Weigel Keynote Opens 6th Annual Napa Institute with an insightful exposé that American Exceptionalism is Under Attack. (for daily tweets from the floor of the Napa Institute, go to www.Twitter.com/CatholicBizNews – @CatholicBizNews)
NAPA, CA, July 8, 2016 – American author and political and Catholic social activist, George Weigel, opened the 6th Annual Napa Institute here yesterday. The theme of this year’s Institute is “Authentic Catholicism.” Weigel began by showing how “American Exceptionalism” has not been a fantasy but a reality.
“One can see it in our daily lives,” Weigel said. “We have been a country that anyone can be a part of, regardless of ethnicity, color, gender or age if they subscribe to the American proposition on which this country was built.”
The four key, fundamental ideas upon which the United States was forged and upon which it grew into what it is, or has been, include the following:
- Moral truths are built into the world and into us.
- People have within them a sense of justice and, with this, can participate in self-governance.
- Civil society existed prior to the state. The state was created to serve civil society.
- Only a virtuous people can truly be free.
Weigel then went on to show that we are not doing well to the degree that these key ideas are being plundered.
Today, the notion of natural moral law is now categorized as bigotry. Today, we are witnessing a judicial usurpation of the democratic process, and civil society has become a target of the state with the Obama administration going to war with institutions that the state should be serving (such as the Little Sisters of the Poor and their fight against the Obama administration’s HHS mandates for contraception and birth control provisions). And, our virtuous society has “taken a pounding,” as Weigel put it, as the state fosters the pursuit of personal desires.
“We are in trouble…” says Weigel, stating the obvious.
“We need to reflect on who we are,” he continued, “and get involved as the messianic people we are.” Weigh added that we need to take seriously Christ’s command to us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
In addition to Weigel, this year’s Napa Institute features (in order of appearance) Princeton’s McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Robert George; Notre Dame Professor Carter Snead; Carly Fiorina; the founder of Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser; New York City’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan; Augustine Institute’s Tim Gray; Saddleback Church’s pastor, Rick Warren; the Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn; the Permanent of the Holy See’s Observer Mission, Archbishop Bernardito Auza; Santa Barbara Bishop Robert Barron; Franciscan University’s Scott Hahn; the Magis Center’s Robert Spitzer; and the Heritage Foundation’s William E. Simon Research Fellow, Ryan Anderson.
The Napa Institute was formed to help Catholic leaders face the challenges posed in the “next America” — to continue the work of the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops, heeding Christ’s call for ongoing evangelization. By leading participants to a deeper understanding of the truth behind the faith, the Napa Institute emboldens Catholics to live and defend their faith with a peaceful confidence that is borne out of solid formation, fellowship and spiritual enrichment.
————————-
Special to the Catholic Business Journal by Thomas M. Loarie, on assignment at the 2016 Napa Institute.