We don't know how many caught the significance of Archbishop Edward M. Egan's words in his homily Monday afternoon in St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was the glorious occasion of his installation as the twelfth prelate to head the Archdiocese of New York. In his sermon, televised live by EWTN, he talked about the power of prayer as the most important ingredient in our journey to God. At the same time he was extolling this powerful medium of communications with Heaven, the media was breaking the news that the Supreme Court had upheld the ban on student-led prayers in public schools. A glorious day turned into a sad day in United States history.

    What makes it even sadder is the fact that the district where the challenge was issued was the Santa Fe Independant School District in Texas. Santa Fe in Spanish means "Holy Faith." Yet, sadly it was a family of the Mormon persuasion and a Catholic family that challenged the prayers before High School football games. While it is true that Texas is the beltbuckle of the Bible Belt, the prayers were Christian in content and spirit and for a Catholic family to challenge an honest and sincere attempt to include God in events that bring families together is a shame. Whether it was Baptist, Lutheran or any other Protestant denominational prayer, it was a reminder that we are "one nation under God."

    Student-led prayers were a way to get around the ridiculous ruling handed down in 1962 when the Supreme Court took "separation of church and state" literally, striking down officially sponsored prayers or religious statements in public schools. The ascertained that it violated the First Amendment. Actually, the First Amendment is being violated constantly by the Supreme Court decisions over the years. They followed that first decision up a year later by banning state-sponsored recitation of the Our Father as well as reading any passage of Sacred Scripture or any exercise of devotion in public schools. Keep in mind during that period in our nation's history we had a Catholic president sitting in office. Not to be outdone, less than twenty years later during the administration of Jimmy Carter, a religious man who openly talked of God regularly, the Justices outlawed the posting of the Ten Commandments on walls in public schools. This evolved out of a dispute in Alabama, Georgian Carter's immediate neigbor to the west. With no rules visible to remind all of God's will, it was easy to rationalize one's way to a sinful life. In 1985, despite the protests of President Ronald Reagan, the allfinity judges decided that daily moments of silence in public schools should also be outlawed, claiming the students were being coerced into praying. During the latter years of Reagan's presidency, the Court began to see the Light, so to speak, when it back-tracked and ruled that public schools must allow student prayer groups to meet and pray if other student clubs in the public school were permitted to meet. But the ACLU and others raised the clarion of "separation of God and country" once again and in 1992, at the beginning of the notorious administration of Bill Clinton, the Court struck down clergy-led prayers at public school graduation ceremonies and it has been a struggle ever since.

    It is no secret that the deterioration of American society began in the early sixties when God was taken out of the schools. That opened the door for every aberration to replace it and believe me, it has. Our question is, if gays are allowed to openly promote their agenda in public schools, if Planned Parenthood is allowed to openly distribute condoms in schools and push for women's "choice" in respect to their bodies (ergo, read: abortion), then why can't God be allowed back in? There's a great paradox here that doesn't ring true. In accordance with the 1980 ruling regarding other student clubs, wouldn't the same hold true for today in reference to allowing prayer? But Nooooo! That doesn't hold weight. As an example, the "evil" tobacco companies aren't allowed to advertise or promote their products in what is supposed to be a capitalistic society that encourages free enterprise. Yet, anti-tobacco interests are flooding the airwaves in the same manner the immoral segment is filling up student minds while the voice of sanity is silenced by refusing prayer because a few object. That doesn't sound like a democracy or a republic but a totalitarian state to us.

    Though yours truly has been a life-long smoker, and not particularly proud of being so, I am repulsed by the way Clinton has masqueraded the evils of smoking while totally ignoring the real evils out there: abortion and the promotion of promiscuity and the gay life style. Who do you think God is more unhappy with, smokers or fornicators, unrepentant gays, and murderers? In fact, I was encouraged to take up smoking back in 1959 by priests! That's right, while a seminarian at Our Lady of the Ozarks in Carthage, Missouri the one "freedom" or "worldly pleasure," so to speak, we had was to be able to smoke when one reached sixteen. Back then everyone smoked and few said a word. I don't deny the fact smoking is not good for you; I don't deny the fact that it can be obtrusive to others in a closed environment; I don't deny the fact that it has been nigh unto impossible to quit and I am addicted despite the numerous times I've tried to quit. In fact, at Lourdes last month we prayed for the Holy Spirit to take away the urge if it was God's will. We all experienced tremendous healings that we will detail in later issues, but that was not one of the gifts granted. So I continue with this "crutch," if you will, that over four decades has not only become a part of my psychological and physiological make-up, but also a release from the pressures of deadlines as an editor. So much for excuses. The point is the smoking campaign by Clinton is a clever smoke screen to hide his real agenda: killing babies through the promotion of abortion at a rate that is shocking. Yet the government, media, and schools will not allow anyone to show what happens to a fetus when it is ripped from the mother's womb and brutally murdered. We can't have the blood and gore, just Al Gore and all the unmitigated violence promulgated by Hollywood and the media today! So much for balance.

    In a follow-up to our editorial Monday on Alan Keyes as George W. Bush's running mate, Governor Bush was strongly for student-led prayer in his home state of Texas and this decision by the Supreme Court is a set-back for him as well. That is another reason we need to promote Keyes as Bush's running mate for a solid pro-life ticket will further enhance the strong possibility that liberal judges like Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Steven Breyer, and John Paul Stevens will someday be replaced by justices who respect life such as Chief Justice William H. Renquist, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas - the only three who voted for upholding student-led prayers at High School football games. The pigskin is in our hands. It's fourth and long, are we going to play it safe and punt, very easily fumbling the only opportunity we may have to help return our country to God; or are we going to tighten our chin-straps, dig in on the line of scrimmage, and go for it no matter the yardage we have to make? If we don't, we have no one to blame but ourselves because there'll be no one in the stands praying for us. Remember, with this most recent decision, no one's allowed to pray at the games anymore. In other words, we haven't a prayer if we don't shoot for a "first down" as part and parcel of our first amendment rights. Regardless of what the United States Supreme Court rules, in this game of life our soul is the football and there's a higher Supreme Court we have to answer to. After all, the score that registers on God's great scoreboard in the sky will determine the outcome of the game of life! And remember, when it comes to saving souls, it's the only score that truly counts! Punting is not the answer. Just realize we don't have a prayer if we accept the Court's decision to sack prayer. It's fourth and long. What play would you call?

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