While reading my fellow classmate Chris’s blog post, Applied History Lessons or Self-Serving Propaganda, I was reminded of the old poem, First they came…  This relates in a big way to this current attack on religious liberty and the family that we are all dealing with right now.  Before I continue with my thoughts on this subject, allow me to reprint the poem here for you.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.  Anti-Catholicism is the only biogtry left in the United States that is still acceptable for the majority of the population.  If you want to attack religion, you don’t attack the religion, you attack the Catholics and call it an attack on religion.

This is what the government is doing right now, only, they are attacking more than religion.  Yes, they are attacking religious liberty.  However, they are attacking something much greater than religious liberty.  The Church considers the family the “Domestic Church.”  This Church is being attacked in the same way that religious liberty is being attacked.  By forcing Catholic institutions to close rather than violate their consciences, the government is attacking families as well.  For it is these institutions which protect the rights of the family.  These institutions will help anyone in need, no questions asked.  They will do it with as much love and care as you can expect from a family member.  They are a family in their own way, and care for you like you always have been, and always will be a member of their family.

They came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.  We must all stand together and defend our Religious Institutions and families.  We must defend these truths that we all know, and hold them as close to our hearts as we hold our family members.

They came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.  I pray that this will never be the case.  I pray that we not only speak up for others, but that others will come to the defense of the Church and the Family, as She has faithfully done for 2 millenia.  May this day never come, but when she is silenced, there will truly be no one left to speak for me or for you.