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Secularism has three fundamental principles:

• The improvement of this life by material means.
• Science is the available Providence of man.
• It is good to seek the good of present life.

Holyoake and Bradlaugh originated and spread secularism in England in the 19th century. Holyoake advocated the abolition of all legally required oaths, the secularization of education in public schools, and the destabilization of the Church. Bradlaugh observed:

“One element of danger in Europe is the approach of the Roman Catholic Church meddling in political life… Beware when the great church, whose power nobody can deny, the capacity of whose leading men is marked, tries to use the democracy as its weapon. There is danger to freedom of thought, to freedom of speech, to freedom of action. The great struggle in this country… as I have long taught and now repeat – between Free Thought and Rome.”

Secularism extends freedom of thought to ethics. Holyoake was an agnostic who based secularism on the study of nature, independent of religion, while Bradlaugh argued that secularism should negate religion. Secularism values ​​culture, social progress, and quality of life because the existence of God and an afterlife are speculative.

The Church teaches the present life is not an end in itself, the knowledge of the material world leads to the knowledge of the spiritual world, and we should consider the existence and nature of God, Divine Revelation, and the preparation for the future life. God is the creator and ruler of individuals and societies; then States must respect religion, because it is a personal and a social duty.

A secular education in public schools is wrong, because children do not learn the necessary means of salvation including the respect for their teachers and peers. It is calamitous the persistent academic violence we watch on American National News. The secularization of public schools in a Christian nation is inadmissible because citizens have the right to perform their religious duties dictated by conscience. The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution, ratified on December 15, 1791, states in Amendment I:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The Roman Catholic Church cannot consider the value of present life as an end, but as a transition to a future life we ​​must prepare for by obeying natural and divine laws. Catholics reject secularism because it denies the most fundamental human aspirations.

Pope Benedict XVI warned in January 2012: 

“It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States comes to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms: the freedom of religion.”

The Pope’s appeal for the New Evangelization echoes the efforts of Pope John Paul II. The destiny of the Church in the third millennium depends on our response to secularization, which has contributed to the elimination of Christianity. We must understand the secular threat. Benedict XVI understands that aggressive secularization has increased in political life since the French Revolution. It has already happened in France, Russia, and Soviet satellites, and continues in Europe. The Pope warned that secularization has reached the United States of America. Secularism has abolished the Ten Commandments, the reading of the Bible in schools, public prayer, legalized “homosexual marriage,” and the sexual revolution.

The true goal of secularism is the elimination of Christianity from the culture. People create their moral codes to maximize temporal gratification. American Catholics must fight against secularism before divine punishment.

Catholics must call “EVIL Secularism” and reject its influence.  God, “deliver us from evil,” as we say in the Lord’s Prayer!

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