The Texas Catholic Conference (TCC) is the Public Policy Voice of the Catholic Bishops of Texas. The 13 Dioceses and 2 Archdioceses of Texas work together to support or oppose legislative priorities based on Catholic principles to protect human life, justice for immigrants, criminal justice, health and human services, children and families, and the poor and vulnerable.
The Bishops have initiated a web based program called the Texas Catholic Network, www.TXcatholic.org , to educate and mobilize the 7 million Catholics of Texas. Cardinal DiNardo has set up an archdiocesan group of “Archangels and Angels” to work with the Texas Catholic Conference. “Archangels” are the representatives appointed from each parish to facilitate education locally. “Angels” are the individual parishioners who sign up at the website to receive and respond to Legislative alerts. If you are called to be involved, take two easy steps, register in the Texas Catholic Network website and contact Rebecca Harper at 281-772-3549 or two.harper@yahoo.com.A Man for This Season, and All Seasons
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (US Declaration of Independence)
Read the article...There are many issues that our country is facing that relate to our religious freedom!
As Catholics, we are called to be involved in the public square, here are some links of interest on this very important subject!
Pope Benedict supports Knights' religious freedom efforts... more
A good summary... more
Fortnight to let religious freedom ring... more
Catholic New Agency... more
As Secularism Spreads... more
Explaining the lawsuit... more
Cardinal DiNardo's statements... more
Cardinal DiNardo prods Congress to address contraception mandate... more
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Note this comment from 1926... (more)
In December of 1926, the bishops of the United States wrote a pastoral letter in support of the suffering Church in Mexico, written in a clear and Catholic diction which could have been a useful template for our time:
A written constitution is an instrument which enumerates and defines the rights and duties of government, distributes its powers, prescribes the manner of their exercise, and limits them to the end that the liberties of the citizens may be preserved. Since the purpose of government is to protect human rights, not to destroy them, it follows that the charter by which a government operates cannot contain a grant of unlimited power. For the exercise of such power would be tyranny, inasmuch as it would tend to destroy rights which both the natural and the positive laws of God place beyond the jurisdiction of men. Hence, in the commonly accepted American doctrine, a constitution vests the government with such rights and powers as are necessary for the proper exercise of its just functions, and at the same time forbids it to encroach upon rights of a higher order which come to men, not from the people, nor from the State, nor from any aggregation of States, but from the Creator of both men and States, almighty God. This conception is wholly in keeping with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Then they cited the 1888 encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimus:
(Liberty of conscience) may also be taken to mean that every man in the State may follow the will of God, and, from a consciousness of duty and free from every obstacle, obey His commands. This, indeed, is true liberty, a liberty worthy of the sons of God, which nobly maintains the dignity of man, and is stronger than all violence or wrong—a liberty which the Church has always desired and held most dear. This is the kind of liberty the apostles claimed for themselves with intrepid constancy, which the apologists of Christianity confirmed by their writings, and which the martyrs in vast numbers consecrated by their blood.