Author George Santayana once wrote that “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In agreement with this insightful aphorism, IWP’s Prof. Joseph Wood argues — in his column published recently on the website The Catholic Thing — that Americans may benefit from studying the resistance of the Catholic Church in communist-occupied Central Europe against the bolshevik war on Catholicism in particular, and religion in general.
This is highly relevant to the context of what many see as the current administration’s assault on religious liberty here in the United States. The dangerous trend is exemplified by the mandate forcing Catholic hospitals to provide contraceptives, i.e. compelling these institutions to violate their own beliefs or cease operating. In this context, Prof. Wood believes, the path taken by the Polish Church during the times of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Pope John Paul II-emphasizing moral leadership and an proactive defense of the truth-may provide useful guidance for twenty-first-century champions of religious liberty.
To read Prof. Wood’s column, please click here.