Sadly, the joy of our gathering in these days to celebrate the life and death of Father

Hardon, an outstanding religious priest, and to honor and encourage so many institutes of the

consecrated life which have remained faithful, are overshadowed by the public and obstinate

betrayal of religious life by certain religious. Who ever could have imagined that religious

congregations of pontifical right would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an

apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the

Vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and

obedience? Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly, and in defiance of the

bishops as successors of the Apostles, publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which

violate the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets, the safeguarding and promoting of

innocent and defenseless life, and fail to safeguard the demands of free exercise of conscience

for healthcare workers.

We witness a growing tendency of certain consecrated religious to view themselves

outside and above the Body of Christ, as a parallel institution looking in upon the Church with an

autonomy which contradicts their very nature. We have certainly come a long way from the total

loyalty to the Roman Pontiff which was at the heart of the foundation of the Society of Jesus and

of every religious congregation. Religious life lived in the heart of the Church, and for that

reason, religious congregations are by their very nature bound in strictest loyalty to the Roman

Pontiff. It is of course an absurdity of the most tragic kind to have consecrated religious

knowingly and obstinately acting against the moral law. The spiritual harm done to the

individual religious who are disobedient, and also the grave scandal caused to the faithful and to

the people in general, are of incalculable dimensions.

 What immense harm is being done by disobedient religious to the witness of the Church

at a time when that witness needs to be clear and courageous. What, for instance, are non-

Catholics and non-Christians to think about what the Catholic Church teaches when they observe

the open rebellion against Her teachings by Her members consecrated to uphold that teaching.

The proper sanctions must be applied in order to call back the religious in question to live the

truth of their religious vocation and to repair the grave scandal which they have caused. The

Church must be clear and strong about Her teaching and discipline.

In this regard, I wish to conclude by appealing to members of institutes of the

consecrated life to devote yourselves anew by prayer and apostolic engagement to the

fundamental and indeed irreplaceable apostolates of Catholic education and Catholic healthcare.

Over the past decades and in a particularly shocking way, over the past year, we have witnessed

in our nation the betrayal of these apostolates to the degree that they have lost their Catholic

identity and are not instruments of the new evangelization. For the thirty silver pieces of secular

acceptability and material stability they are cooperating with the forces of the culture of death,

the forces which are destroying countless human lives and will destroy us as a nation.

We celebrate in these days the victory of Our Risen Lord over sin and everlasting death,

the victory in which by God’s grace we all share. Christ did not achieve our eternal salvation by

accommodating Himself to the culture in which He lived, to the programs of the Roman empire

or of the leaders of the Jewish nation, but by remaining faithful and strong in the witness to the

truth, the truth of His Father, the truth by which our world and we were created and are sustained

in being. The dialogue of Our Lord with Pontius Pilate as it is recorded in the Passion according

to Saint John, provides a most fitting meditation for us as we contemplate the question: What are

we to do in the present crisis? I appeal to consecrated religious, to all consecrated persons, in

particular, to be a beacon of fidelity to truth in Christ especially in the apostolates of Catholic

education and Catholic healthcare. Yes, the opposition to, and even persecution of, those whose

who witness to the truth are fearsome. We are called to share in the Passion of Our Lord Jesus

Christ. But even as Christ alone is the salvation of the world, even so, we can only serve the

world by our total communion with Him. In doing the truth with love to the end. In fact the

world which seems so much opposed to the Church and Her witness to the truth is hungering to

the point of starvation, for the unfailing witness of Catholics who are, in Father Hardon’s words,

real, who are ready to be martyrs if necessary for what is true and good.

Finally, the United States of America bears a particularly heavy responsibility to the

world in giving witness to the truth. As an Italian prelate has observed to me recently, our nation

is still Christian. The battle against secularism has not yet been completely lost in our nation as it

has been, sadly, in Europe. Europe is looking to the United States to see that, indeed, the battle

against secularism can be won. I urge you to assist the lay faithful, above all politicians and

elected representatives, government officials, ministers of justice, and all who serve the public

good who are Catholic to give a coherent witness to the truth of the moral law. Catholics are in a

position of leadership in our nation to an extent that I would never have dreamed as I was

growing up in the 1950s. The Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of

Representatives, five Supreme Court justices, and some 140 senators and congressmen, if I’m

not mistaken, are Catholic. It cannot be that Our Lord Jesus has given Catholics such positions in

order that they may betray the truth of the natural moral law, cooperating in the wholesale killing

of the innocent and defenseless unborn, in the artificial generation and destruction of embryonic

human life, in the violation of the integrity of the marital union, and in the denial of the

fundamental rights of conscience. On the other hand, what a force for the transformation of our
nation with its effect on the whole world they could be if they were faithful and strong in the

safeguarding of the truth about the inviolable dignity of all human life, the integrity of the union

of one man and one wife in a marriage for the procreation of children, and the sanctity of the

rightly formed human conscience.

Do not doubt this influence which you, as consecrated persons, can have. Was not the

Speaker of the House glowing to report that so many religious sisters were in support of her

proposed healthcare plan? Was not a religious sister one of the recipients of a pen used by the

President of the United States to sign the healthcare plan into law? Now is the time for us all, and

in particular for consecrated persons, to stand up for the truth and to call upon our fellow

Catholics in leadership to do the same or to cease identifying themselves as Catholics.

In closing I thank you once again for the honor of the Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award

and for the fidelity and strength of the Institute on Religious Life and its members. I ask you for

your prayers for me, and be assured that I pray for you daily. May God bless you.