It seems to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Bill of Rights here, by the AUSCS folks. The First Amendment is not a restriction on rights of the people, but rather a restriction of the power of government. Basically, what it says is that the government has no constitutional power to regulate what churches do, nor can it establish a church (the phrase "separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution, but does appear in Thomas Jefferson's private correspondence, which of course, is not the supreme law of the land, though Barry Lynn of AUSCS seems to think so). That, combined with the principle of freedom of speech, makes the action of the archdioce perfectly fine.
(link via Mark Shea - Catholic and Enjoying It)
Posted by Joel Fuhrmann at June 15, 2004 09:11 PM