In his landmark 2021 book, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, Msgr. James Shea, president of the University of Mary, persuasively argues that Western civilization no longer operates under the imaginative vision and narrative of Christianity. As a result, he argues we have arrived at a “new apostolic age” in which present culture is more like the pre-Christian era than 20th-century America.  

Indeed, the hostility Catholics encounter each day is a testament to Msgr. Shea’s analysis.  

In every age, but particularly one in which the Church wields little cultural influence, free speech is indispensable to the mission of spreading the Good News to every corner of the Earth — and to the survival of the Church. Indeed, a Church persecuted by governments and censored by corporate behemoths is endangered; just ask imprisoned Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai. Threats to free speech today across the West, particularly related to Christian truths revealed by faith and discovered by science, underscore the vulnerability of the Church today.  

It is a precarious situation when the vice-presidential nominee of a major party declares openly that free-speech rights are malleable. That’s just what Gov. Tim Walz did last week when he appeared on MSNBC, saying of the Constitution, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.” 

In addition to being wrong on the merits — the Supreme Court has long upheld that speech considered “hateful” is protected by the First Amendment — such statements condition the public into believing falsehoods about their rights. Walz’s comment is itself a dangerous — and ironic — example of “misinformation.”  

Catholics should resist legal efforts to curtail speech, no matter how outrageous or objectionable. As seen in recent years, definitions of words such as “hate” and “violence” have ballooned to include beliefs commonly held for millennia. What now constitutes “hate” across the vast sweep of American life has become anything that disagrees with the social tenets of progressivism and nothing more.  

America’s democratic and cultural allies in Europe are one step ahead (or behind, as it were) in curtailing speech rights. Last week, the U.K. government released a bizarre video on “X” that warned British users about the legal risks of posting “hate speech” and to “think before you post” or else face prosecution. This was done to restore calm following a week of riots sparked by a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.  

Rather than encourage dialogue to achieve a new consensus over the country’s immigration crisis, the British government decided that less speech was needed, not more. Many have justifiably described the efforts as Orwellian in both practice and implication.  

This development comes on the heels of years of rising tension over speech rights in the U.K. Last week, famed evolutionary biologist and atheist thinker Richard Dawkins claimed his Facebook account was suspended for a post about people with XY chromosomes competing as women in the Olympics. British Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has faced down similar persecution for acknowledging the biological differences between men and women and championing women’s rights.  

And in April, the Scottish Parliament passed new legislation that makes “hate speech” punishable of up to seven years in prison. The Hate Crime and Public Order Act outlaws “threatening or abusive” speech in relation to individual characteristics such as age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. Rowling, who lives in Scotland, called the law “ludicrous,” noting it failed to list “women” among the protected groups. The Scottish government claims a separate law against misogyny is forthcoming. 

The implications on similar speech restrictions for American Catholics are grave, indeed. It does not take too great a stretch of the imagination to foresee a time in which the proclamation that Christ is Lord — which is by its nature an exclusionary phrase — is deemed not “inclusive” enough, and even hateful.  

The U.S.’ “Disinformation Governance Board,” which President Joe Biden formed in April 2022, was dissolved following public outcry. We can only speculate with alarm what limitations could be imposed by a successor to the DGB in the coming years. A more muscular version of the DGB would place the fate of free speech in the West substantially on the shoulders of Elon Musk, who owns X. He deserves much more than a tip of the cap for his commitment to free speech, but it isn’t tenable for one person to bear this responsibility.  

In an ironic twist of fate, Catholics and atheist scientists such as Dawkins must now link arms to repel the forces of censorship. The two camps are fiercely opposed on several fronts, but their shared belief in the existence of objective truth unites them in the struggle to keep speech free in the West.  

If truth exists in our hearts, on our altars and under our microscopes, we must be allowed to seek it openly and without impediments. Anything less is unacceptable to our dignity as human beings. 

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said, “Freedom of information is a fundamental human right. … We welcome the views of others. We seek a free flow of information across national boundaries and oceans, across iron curtains and stone walls. We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts. … For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” 

Here’s hoping the people prevail.