Catholic Transcript Online

The 4,700-word document entitled the “Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” about which The Transcript reported last month (December 2009, p. 14), continues to gather signatories from Christian leaders and scholars. At last count the original total (as of 21 Dec.) of 140 has risen to almost 305,000.

This “Call of Christian Conscience” is meant to underscore the urgency of holding fast to key Christian principles in the midst of today’s doctrinal and ethical confusion, error, and chaos. It focuses on the sanctity of each and every human life, the nobility of marriage as the union of husband and wife, the crucial right of religious liberty (enshrined as such in the United States Declaration of Independence) and freedom of conscience.

These principles, so close to the hearts of America’s Founding Fathers, are unfortunately up for debate in socio-political and academic circles today. Yet the norms are veritable anchors of stability in a world of shifting cultural and ethical parameters; they emerge from man’s very nature as a creature of God, in and through whom the very meaning of life can only be adequately understood. Thus Dr. Robert George, the highly regarded Princeton scholar who co-authored the Manhattan Declaration, explained in an interview that decisions now being drawn from the debate “will either uphold or undermine what is just and good.”

The Manhattan Declaration constitutes in our mind a powerful, eloquent and highly relevant reminder that as Catholics we simply cannot allow ourselves to drift passively on the troubled waters of our world. Rather, we must take up the oars, as it were, and row deliberately in a Godly direction, even if it means defying contrary currents of enormous power.

T. S. Eliot, probably the greatest poet of the past century in our Western world, reminded us all of this obligation in his immortal work, The Waste Land. Reaching far back in time to the wisdom of an ancient Sanscrit document, he observed that freedom entails self-control – discipline. We have no alternative but to engage. Our convictions rest upon absolutely sure ground: Sacred Scripture as read within the Church and reason illumined by Revelation.

“We are Christians,” the Declaration reads, “who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right – and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation – to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness…”

Although the Declaration was written from a Christian sense of purpose, Dr. George explained that the basic principles affirmed in the document are also defended by persons of various faiths because, in Philadelphia’s Cardinal Justin Rigali’s words, these norms can be “known and honored by men and women of goodwill even apart from divine revelation.”

Accordingly, Dr. George noted that signatories gladly welcome, as additional supporters, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jews, and persons of no particular faith affiliation, but who affirm the same principles and desire to join in their defense.

Any Christian who reads the Declaration can hardly ignore its crucial importance today. The document can be accessed and read on the Web at www.manhattandeclaration.org.