Faith & Free Speech

I'm of two minds about this:

...Cardinal Rouco was scheduled to give a lecture titled, “The God who is unknown to 21st century Spaniards.” However, several days ago activist groups began calling for the event to be disrupted. The Spanish government said it could not guarantee the cardinal’s security, and Church officials therefore decided to cancel the speech.

“What happened here is another example of the cultural paradigm that seeks to impose aggressive secularism,” the editorial stated, while denouncing the activists' “efforts to silence anyone who would speak of God and the meaning of man’s existence.”

“And there is the added irony that freedom and truth have become a nuisance at the place which is supposed to be the pillar of knowledge – the university,” the editorial continued.

Because of these threats, COPE said, students will not hear the cardinal speak “about ‘the God who is unknown’ to the Spaniards of our day, like St. Paul did at the Areopagus of Athens.”

“The difference is that while 2,000 years ago, St. Paul could freely speak of the ‘unknown God,’ now an entire democratic system has caved in to the threats of violence, refusing to guarantee freedom and order on the university campus,” COPE stated...

On the one hand, this is of course a very clear display of many of the ironies of the modern project. "Free speech for everyone! We will not tolerate intolerance!"

On the other hand, St. Paul didn't have an easy time just walking into places and proclaiming the Gospel:

23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

So perhaps his Eminence should have gone, and taken the chance, and perhaps faced some of what his forebears faced. I don't know all the details of the situation and so forth, but really, our icon is a man crucified, not a man surrounded by armed guards.