.
So not only religious freedom, but even those alleged 'pillars of liberal society', freedom of expression and opinion, are increasingly under attack, from the 'liberals', the very ones who tell you that culture and civilisation commenced with the Enlightenment, when the Church's alleged 'hold' on civilisation was broken