Where True Freedom is Found: A Catholic Reflection on Liberty, Colorado and the American Founding
- Brittany Vessely
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
From the foundation of the United States and Colorado to the shadow of the Mount of the Holy Cross, freedom flourishes when rooted in truth, virtue and God.
What is freedom? As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary — and Colorado our 150th — the question that inspired our founding deserves new consideration.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17, St. Paul wrote, “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” St. Thomas Aquinas builds on this in the Summa Theologiae, teaching that we who have fully given ourselves over to Christ are fulfilled “through charity which is poured into their heart by the Holy Spirit” (Summa Theologiae 1-2, q. 93, art. 6, obj. 1). In other words, when we live lives of virtue, transformed by Christ and alive in the Spirit, we are freer because freedom is not unfettered autonomy but the ability to choose truth and do good.
Yet Colorado — rugged and mountainous — shares the same independent spirit that animated the American founding. Seen as the “manifest destiny” of a particularly adventurous group of individuals exploring new territory, families ventured to colorful Colorado by wagon through rough terrain until they reached the grandest sight of all: the majesty of the Rocky Mountains.
That beauty and adventure, abundant in Colorado, call to the human heart like no other but require structure to live more freely: structure in faith and law.
Soon after settlement, new Coloradans longed for structure to live their faith more actively. Churches were built, first resembling Spanish missions, then incorporating more advanced designs. Latin Mass and Gregorian chant were soon heard in early Colorado churches, and even in saloons and public halls. That structure in the liturgy helped early Coloradans orient themselves to God, as just law allows man to thrive freely in a moral society (Thomas J. Noel, Colorado Catholicism and the Archdiocese of Denver, 1857-1989).
From the United States’ founding, the rule of law, rooted in the Constitution, was meant to preserve the laws of nature and the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. These true and just laws, not subjective or evolutionary, are grounded in permanent truth, which gives the nation structure and allows citizens to live freer, happier lives.
Unique among nations, however, the United States was established as a self-governing nation, composed of a union of individual states and characterized by federalism. Similar to the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, federalism balances power between federal, state and local levels. Federalism aims to allow “laboratories of democracy” in which man can care directly for his “little platoons” (a phrase coined by Edmund Burke, an 18th-century English moral philosopher) of family, neighbors, church, town and city, rather than surrendering that moral authority to a centralized national government with no direct local knowledge. Understanding that the American experiment would only succeed if those “little platoons” were free to flourish, the founders developed a constitutional legal system that would preserve virtue and foster a love of country, a quality later observed as exemplary of the American spirit (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America).
But that federalist system comes with its own challenges, as we in 21st-century Colorado — just as rugged and independent as 150 years ago — know well. Dependent upon the “habits of the heart,” cultivated and preserved at the smallest levels of society like families, local institutions and religion, society is meant to foster civic virtues and protect and promote true freedom, the ability to choose truth and do good. Yet, as our country and state have grown, “administrative power” and threaten to overtake the “little platoons” if we are not careful (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America).
Despite challenging movements that threaten the family, attack the Church and undermine society’s virtuous foundations, Colorado has deep roots within the faith and truth and will not be shaken.
J. Francis Cardinal Stafford, archbishop emeritus of Denver, once observed that the Holy Cross “had been impressed upon the Colorado landscape before the crucifixion in the granite sides of the Mount of the Holy Cross” (Noel, Colorado Catholicism). Long before the United States or the state of Colorado, the over 14,000-foot mountain stood as a testament to the faith for all those who would reside in this land, reminding us where true freedom resides.
Only in Christ and his Spirit do we find true freedom. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the eternal, natural and divine laws. Just and moral human law, then, should always point us to Christ, even if only indirectly, by guiding us to do what is good for ourselves, our families and society. Just law, with the help of the “little platoons,” instills virtuous “habits of the heart” that lead us to true freedom by God’s grace.
As the United States looks forward to our next 250 years — and Colorado our next 150 — we would do well to look to the Mount of the Holy Cross, both in Colorado and at Calvary, to point the way to a free, holy and happy life and society, rooted not in unfettered autonomy but the ability to choose truth and do good.
