At a time when the rights of faithful Americans are being repeatedly attacked by special interest groups, Pope Francis issued a timely warning about "a dictatorship of a narrow line of thought" that kills "people’s freedom, their freedom of conscience."

Vatican Radio is reporting that the Pope made the comments while giving a homily yesterday morning based on the gospel scene where Jesus pointed out how the Pharisees "detach the commandments from the heart of God." They were following a "cold law" rather than keeping their hearts and minds open to new things.

"This is the drama of the closed heart, the drama of the closed mind, and when the heart is closed, this heart closes the mind , and when the heart and mind are closed there is no place for God, but only for what we believe should be done," he said.

"It is a closed way of thinking that is not open to dialogue, to the possibility that there is something else, the possibility that God speaks to us, tells us about His journey, as he did to the prophets. These people did not listen to the prophets and did not listen to Jesus. It is something greater than a mere stubbornness. No, it is more: it is the idolatry of their own way of thinking. 'I think this, it has to be this way, and nothing more'. These people had a narrow line of thought and wanted to impose this way of thinking on the people of God," he said, but Jesus rebuked them.

The pope then reminded the faithful of what can happen when this dictatorship of thought is put into force by governments.

"When this phenomenon of narrow thinking enters human history, how many misfortunes! We all saw in the last century, the dictatorships of narrow thought , which ended up killing a lot of people, but when they believed they were the overlords, no other form of thought was allowed. This is the way they think."

He went on to warn that even today, there is the same idolatry of a narrow line of thought.

"Today we have to think in this way and if you do not think in this way, you are not modern, you're not open or worse. Often rulers say : 'I have asked for aid, financial support for this' , ' But if you want this help, you have to think in this way and you have to pass this law, and this other law and this other law…' Even today there is a dictatorship of a narrow line of thought and this dictatorship is the same as these people: it takes up stones to stone the freedom of the people, their freedom of conscience, the relationship of the people with God. Today Jesus is Crucified once again.”

The pope's words could not be more in tune with the times. In just the past few weeks, we saw a perfectly capable CEO forced out of his job because he supported traditional marriage; a highly trained educator was forced into a sabbatical because she dared to enunciate Church teaching on human sexuality; and attorneys argued in the Supreme Court against an unjust law that will force faithful business owners to fund services to which they conscientiously object.

What are we to do when faced with this dictatorship? "Be vigilant and pray . . . that the Lord always gives us the freedom of an open heart to receive His Word which is joy and promise and covenant. And with this covenant, move forward!"

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