"If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave."

Ken Blackwell uses the "K" word to describe the Obama Administration's proposed Health and Human Services mandates that will adversely affect all manner of Church institutions.

As New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan noted in announcing the formation of the USCCB's Religious Liberty Ad Hoc Committee,

Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.

I pray for Archbishop Dolan and his brother bishops in their endeavors. He, and others such as Bishop Aquila of Fargo, Archbishop Nienstedt of St. Paul-Minneapolis, have been particularly vocal of late.

We Catholics, and other religious people of good will, are in for a very difficult time, and we will need prayers. Fortunately, we have a 2,000 year history to look at and remember, and we know that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. We can look back and see that the Catholic anvil has blunted mighty hammers throughout Her history: Caesars, barbarian invaders, heretics, Avignon antipopes, Tudor monarchs, Ottoman invaders, Jacobins, National Socialists, and Soviet reds; She will survive the tenure of a Chicago communist street agitator and his cohort.

We must not, despite the temptation, look to hyperbole, not when Christians in the Muslim world face execution for their faith.

Regardless of how things go, we must always remember: the things of this world are passing away; this is not our permanent home, but rather a place of exile; we, and everyone else, will be called before the Lord of Eternity in judgment to answer for our faith and our deeds, and that our salvation is not contingent upon our popularity, or the amount of money or possessions we acquire, or the prominence of our work, but rather upon our faith to Christ and His Church. These are the times for which we are made, for which we are called to be Christians; these are the times in which we must at last turn to God who is our strength and our hope, and in turn, to show that faith, strength, and hope to others before it is too late.

I need to remember this, as I am frequently afraid and uncertain, and therefore I try to fix things and make them right by how I want them to be, rather than by how God wills them to be.