The natural law in and of itself is not a matter of faith, because "natural law positions are discernible by reason alone" and are "for everyone."
However, "if everyone is composing his or her own world, there's got to be conflict," the bishop said, and the conflict between modernism and natural law has grave implications for persons of faith.
"The natural law frees me to seek the truth about God, and thus seek my salvation," Bishop Morlino stated.
"No one has the right to block or interfere with my relationship with God, no one has the right to block my ability to do what is right." Religious freedom is a unique issue, he added, because it has eternal consequences and thus, there's "nothing more important" or fundamental to other, more temporal, rights.
Properly conceived, the bishop continued, "religious freedom is freedom from the state on religious matters."
"That's not what we have," he explained. "We have secularism being imposed by the state and the mass media along every conceivable line."
This secularism, he continued, "destroys conscience, rejects the natural law," and stigmatizes people from acting upon what they know, through reason and natural law, to be true.
Bishop Morlino said that Catholics must be better advocates for the natural law and for a proper understanding of conscience, in order to promote respect for what the Church teaches.
He noted that many Catholics "profess with their actions that Christ is divided from the Church," while claiming to be "witnesses to the fact that Christ is one with the Church."
"People cannot live out internal contradictions indefinitely," he warned, noting that persons in such a situation will eventually be in the position of affirming either the faith they profess or the secular norms they live.
He urged all people who care about religious liberty and freedom to "write letters to the editors" and to speak out in defense of the natural law.
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"We Catholics need to stop keeping our mouths shut," Bishop Morlino said, reflecting that Catholics should promote the natural law and a right understanding of knowledge "not because they are Catholic, but because they are true."
"If Catholics continue to sit around and do nothing, we do a terrible disservice to society."
Adelaide Mena was the DC Correspondent for Catholic News Agency until 2017 and is a 2012 graduate of Princeton University.