Denver's Center For Natural Law reaches 5-Year Mark

An all too familiar tragedy in the Western World continues to play out: Our society has increasingly blurred the division between good and evil. It has forgotten moral absolutes and stifled the inner compass that is our individual conscience, thereby encouraging a culture that directly and indirectly disregards God’s law written on every human heart.

And it is God’s Law as applied to the human person that we know as the Natural Law. Five years ago, Gregory J. LaPoint, M.A., keenly aware of the gravity of this problem, instituted the Center for Natural Law. Based in Denver, Colorado, his organization seeks to bring back better awareness and adherence to the Natural Law in daily life.

Earnestly focusing upon rediscovery, renewed appreciation and application of the Natural Law in individual hearts and in society at large, the Center for Natural Law recently hosted their Fall Seminar on Atheism in the Modern World. The evening of Saturday, October 21st featured networking, cocktails, dinner and presentations. Awards were given to Cromwell, Connecticut’s Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Denver’s Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School for their Classical Education in Pre-K and Primary Grades, and to Father Joseph Hearty and the Parishioners of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic parish. These accolades were granted for their dedication to, support of, and faithfulness to teaching and embracing the Natural Law.

Highlighting the event was keynote speaker Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, of Cromwell, Connecticut’s Holy Apostles College and Seminary. The Center for Natural Law's Founder Gregory LaPoint, who for some time had been independently studying the Natural Law, first connected with Dr. Mahfood due to a class he took with him on that very subject. His latest work is timely in our unbelieving age. Dr. Mahfood co-authored a recently published piece of literature titled Catholic Realism: A Framework for the Refutation of Atheism and the Evangelization of Atheists.

Atheism and the loss of comprehension of the Natural Law go hand in hand. And we are certainly met with challenges in dialoguing with atheists. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. He encouraged those present to “love the person, work on those obstacles that prevent the person from their own free will from entering into joyful communion with God.” Dr. Mahfood reminded the audience of the importance of discussing faith and morals with others in a charitable way. “You cannot be Christ for someone if you are not in dialogue,” he noted.

President and director Gregory J. LaPoint, M.A. underscored that “In our modern world there is open rebellion against the Natural Law. And most people replace Natural Law with some secular ideology. The Natural Law will always reemerge in the hearts and minds of individuals and collectively within societies. You cannot efface the Natural Law entirely. It is written on our hearts. It is something that is native to the individual. Because it is native, it will remerge no matter if we try to suppress it or ignore it.”

The Natural Law is a law that all are subject to, a law which acts as the inner moral compass of each human person. This Natural Law is the foundational guide to all that we are and are called to be. Individuals and societies in our modern world have clearly lost cognizance of the existence of God who imparts this Natural Law and the attendant moral absolutes.

Becoming confused about and rebellious against the reality of good and evil and the Creator of us all that gives us these absolutes, nations and peoples are crumbling, confused and adrift. There are dire personal and communal consequences now and in the future for such a world. Our decisions on a personal and social level suffer without the Natural Law. Family and community life likewise suffer without an embrace of the Natural Law.

Enter the Center for Natural Law, which yearns to help individuals achieve authentic development and fulfillment in age that in many ways, does not know God. Through seminars like this one, and as an organization as a whole, via online programs, an online school, and even prison ministry, Greg LaPoint's now five-year-old ministry has set about on a course, moral compass in hand, to enthusiastically and consistently assist individuals in navigating towards genuine formation in the Natural Law, bringing people and society back to the safe shores of our God.