Franziska Notes
No.5/10 October 2008
The month of October is traditionally assigned by the Church to the foreign missions. There was a time when concern for the poor children in underdeveloped countries was a major part of being a Catholic child. A few pennies contributed made us members of the “Holy Childhood” organization.. a solidarity of all the children of the world.
Then concern for the rights of our near-bye neighbors during the civil rights movement made us concentrate rightly on social justice. So, in the spirit of Mother Franziska Lechner let us examine social justice and help to the poor in general. From earliest childhood, when she took off with her little cousin to go to the poor pagan children and, if, necessary, die as a martyr, her first motive was always the love of God for all people. Today there has been a subtle shift that could make us believe that our civil rights are a gift of the State. Our human dignity comes from God and is a gift we have received from the moment of our creation. We possess this dignity and eternal destiny independently of all external circumstances. If the State is the source of our rights and dignity the State can take them away. This is not the case. The role of the State is only to protect those rights and provide the conditions for that dignity to be expressed. It is especially the weakest and most helpless that are the responsibility of the government in this regard.
Questions of abortion, euthanasia, definition of the basic unit of society, the family, education of our children all touch upon this very basic source of our human dignity and eternal destiny.
God loves us infinitely whether we live in a palace or in a thatched hut on a muddy roadside. His first command to us is to worship Him by recognizing the love He has for our neighbor both near and far.
