Independence Day
Loyalty, freedom, revolution, and patriotism were just some of the moral issues facing our forefathers during the conflicts leading to the Declaration of Independence. These were issues which tore families and communities apart. Benjamin Franklin's own son, William, was a Loyalist and the royal governor of New Jersey, causing his father to disinherit him. In my own family, there were both Loyalists and Patriots. My fifth great-grandfather, Isaac Cornwell, was a Patriot and served in Captain Butler's Company of Major Sheldon's Light Horse Regiment during the Revolutionary War. His brother, Captain Jacob Cornwell, was a Loyalist. Jacob took refuge in Canada and was granted 350 acres in Nova Scotia by the Crown. The two brothers never saw each other again.
The central question is the morality of rebellion against one's rightful sovereign. Catholicism teaches the need of remaining obedient to lawful power and the Church has always been an element of order and stability; however, this does not forbid any resistance to injustices from a government. The Church has been the defender of liberties, and there are conditions under which men may resist authority.
In other words, there are powers that rulers do not possess. We are under no obligation to obey an authority which commands something beyond the scope of its authority. While it is necessary for civil authority to have power to maintain order and unity, it is just nevertheless, that we do not allow it to absorb the individual and the family. There are places the government has no right to tread. There are places in which individuals and families have the right to live without the force of the government.
Catholicism has striven to preserve this principle, which is one of the only guarantees of the liberty of the people. Since the foundation of the Church, this principle of the independence of the spiritual power of the Church has served to remind men that the rights of rulers are limited, that there are things beyond its jurisdiction, and cases in which a man may refuse to obey. This is because our rights come not from Constitutions or rulers, but from God.
Those who fought for independence simply wished to regain the rights and liberties they had at one time enjoyed, and the war which was then ablaze in America could end only in independence or complete subjection. The first strong sentiment for independence came in the form of resolutions passed by the separate colonial assemblies. When Congress was seriously considering an appeal to France, the first preliminary step seemed to call for independence.
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, making what had been thirteen separate colonies into the United States of America.
Though no nation is perfect, we are blessed to live in the United States, and it is our duty to love and defend her. The virtue of patriotism, placed by St. Thomas Aquinas under the category of piety, means we must love our country because love of neighbor cannot be separated from love of God. Ven. Fulton Sheen said, “Patriotism is a virtue that was allied to the old virtue of the Greeks and Latin called ‘Pietas.’ Pietas meant love of God, love of neighbor, love of country. And when one goes out, all go out. [When] we no longer have love of God, we no longer have love of country.”
Let us love and pray for the United States of America, that true liberty and concord may always be granted to us by Almighty God.