December 19, 2004

Last week I wrote to you about my concern, which I share with many other people, that there is a real attempt to leave the whole Christian message out of Christmas. We are festooned now with signs that say Happy Holidays and other denials of this Christian holiday and its meaning. Let’s take a look at the positive side.
When you are recovering from a serious accident there are all sorts of “firsts” that you do. The first time you walk, the first time you go out, etc. The other evening was the first time I have gone to a concert. It was at St. Joseph’s Seminary and featured beautiful devout Christian Christmas music. The Seminary Choir joined with the Diocesan Festival Choir to present a magnificent concert of beautiful Christmas music, which we don’t hear enough of. Several days later I did another outing to St. Patrick’s Cathedral where the Cathedral Choir and several other choirs around the city again presented magnificent Christmas music. This is our heritage. We have a right to it. This does not mean that we want to violate the rights of others who have different holidays that they may celebrate in different ways. Having grown up in an Irish/Jewish neighborhood I was always aware of the Jewish holidays and wished my Jewish friends the best on those days. We are also becoming more aware of the Muslim holidays in New York.
The fact is that in this country, which is predominately Christian, we have at least a right to have our own holidays without having them taken away from us by various people. Some of them secularists and some of them busy bodies. It does seem that all religion is allowed in the United States except Christianity and especially Catholicism. It’s time for us to stop being cowed sheep and to fight back. When I say fight I don’t mean physically or boisterously or even aggressively but I do mean that we need to militantly make the point that we also have a right to our religion and to the worship of God.

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, CFR
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