World Mission Sunday October 24, 2010

This Sunday is World Mission Sunday.  Pope Benedict XVI, in his message proclaiming the day, quoted Sacramentum Caritatis, "The love that we celebrate in the sacrament is not something we can keep to ourselves. By its very nature it demands to be shared with everyone. What the world needs is God's love; it needs to encounter Christ and to believe in him." For this reason the Eucharist is not only the source and summit of the Church's life, but also of her mission: an authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church."

The Pope added that the Church "invites us to become champions of the newness of life made up of authentic relationships in communities founded on the Gospel. In a multiethnic society that is experiencing increasingly disturbing forms of loneliness and indifference, Christians must learn to offer signs of hope and to become universal brethren, cultivating the great ideals that transform history and, without false illusions or useless fears, must strive to make the planet a home for all peoples."

What does this mean for us as lawyers and students.  We have all felt the "call" to be professionals.  The profession of law requires us to be leaders.  Indeed, we are all called to be leaders in our own lives and our professional lives.  The essence of leadership is vision.  The Book of Proverbs says, "Where there is no vision the people perish but he who keeps the law is blessed ." (Proverbs 29:18).  We are to focus on the vision of Christ's sacrifice, the love that it entailed, and the blessings that this love offers mankind. We are called to bring this vision to others through evangelization.

Lawyers are called to ensure that this vision of love is reflected in law by the protection of the least among us; that an unborn child has a right to life, that family life is protected, that children are raised in a culture free from degrading influences, that people are free to express and follow their religious faith in all areas of life.

As Pope Benedict said "Dear friends, on this World Mission Sunday in which the heart's gaze extends to the immense spaces of mission, let us all be protagonists of the Church's commitment to proclaim the Gospel," indeed.

Recent Law Review Articles on Religion -- October 2010

Bertagna, Blake R. The government’s Ten Commandments: Pleasant Grove City v. Summum and the government speech doctrine. 58 Drake L. Rev. 1-65 (2009).

Crist, Terry M. III. Comment. Equally confused: construing RLUIPA’s equal terms provision. 41 Ariz. St. L.J. 1139-1166 (2009).

Luther, Robert III. “Unity through division”: religious liberty and the virtue of pluralism in the context of legislative prayer controversies. 43 Creighton L. Rev. 1-34 (2009).

McCrea, Ronan. Religion as a basis of law in the public order of the European Union. 16 Colum. J. Eur. L. 81-119 (2009/2010).

Ryan, Erin. Federalism at the Cathedral: property rules, liability rules, and inalienability rules in Tenth Amendment infrastructure. 81 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1-95 (2010).

East, Erin N. Comment. I object: the RLUIPA as a model for protecting the conscience rights of religious objectors to same-sex relationships. 59 Emory L.J. 259-309 (2009).

On the Chilean Miners . . . and a 1949 Harvard Law Review Article

Check out this great post by Ashby Jones on the Wall Street Journal Blog.  It relates the Chilean miners (Praise God they have been rescued) to the Harvard Law Review article by Lon Fuller on the differing results obtained when Positive Law and Natural Law are applied to a case of trapped cave explorers (The Case of the Speluncean Explorers).  Fullers article is a classic and repays reading with many a thoughful moment.