April 27: A Plea for Religious Freedom

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is April 27th, and our story is A Plea for Religious Freedom. In 1819, the province of Maine, long apart of Massachusetts, was about to become a state. But first, it needed a constitution. After assembling in Portland, delegates to the state's constitutional convention drew up a document. They modeled it on the Bay State's constitution and, in an early draft, included the Massachusetts prohibition against Catholics holding public office.

Before the Constitution passed out a committee, however, a delegate, one Major Dickey, received an anonymous letter. The letter eloquently made the case for religious freedom, and so impressed Dickey that he read it before the committee. The committee, equally impressed, struck the anti-Catholic language out of the Constitution.

Years later, the identity of the anonymous letter writer was discovered when the original draft was found in the private papers of Edward Cavanaugh, the first Catholic congressman from New England and Maine's 17th governor. Born on April 27, 1795, Cavanaugh was the son of Maine's most prominent ship and merchant, and a Catholic from birth, who grew up surrounded by missionary priests. Those priests, including Father Jean-Louis de Cheverus, the future first bishop of Boston, used his family's house as their home base while ministering to Maine's far-flung Catholic population.

Kavanaugh left home while still a boy to study at Georgetown College and St. Mary's College, and then completed his studies in Europe. When he returned to Maine, he set up a successful law practice and helped his father rescue the family business from bankruptcy. Not long after his anonymous letter swayed Maine's constitutional convention, Kavanaugh began his political career.

In 20 years' time, despite rabid anti-Catholicism in New England, he rose from a school committeeman to a state representative and senator, secretary of state for Maine, a two-term U.S. congressman, foreign minister to Portugal, and, at last, from 1843 to 1844, governor of Maine.

In 1844, Kavanaugh retired from public life. He died less than four weeks later. Kavanaugh's story reminds us that defending conscience often requires discrete wisdom and bold action. Religious freedom is rarely self-sustaining. It must be actively preserved through discernment and advocacy.

Consider a current societal issue where conscience or religious liberty is at stake. Pray and discern how you might contribute wisely to that issue. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, April 28th, for another story of faith and courage in America.