Life is beautiful

Legatus editor Patrick Novecosky reflects on the cultural challenges facing his newborn son . . .

Patrick Novecosky

I’ve waited for this day for nearly nine months. The anticipation has been growing for some time in the Novecosky household because my son is due to be born any day now, and I can hardly wait. His three siblings can hardly wait. My wife, well, she has been ready for a long time.

Population control advocates are likely to find me certifiably insane for bringing a fourth child into the world. Likewise, those who believe the end is near would surely put me in that category. But those who know the value of each God-given life may just declare me a genius.

We live in challenging times when it’s getting more and more difficult to live our Catholic faith publicly — and I don’t expect it to be any easier for my children. Earlier this year, Chicago Cardinal Francis George noted that for the first time in history, the federal government is openly hostile to the functioning of the Catholic Church in America (Click here for related story) He warned that the HHS contraception-abortifacient mandate will close Catholic hospitals and universities or force them to secularize, a process he calls “a form of theft.”

If the regulation is not rescinded, the Catholic Church will be “despoiled of her institutions,” the cardinal wrote, likening the policies to the restrictive “freedom of worship” allowed in the Soviet Union. In fact, unless we change course now, Cardinal George fully expects the situation to get worse: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square,” he said in 2010.

What a time to bring a Catholic child into the world! Unemployment is sky-high, the economy is limping along (some believe it’s being held aloft artificially and may soon implode), and our constitutionally guaranteed religious liberties are rapidly eroding.

I believe, however, that now is the best time to bring a Catholic child into the world. I am praying for my new son (and all of my children) to be a light to a world in darkness — to be hope in a world desperately in need of hope. Too many in our culture have tried to fill themselves with the things of this world only to find themselves empty and despairing.

I want my children to be warriors of light — Christ-bearers in the truest sense of the word. Whether or not Cardinal George’s predictions come true, all baptized Christians are called to pray and to live their faith in a vibrant, dynamic way. That’s the only way the culture will be won back for Christ.

Patrick Novecosky is Legatus’ magazine’s editor-in-chief. Peter George Novecosky was born on Sept. 20.