via HughHewitt this is an excerpt from a most excellent homily by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver delivered a homily at a Red Mass in Pennsylvania last week.
When people claim they’re Catholic but do nothing in the public square to advance the Christian understanding of each human person’s dignity, they’re deceiving themselves and other people — but they’re not fooling God. The sanctity of the human person begins at conception. It continues through every tick on the clock until natural death. Embryonic stem cell research, abortion, assisted suicide – these are fundamental, inexcusable violations of human dignity. So is trying to change the meaning of marriage. So is exploiting the disabled and the poor. So is bigotry against immigrants. And if somewhere in your hearts a little voice is whispering “I agree, but” — that’s exactly the kind of gloss Francis and Jesus both warned against.
We need to drill it into our heads that defending the sanctity of the human person and serving the common good can’t be separated. Stuffing our Catholic faith in a closet when we enter the public square or join a public debate isn’t good manners, and it isn’t political courtesy. It’s cowardice. And we’ll be judged for that cowardice, by the God who created us.
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