This past Friday I joined a few hundred individuals at the steps of the Texas State Capitol to show my outrage against the Obama Administration’s HHS Mandate. When this was first announced a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it since I teach during the time the rally was to be held. However, we had a different schedule on Friday since we had Eucharistic Adoration with the entire student body. I was able to drive down from North Austin to Downtown Austin for the rally and I was so happy to be amongst the men and women standing in defiance of tyranny. While I was at the steps of the capitol, I ran into many people I knew and even ran into Mother Assumpta Long, O.P., one of the founders of the Dominican Sisters Mary Mother of the Eucharist. She was in Austin for a fundraiser that the Sisters had the day before.

As I returned back to the high school, I looked at Facebook and Twitter on my cell phone and so many people were posting pictures from the other rallies that had occurred on Friday as well. I believe there were over 100 cities in the United States that participated in the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally.” As par for the course, there was barely any media coverage at the Austin rally. I only saw one media outlet present. It seems that the rallies did bring out the news media outlets around the country. It’s shocking to read so many news stories because the liberal leaning media sources want no part of the words that are spoken at these events usually. They are in bed with the Obama Administration and really should be considered “state-run” media sources like we see in other countries that oppress liberty and specifically, religious freedom.

Even though the Austin rally was relatively small compared to some of the numbers I read about it in other places around the country, the overall support from people driving by in their cars was very high. Many people honked their horns in affirmation in what we were doing on Friday.  As one who has prayed in front of abortion facilities before, you can tell the difference between a car horn of affirmation or one of negativity. As so many people honked in affirmation, I said to myself, of course they are honking positively because nobody in their right mind wants their religious liberties taken away from them. This country was rooted in the very fact that we have such liberties granted to us. The First Amendment is FIRST for a reason!

So what should we do?

First, inform yourselves if you haven’t already and visit the website – StandUpForReligousFreedom.com

Next, call or write your congressmen and U.S. Senators and ask them to support legislation that will overturn the HHS Mandate. Here is my post – Dear Senator…I Want My Religious Freedom.

Third, only vote for candidates that seek to protect human life and religious liberties.

Fourth, as Catholics, read the document – Dignitatis Humanae – Declaration on Religious Liberty from the Vatican II Council (December 7, 1965).

Lastly, PRAY! Pray that those who are in power see the errors of their ways.

Dignitatis Humanae was so important during the Vatican II Council because at that time the Soviet Union was oppressing so many countries that the Bishops had come from in regards to religious liberties. Blessed John Paul II knew the dangers of socialism and communism first hand.  It was he, along with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher that helped bring down Communism in the Soviet Union. America, we need to wake up to these dangers for they are present in our country and will only increase if the current administration is re-elected.

I leave you with some of the words from the above document. The bold lettering is mine.

“The Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. Freedom of this kind means that all men should be immune from coercion on the part of individuals, social groups, and every human power so that, within due limits, nobody is forced to act against his convictions nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his convictions in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in associations with others. The Council further declares that the right to religious freedom is based on the very dignity of the human person as known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom must be given such recognition in the constitutional order of society as will make it a civil right.” (Paragraph 2)