Thanks for your kind words, Catharina.
When I moved here, all I knew in Spanish was “cafe cortadito” and “pata del certo” but I’m slowly improving - I can already pray the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet in Spanish! 
Me too:thumbsup:
I must respectfully differ. These are the knots that one ties oneself in when one tries to square “religious freedom in the public forum” with the circle of God’s commandments. This was THE major sticking point between what we will call the “Traditional” and the “Modernist” camps at Vatican II, and it remains so to this day.The Church teaches us that religious freedom means that the State shall not impose a state religion on its citizens, nor will the State or any other institution obstruct the free exercise of conscience and faith.
Abortion, euthanasia, same sex marriage are not acts of conscience or faith. There is no religion in the world that presents these acts as essentially good.
However, the Church does say that the State and the private individual may not treat the person with homosexual orientation or the person guilty of abortion unjustly. Nor may anyone deprive these individuals of the same rights that other people have: employment, housing, education, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, political expression and participation in the daily life of society.
It is one thing to say that the State cannot impose a state religion and another to say that the state may not enact laws that submit to revealed moral truths. Moral truths are innate to human nature, they transcend religious diversity. The state is not above moral truth, but must always remain open to its guidance.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
In fact this teaching is a 180 degree reversal of the immemorial teaching of the Church, from the earliest recorded times right up to 1962, The relevant documents are now readily available online. Previous teaching is that the State does indeed have a duty to conform its structures and institutions to Christ the King. When we say “impose a state religion on its citizens” we are mixing together in one breath two different things. The State does indeed have a duty to place its public morality on the foundation of the Kingship of Christ, but it has no desire to enforce belief on the private conscience of an individual citizen. Catholic rulers have made this clear distinction many times in the past.
Not in the private forum, where the soul is alone with God. But in the public forum, the State may make a prudential decision to tolerate the public practice of false religions, yet it very definitely has the authority to limit this in the interests of the common good. It is not Catholic teaching that individuals have the right to public worship of false gods. This of course, is the complete opposite of what “the World” says.
I am not at all sure this is the case. The Ancient Greeks, for one, seem to have praised homosexual love. Some Protestant leaders seem to be teaching that same-sex marriage is a valid expression of love. As for other, even more blatant reversals of the Ten Commandments, ritual human sacrifice has been an integral part of many religions. Remember the Aztecs, the Pawnee, the Thugees (‘thugs’) of India, not to mention Satanic practices which do indeed use these practices … Worship of “Lucifer” is a religion as well, is it not? One of the reasons these practices are rarer now is precisely because Christian missionaries obeyed Our Lord’s command to “Make disciples of all nations [that is the meaning of the Greek, although “teach” is also an allowable translation] baptizing them in the Name of the Father [etc] … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”.
Why does Europe against this constitution?
About a year ago the European Union made her Constitution, and after long debate they rejected the mention of the Christian heritage of Europe.
I wouldn’t object to it on the principle that people can’t use their religious morals and culture to shape their laws - that’s the core of democracy! I’d object on the basis that their morals and culture are fatally diseased and incompatible with the spirit of service and human dignity necessary to enact and sustain just governance. The idea of such selfishness and self-as-god reasoning is incompatible with a sustainable constitutional democratic republic. Washington, Adams, and Jefferson (despite all their disagreements) agreed that their great experiment could only be upheld by a religious and moral populace filling and moderating the exercise of public life.
It only adds to the irony of the situation that Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister who had the guts to push through this Constitution against a background of European whining and politically correct concerns about “Hungary moving backwards”, currently holds the rotating Presidency of the European Union!
Am I asking for too much? 
Freedom of religion is the freedom to worship the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Freedom of religion is the freedom to be catholic.
Wow. Thanks for the brief, recent history.Hungary was governed from 1994 to 1998, and from 2002 to 2010 by a perverted secular anti-Christian coalition of two parties, the Socialists (MSZP) and the Liberal Democrats (SZDSZ). I remember the many outrageous and offensive things this coalition did. Finally the Hungarian people woke up, and threw out the bums from the Parliament. The Liberal Democrat (SZDSZ) party, the main anti-Christian offender, suffered such a crushing defeat at the polls that it practically ceased to exist. They had 24% share in the Parliament in 1990, right after the downfall of Communism, but in the 2010 elections, they managed to gather a solid 0.25% of the votes!
Even the Socialists suffered a big, big defeat. Now they only have a little more than 10% share in the Hungarian Parliament.
These two parties were not only financially corrupt and inept at government, but had an extremely in-your-face offensive anti-Christian agenda.
Hungary awards the Kossuth Prize (named after Lajos Kossuth, revolutionary of 1848) for great achievements in science and the arts, every year. Well, during their reign, they made such a mockery out of this prize, that they routinely awarded the writers of the most offensive trash “literature” aimed at attacking everything that Hungarians hold near and dear - God, patriotism, family. There was this “poet” named Petri Gyorgy, whose poem Apokrif describes how the Holy Family is being engaged in noisy sex, God having intercourse with Mary. Then, Joseph, annoyed with the noise, goes down to the pub named Three Kings, to have some booze and get away from God being engaged in … stuff with his wife. And this man was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1996. Then, there’s the playwright Spiro Gyorgy, whose theater play Arpadhaz makes a mockery out of King Bela the Second, one of many canonized Saints Hungary had during its early history. He describes the Saint as some idiot, raised by perverted homosexual Catholic monks, and engaging in perverted acts with the monks, with all graphic details. Only natural for this regime of traitors and slanderers, made up of the Socialist party and Liberal Democrat party, with a similar-minded President appointed by them, they also awarded the Kossuth Prize to Spiro Gyorgy. (the Hungarian President is a protocol figure, his role is different from the American President) There were probably many more outrageous offenses perpetrated by the Socialist-Liberal Democrat coalition in Hungary.
But it’s over now, and that’s what matters. The Hungarian people wisened up, and they threw out the bums.
I hope the USA will do the same. We will only have abortoholic politicians pushing taxpayer-funded abortions and gay marriage in the USA as long as the American people keep electing them.
WOW again. Thanks be to God!!!It only adds to the irony of the situation that Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister who had the guts to push through this Constitution against a background of European whining and politically correct concerns about “Hungary moving backwards”, currently holds the rotating Presidency of the European Union!
http://af.reuters.com/resources/r/?...10JRJ00_RTROPTP_0_OUKWD-UK-HUNGARY-GOVERNMENT
It’s a pity we can’t canonize living people, for else Viktor Orban would have to be canonized, and he would become the first Hungarian Calvinist Saint!
The guy is a Calvinist Protestant, soccer player, family man with 5 children. I think it would be a wonderful project to convert him to the Catholic Church!
And I would still want it mentioned in the preamble of the Hungarian Constitution, not only St. Stephen and the Holy Crown, but also the Heavenly Queen of Hungarians (Magyarok Nagyasszonya), Holy Mary, Protectress of Hungary!!!
The ECHR ruling on the Lautsi & Ors v Italy case in respect of the display of crucifixes in Italian schools upheld the Christian heritage of a Member State.
I don’t buy this. To be a free citizen, a person must not be required to assent to the beliefs of any religion. This constitution does that. Was the same sort of language used when Hungary was loyal ally of Nazi Germany/
So…Which religion is being imposed upon? I don’t know of any faith where being married to someone of the same sex. Or murdering a unborn baby is a requirement of their faith.