Oct 2, 2012 / 02:14 am
Bishop-designate James D. Conley of Lincoln, Neb. began a novena to the Virgin Mary for religious freedom in the U.S. on Saturday by stressing the "heavenly and angelic battle" against sin, not against Americans' fellow citizens.
"As we pray together for religious liberty, let us recall a simple fact," he said in his Sept. 29 homily at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel in Irondale, Ala. "The role of religion in America will be respected when religion is lived with enthusiastic and infectious vitality. When we proclaim Jesus Christ with joy, in authentic freedom, the world will listen."
The defense of religious liberty is not merely a political or cultural battle, he said. He urged Catholics to "get serious about the spiritual dimension of the Christian life" and begin with "hidden things" like prayer, fasting and sacrifice.
Bishop Conley said that "offering up a small sacrifice in the quietude of our hearts may do more to build up the Kingdom than all of the world's preaching and teaching combined."