A Prayer to Our Lady for Our Nation

O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust the United States of America to your loving care.

Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed with the burden of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.

Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.

Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and threaten the sanctity of family life. Grant our country the wisdom to proclaim that God’s law is the foundation on which this nation was founded, and that He alone is the True Source of our cherished rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new Culture of Life.

Hat tip to Catholic Fire.

Words of Wisdom from President John Adams

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –October 11, 1798

Those who seek to eliminate faith for the sake of freedom, get only tyranny

The following comes from Msgr. Charles Pope:

On the Fourth of July, in the United States of America we celebrate freedom. In particular we celebrate freedom from tyranny, and a government that is not representative; freedom from unchecked power and unaccountable sovereigns.

Distorted and faithless notions - Yet, as Christians we cannot overlook that there are ways of understanding freedom today that are distorted, exaggerated and detached from a proper context. Many modern concepts of freedom treat freedom as something that faith limits, not enhances.

Alexis De Tocqueville said Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. In America today we are seeing the erosion of all three in reverse order.

Those who want to eliminate faith remove the ultimate basis of morality. For if God, and what he has set forth in Natural Law, and the Scriptures be not the basis of or law and freedom, then we are and there is no real basis to determine right and wrong, it is all just opinion and power struggle. We are our own absolute rulers, answerable to no one. This is dangerous.

And just as it is a bad idea for the inmates to run the jail, so absolute self-governance turns to tyranny. We tend to turn on each other and engage in deadly power struggles.

Welcome to the secular setting wherein freedom is eroded because power struggles have replaced the recognition of a higher law that binds us all. Welcome to the tyranny of relativism, and the bondage and litigiousness of unbelief.

Among the sources of growing and intrusive law is that some refuse to limit their bad behavior, some refuse to live up to commitments they have made, some abandon self control, some insist on living outside safe and proper norms. Many insist that the solution to protect them from others who abuse their freedom, is more laws. And many are successful in getting increasingly restrictive laws passed.

Yes, without a commonly held morality and a salutary fear that we will answer one day to God, bad behavior multiplies and freedom erodes into lots of tedious laws. In this climate, an increasingly powerful and intrusive State seeks to keep a lid on the immoral behavior resulting from the faithless notion that I will never answer to anyone.

Hence, those who seek to eliminate faith for the sake of “freedom” get only tyranny. Even unbelievers ought to be grateful that most people have a vigorous sense that they must answer one day to God. But without God, those in power, and those who act wickedly, think they will never have to answer to anyone and their sociopathic behavior gets more severe and tyrannical.

Those who claim that the truth of the gospel limits their freedom might also consider that the world outside God’s truth shows itself to be far less than free than it claims:

• Addictions and compulsions in our society abound.
• Neuroses, and high levels of stress are major components of modern living.
• The breakdown of the family and the seeming inability of increasing numbers to establish and keep lasting commitments is quite significant.
• A kind of obsession with sex is evident and the widespread sadness of STDs, AIDs, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood (absent fathers) and abortion are its results.
• Addiction to wealth and greed (the insatiable desire for more) enslave many in a kind of financial bondage wherein they cannot really afford the lifestyle their passions demand, and they are unsatisfied and in deep debt.

The so-called “freedom” of the modern world, (apart from the truth of the Gospel), is far from evident. The Catechism says rather plainly:

The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.” (CCC # 1733)

In the end, the paradox proves itself. Only limited freedom is true freedom. Demands for freedom apart from faith lead only to hindered freedom and outright slavery and tyranny.

Ponder freedom on this 4th of July. Ponder its paradoxes, accept its limits. For freedom is glorious. But because we are limited and contingent beings, so is our freedom. Ponder finally this paradoxical truth: The highest freedom is the capacity to obey God.

Note that in the video this song about Freedom, often sung in reference to various political and social struggles, roots the freedom in Jesus. Some seculars eliminate the 2nd verse today, but they thus undermine the basis for freedom. For if there be no Lord to whom we point as the basis of justice, Those who cry for freedom are simply being arbitrary in their notion. Without God and the justice he puts in our hearts, why should the desires of the oppressed have any more merit than the wishes of the oppressor? It is a mere matter of opinion, for there is no outside source for morality or justice. Unbelievers cannot really point to any basis other than popular opinion or raw power to usher in their view. Their notion of freedom without faith ends only in the tyranny of power struggle.

Enjoy the video, especially the second verse:

St. Thomas More, Pray for us!

The following comes from Fr. McCloskey at The Catholic Thing:

Where in the United States of America are today’s followers of St. Thomas More? As we know, More was martyred for his faith after resisting Henry VIII’s co-option of the Catholic Church for his personal and political ends. For this resistance unto death, More received an eternal reward. In October of 2000, to Catholics in our contemporary civic struggles (which loom particularly large for Americans in this election year), St. John Paul II proclaimed him as the heavenly patron of statesmen and politicians.

In his proclamation, St. John Paul identified as one motive for his action “the need felt by the world of politics and public administration for credible role models able to indicate the path of truth at a time in history when difficult challenges and crucial responsibilities are increasing.” The pope specifically singled out “the need to defend human life at all its different stages,” given that today’s novel situations “urgently demand clear political decisions in favor of the family, young people, the elderly and the marginalized.”

Not long after that proclamation, I joined forces with Gerard Wegemer, a professor at the University of Dallas and a top expert on More in the United States, to produce a 13-part series on EWTN, Mother Angelica’s global Catholic network. (The series remains available from them in DVD form with the title “St. Thomas More: Faithful Statesman.”)

Professor Wegemer had a hand in prompting that proclamation by the Holy Father, as it happens. In the intervening years, surely if anything, the urgent need for St. Thomas More’s intercession and for his adoption as a role model has increased. As I write, we Catholics (I hope) are following the primary races and closely screening the men who are running for the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the governorships of many states. If we take the model of St. Thomas More seriously, we will be looking, in the pope’s description, for a candidate who will “[distinguish] himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue.”

One example of such a life just recently ended is that of the faithful Catholic and brilliant Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a man greatly devoted to St. Thomas More for his faithfulness to the Catholic Church, clear thinking, courage, and integrity. We have a great need of such men and women in public life: people who, in the words of Thomas More, know that, “The times are never so bad but that a good man can live in them.”

As we know from what happened to More (and what he knew from history had happened to a great many Christian martyrs in a great many difficult situations), a good man may be required at some point to give up his life. That doesn’t contradict what he said. We all live and we all die; it’s the way we do both and the decisions we make along the way that will determine whether we make it into the category of good men and women (and, God willing, maybe even saints!) or instead fall into the tragic category of people who have failed to make the kind of choices God calls us to make.

Such people can still repent and be saved, of course, while they live and breathe. But the wrong they have done and the good they have failed to do still affect the course of history, including the condition of their own country.

Our country and its political institutions need fine, faithful men and women who are loyal to our Constitution and who also realize the importance of the natural law. Thank God we Catholics have received in a special way the teaching that comes down to us from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church related to civic duties and the just state.

But in addition, it is up to us to intervene in the particular issues of our time, especially those concerning the value of human life from conception to natural death, and the primary role of the family in transmitting life, religion, morality, and culture.

Along those lines we should pray every Sunday in the prayers of the faithful that our country will become ever more aware of the dignity of human life, the beauty of God’s plan for marriage, and the significance of an authentic religious liberty. We also should pray for married couples, that God assist them in living their matrimonial vocation. And we should ask that the rights of individuals to act according to their religious convictions be respected by the state and its agents.

In addition, all Catholics should pray that we may have statesmen and politicians who will work for the good of society – and be ready to give their life if necessary, knowing what is ahead for us in our heavenly home. So in these challenging times for those who wish to be truly faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us ask the intercession of St. Thomas More, the patron of statesman and politicians.

Pope Francis in America: A Homily of Monsignor Eugene Yennock

The Following is from a homily delivered by Msgr. Eugene Yennock of Syracuse, NY:

A WOMAN WHO WAS STANDING IN THE CROWD SAID: “EVEN IF I ONLY SEE HIM FOR A FEW SECONDS THATS ENOUGH FOR ME.” ANOTHER MAN SAID: “I JUST WANT TO SEE HIM PASS BY.”

FROM THE MOMENT HE STEPPED OFF OF SHEPHERD ONE AT THE WASHINGTON AIRPORT, POPE FRANCIS GRABBED THE WORLD STAGE. WHEREVER HE WENT THE CROWDS WERE OVERFLOWING. IT TOOK OVER 3 HOURS ON FRIDAY FOR 120,000 PEOPLE TO FILE INTO CENTRAL PARK JUST TO GET A GLIMPSE OF THE POPE AS HE MADE HIS WAY TO MADISON SQUARE GARDEN FOR MASS WHERE OVER 20,000 PEOPLE CAME TO WORSHIP WITH THE POPE.

IT IS INTERESTING THAT THE POPE CHOSE THE PRESENT AND FORMER CAPITOLS OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA TO BRING THE MESSAGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

AS HE REVIEWED THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES HE READ THE STORIES OF THE FIRST FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES LIKE THE GEORGIA MARTYRS AND FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA.

THE FIRST JESUIT POPE COULD NOT HELP BUT BE MOVED BY THE ASTOUNDING LIVES OF THE JESUIT MISSIONARY MARTYRS ISAAC JOGUES AND RENE GUPIL. HE HAD TO BE INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND WITNESS OF DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI AND JOHN NEUMANN.

THE WOMEN IN OUR HISTORY ARE AS ASTOUNDING AS THE MEN: STS. ELIZABETH ANN SETON, FRANCES CABRINI, KATHARINE DREXEL, AND MARIANNE COPE BRAVED THE HARDSHIPS OF FRONTIER LIFE TO FUND SCHOOLS, OPEN ORPHANAGES AND MINISTER TO LEPERS, IMMIGRANTS, NATIVE AMERICANS AND SLA VES.

FRANCIS COULD NOT MISS THE STORY OF THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND LAY PEOPLE WHO BUILT CHURCHES, FOUNDED SEMINARIES, ESTABLISHED MONASTERIES AND BUILT SCHOOLS, PARISHES AND

DIOCESES ACROSS THE LAND WITH HUGE ENERGY AND BOUNDLESS FAITH.
THE SACRIFICES OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN WERE THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THAT POPE FRANCIS WAS BLESSING THIS PAST WEEK.

POPE FRANCIS HAS BEEN CALLED THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN THE WORLD. FOR US, AS CATHOLICS HE IS THE VICAR OF CHRIST ON EARTH AND THE SUCCESSOR OF ST. PETER THE FIRST POPE.

WHATEVER PRAISE AND REVERENCE THAT IS GIVEN TO HIM IS MEANT FOR JESUS CHRIST.

WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THE POPE IS PRIMARILY THE DEFENDER OF THE DEPOSIT OF FAITH. IT IS UP TO HIM, WITH THE AID OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, TO PRESERVE IN TACT THE TEACHING OF JESUS. WHATEVER HE DOES, AND WHEREVER HE GOES HE CARRIES THE LIFE AND TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE SECULAR CITY.

IN HIS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, THE SPIRITUAL TRUTH THAT THE POPE WAS TEACHING, IS FOUND IN HIS ENCYCLICAL LAUDATO SI. HIS STARTING POINT IS THE BOOK OF GENESIS IN THE BIBLE. THE POPE USED A POPULAR SCIENTIFIC CONCLUSION ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT TO SPEAK ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE POPE FROM ARGENTINA IS KNOWN AS THE “SLUM POPE”, FOR HOW HE MINISTERED TO THE DOWNTRODDEN IN HIS NATIVE BUENOS AIRES. FROM THE BEGINNING HE URGED AMERICA AND THE WORLD TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE POOR AND RETURN TO ITS FOUNDING IDEALS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND OPEN ARMS TOWARD IMMIGRANTS.

WHEN THE POPE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT HE WAS NOT ENDORSING A POPULAR SCIENTIFIC OPINION ON GLOBAL WARMING. HE WAS NOT ENDORSING A SCIENTIFIC CONCLUSION AS TRUE OR FALSE, LEFT OR RIGHT, CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL. HE WAS NOT INTERESTED IN THE POLITICAL DEBATE.

THE CORE OF OUR APPRECIATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IS THAT WE ARE NOT GOD. THE EARTH WAS HERE BEFORE US. WHEN GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND ALL THINGS, HE BUILT INTO CREATION A SOLIDARITY BETWEEN HUMAN BEINGS AND ALL OF CREATION. HE MADE MAN THE STEWARD OF CREATION. AS CHRISTIANS WE CANNOT IGNORE ANYTHING ON THE PLANET. EVERY CREATURE DEMANDS OUR RESPECT AND CARE.

FOR POPE FRANCIS IT IS INCONSISTENT TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT NATURE WITHOUT ALSO SHOWING CONCERN FOR PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY THE POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US. HE EMPHASIZED ESPECIALLY THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN LIFE FROM THE FIRST MOMENT OF CONCEPTION TO THE LAST MOMENT OF NATURAL DEA TH.

PRESCINDING FROM THE QUESTION OF WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONDITION OF THE ENVIRONMENT BY ABUSE, WASTE AND EXPLOITATION, EVERYONE AGREES THAT WE ARE NOT TREATING THE ENVIRONMENT WITH RESPECT—THE ENVIRONMENT IS BEING DAMAGED AND POPE FRANCIS IS SAYING THAT SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT.

FRANCIS WHO IS NOT LOOKING FOR APPROVAL ENJOYS APPROVAL RATINGS THE ENVY OF ANY CELEBRITY. HE IS ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORLD.

WE SAW HIS HUMILITY AND RESPECT BOTH AT THE UNITED NATIONS AND AT GROUND ZERO. IN THE COMPANY OF PERSONS OF GOODWILL AND REPRESENTATIVES OF EVERY RELIGIOUS BELIEF, HE HELD OUT A HAND OF REVERENCE AND LOVE.

HE INVITED US TO REFLECT WITH HIM ON HIS TOTAL MESSAGE FROM WASHINGTON TO PHILADELPHIA. HE WANTS US TO UNDERSTAND HIS MISSION OF MERCY, NOT IN PARTS, BUT AS A WHOLE, ANCHORED IN THE WITNESS OF HIS PREDECESSORS BLESSED PAUL VI, ST. JOHN PAUL II, AND BENEDICT XVI.

WHAT WE HAVE SEEN THIS WEEK IS AN EXPERT PASTOR OF SOULS, A REAL SHEPHERD. HE DID NOT COME AMONG US TO LECTURE US OR

TO SCOLD US AS HE SAID TO OVER 400 BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES AT ST. MATTHEWS CATHEDRAL IN WASHINGTON.

HE DID NOT COME TO DIVIDE BUT TO UNITE AND RECONCILE. HE SPOKE IN THE LANGUAGES OF NORTH AND SOUTH CALLING ALL AMERICANS TO PROMOTE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT SERVES THE CULTURE OF LIFE. WITH JESUS HE WANTS US TO CARE FOR ALL PERSONS AT EVERY STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT.
IN PHILADELPHIA THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE WHERE HE WILL SAY THE CLOSING MASS FOR THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON THE FAMILY, HE WILL PLEAD WITH US TO HONOR THE FAMILY ROOTED IN TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE AND OPEN TO HUMAN LIFE.

AT INDEPENDENCE HALL IN PHILADELPHIA, WHERE THE CONSTITUTION AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WERE SIGNED; THE SITE OF THE LIBERTY BELL, HE WILL URGE US TO DEFEND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, TO PROTECT THE VULNERABLE AND MARGINALIZED, AND TO DREAM OF A BETTER FUTURE FOR HUMANITY.

THIS IS NOT THE POPE OF THE LEFT OR THE RIGHT. HERE IS PETER CARRYING THE MESSAGE OF THE FISHER OF MEN FROM GALILEE, INVITING ALL OF US TO A SPIRIT OF HARD WORK AND DETERMINATION TO LIVE THE GOLDEN RULE.
HE RECEIVED A STANDING OVATION BEFORE CONGRESS WHEN HE SAID: "LET US TREAT OTHERS WITH THE SAME PASSION AND COMPASSION WITH WHICH WE WANT TO BE TREATED. THE GOLDEN RULE ALSO REMINDS US OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT AND DEFEND HUMAN LIFE AT EVERY STAGE OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.”

POPE FRANCIS CHALLENGED CONGRESS AND THE NATION TO BREAK OUT OF ITS CYCLE OF POLARIZATION AND PARALYSIS TO USE ITS POWER TO HEAL THE “OPEN WOUNDS” OF A PLANET TORN BY HATRED, GREED, POVERTY AND POLLUTION.

DURING HIS FLIGHT TO AMERICA, AT A NEWS CONFERENCE, POPE FRANCIS DEFENDED HIMSELF AGAINST THOSE WHO IMPLIED THAT

HE WAS A COMMUNIST BECAUSE OF HIS TEACHING ON SPREADING SOME OF THE WEALTH TO THE POOR.

HE SAID: “I AM CERTAIN THAT I HAVE NEVER SAID ANYTHING BEYOND WHAT IS IN THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH, I FOLLOW THE CHURCH AND IN THIS, I DO NOT THINK I AM WRONG.” HE SAID: “SOME MAY HAVE MISINTERPRETED MY WRITINGS IN A WAY THAT MAKES ME SOUND “A LITTLE BIT MORE LEFT-LEANING.” BUT HE SAID: “THATS WRONG.”

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT US IF WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE IN HIS TEACHING THE RADICAL TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST THAT WHATEVER YOU DO TO THE LEAST OF THESE YOU DO TO ME?

IN ADDITION TO CITING LINCOLN AND MARTIN LUTHER KING, FRANCIS MENTIONED TWO AMERICAN CATHOLICS TO MAKE HIS POINTS, DOROTHY DAY AND THOMAS MERTON. BOTH LIVED RADICALLY SIMPLE LIVES, CLOSE TO THE POOR AND REJECTING AMBITION — SYMBOLS OF THE FRANCIS MODEL OF HUMILITY AND DEVOTION.

POPE FRANCIS IS THE VICAR OF CHRIST ON EARTH. HE UNDERSTANDS, PERFECTLY, HIS ROLE TO DEFEND AND PRESERVE THE DEPOSIT OF FAITH. HE PROJECTS THE IMAGE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TOWARD OPENNESS AND COMPASSION WITHOUT CHANGING FUNDAMENTAL CHURCH DOCTRINE.
PRAISE BE JESUS CHRIST! LONG LIVE THE POPE! 

Happy Veterans Day!

This is amazing... God bless our Veterans!

A Prayer for Our Nation

We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope N., the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

(Bishop John Carroll, First US Bishop)

June 6, 1944: D-Day Remembered

Today is the anniversary of D-Day - the day on which the Invasion of Normandy began — commencing the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. The video above is a very nice tribute to those who fought!

The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France during Operation Overlord in World War II. It covers from the initial landings on June 6, 1944 until the Allied breakout in mid-July.

It was the largest seaborne invasion at the time, involving over 850,000 troops crossing the English Channel from the United Kingdom to Normandy by the end of June 1944.

To learn more about World War II or the D-Day invasion go to the World War II Museum Site. This museum is amazing and I love to visit when I am home in New Orleans.

Ronald Reagan Endorses Personhood

This comes from Ed at In God's Company 2.

Emancipation Proclamation of Preborn Children January 14, 1988
NOW THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death, and I do proclaim, ordain, and declare that I will take care that the Constitution and laws of the United States are faithfully executed for the protection of America's unborn children. Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. I also proclaim Sunday, January 17, 1988, as a national Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon the citizens of this blessed land to gather on that day in their homes and places of worship to give thanks for the gift of life they enjoy and to reaffirm their commitment to the dignity of every human being and sanctity of every human life.

The House I Live In by Frank Sinatra

Ronald Reagan: A Soldiers Pledge

Kate Smith introduces God Bless America

A Prayer for America

US National Anthem by the Academy Choirs

Happy Birthday George Washington!

Happy birthday George Washington!  


You can learn more about our heroic first President by clicking here.

O America by Celtic Woman

CELTIC WOMAN SONGS FROM THE HEART O AMERICA from Mike Jones on Vimeo.

Bishop Paprocki: ‘Rupture’ Between Church and Modern Culture

The following comes from the NCR:

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., said that Catholics should be aware of an “unconscious hatred for the faith” as they seek to interact with the modern culture.

In an interview with The Washington Times, published Sept. 3, the bishop reflected that, in past generations, “many of the values in our secular world mirrored the values of the religious world.”

“And I think what’s happening now is that relationship — that symbiosis between our culture and the Church — has been ruptured,” Bishop Paprocki said.

He noted that he and many others grew up at a time when secular culture was more friendly to religion, as shown in the production of biblical movies like The Ten Commandments. Now, however, the culture is moving towards the “outright rejection” of Judeo-Christian values.

He pointed to an “anti-Catholic bigotry” in the culture, seen in a Late Night with David Letterman segment where the host joked about the sexual abuse of altar boys.

He said the joke showed a “profound ignorance” in identifying the Catholic Church and the priesthood with sex abuse.

“Certainly, we have had our unfortunate share of scandals and sin, and the Church is dealing with that,” the bishop said.

However, he added that the Catholic Church is now one of the most responsible institutions in dealing with sexual abuse, implementing rigorous abuse-prevention measures, training requirements and safe-environment programs.

Public figures like Letterman “continue to point their finger at the Catholic Church and say, 'You have a problem with sexual abuse,' and people are ignoring where most sexual abuse is taking place. It’s occurring in families. It’s occurring in schools,” Bishop Paprocki said.

“This lets people too easily off the hook to say that, ‘Oh, that’s a Catholic problem.’ … If people are really serious about sexual abuse, I think they need to be looking at some other places as well.”

He said comics like Letterman “think they are being funny” and think their jokes are “where our culture is.”

“I don’t know if it is overt hatred for the Church, but it is probably an unconscious hatred for the faith,” he observed.

“It’s a pagan kind of culture,” he said, adding that Christians have to “mentally adjust.”

Bishop Paprocki warned that the situation of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is becoming more like that of the Church in Poland under communism, where Christians lived in “a very hostile environment.”

The bishop has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration’s HHS mandate requiring employers to provide health-insurance coverage for employees’ sterilizations and contraceptive drugs, including some that cause abortions.

In addition, he has voiced concerns over a 2011 decision by the Illinois state government to ban Catholic adoption and foster-care agencies from receiving state funding on the grounds that they will not place children with same-sex and unmarried couples.

“We still have the First Amendment of our Constitution, but that is being sorely tested,” Bishop Paprocki told the Times.

He said that in response to controversies like the debate over “gay marriage,” Catholics should continue to have “a very articulate, reasoned approach.” They should not let others paint them as “bigots.”

The bishop explained that Catholics’ care and compassion for everyone is “ultimately about their salvation and eternal life.”

“To be compassionate and loving does not simply mean, ‘Oh, you can do whatever you want,’” he said. “That wasn’t Christ’s approach to us. He calls us out of our sinfulness. He died for us. He opens the gates of heaven for us.”

Fr. George Rutler on the Man for All Seasons

The following comes from Fr. George Rutler:

Our parish is blessed with a shrine to Saint Thomas More. The young artist who painted the saint’s image after Holbein was a refugee from communist Eastern Europe. He did such a good job that Cardinal Egan, dedicating it, said that he would not be surprised if this were the original.

We recently celebrated the joint feasts of Saint Thomas More, who was Chancellor of England, and Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Their personalities were different in many ways, and it was almost a miracle that an Oxford man and a Cambridge man got on so well and eventually were canonized together. The Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy were the challenges that King Henry VIII threw at them, and the saints returned the challenge. The issues were rooted in natural law: the meaning of marriage and the claims of government. These are the same issues that loom large today. Whatever our courts of law may decide about these matters, Saint Thomas says: “I am not bound, my lord, to conform my conscience to the council of one realm against the General Council of Christendom.” In 1919, G. K. Chesterton predicted with powerful precision that, great as More’s witness was then, “he is not quite so important as he will be in a hundred years’ time.”

For every courageous saint back then, there were many other Catholics who instead took the safe path of complacency. More’s own family begged him to find some loophole, and — after the sudden deaths of eight other bishops — Fisher was the only one left who acted like an apostle. Those who opted for comfort and wove the lies of their world into a simulation of truth had a banal and shallow faith that Pope Francis has called “rose water.” It is a good image, for rose water is not blood and cannot wash away sin.

The “Man for All Seasons” wrote to his beloved Margaret from his cell in the Tower of London: “And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”

The “Fortnight for Freedom” extended from the vigil of the feasts of Fisher and More to July 4th, but its prayers continue, as the Church’s many charitable and evangelical works are threatened by our present government’s disdain for the religious conscience, most immediately evident in the Health and Human Services mandate and the redefinition of marriage. In 1534 Henry VIII’s arrogation of authority over the Church was quickly followed by a Treasons Act which made it a high crime to criticize the King. In contemporary America as in Tudor England, the surest way to let that happen is to say, “It can't happen here.”   

American Church by Russell Shaw

The following comes from Russell Shaw at Catholic Lane:

In the question period after a talk I’d given on my new book, American Church, a woman raised an important point: “If the Church in the U.S. faces as many problems as you say, why is it doing so much better here than in much of Europe?”

Great question. My answer–which I also give in the book–was along these lines:

“It has a lot to do with the First Amendment principle of separation of Church and State. Yes, I know–’separation’ sometimes is used as a club by secularists who want to drive religion out of the public square. But on the whole it’s been a great blessing for the Church and for religion in America.

“For one thing, church-state separation has generally kept government out of religious affairs, while also keeping clerics out of inappropriate involvement in politics. In combination with Cardinal Gibbons’ wise decision to embrace the emerging labor movement in the late 19th century, this spared the Church the sort of virulent anticlericalism found in countries like France, Spain, and even ‘Catholic’ Ireland as a reaction against the political clericalism of the not so distant past.”

Almost always, I might have added, clericalism breeds anticlericalism. That we’ve largely escaped the worst sort of clericalism in America means we’ve also been spared the worst sort of anticlericalism.

But granted all that, the situation of the Catholic Church in America today is increasingly perilous. American Church explains why. In brief, the explanation goes like this:

Nearly 40 years ago, reacting to the Supreme Court’s then-recent decision legalizing abortion as well as other social and political developments, I published a magazine article with the title “The Alienation of American Catholics.”

The point I was making was that American secular culture had lately shifted in directions radically opposed to central Catholic values and beliefs. Hence the rising sense of alienation from that culture being experienced by Catholics like me.

What I wasn’t so conscious of then was that millions of my fellow Catholics had for years been becoming part of this hostile culture–accepting and adopting as their own its world view, its value system, its patterns of behavior, even when these clashed with their Catholic faith.

This was painfully apparent in matters of sexual morality, but it also applied to marriage and the family, many issues of social justice, capital punishment, abortion, and the whole bourgeois consumerist lifestyle. More and more, Catholics were becoming nearly indistinguishable from other Americans on questions like these.

Looking for an explanation for what was happening, I hit upon the process that sociologists call cultural assimilation–in this case, assimilation into American secular culture–that Catholics had experienced since the 19th century and, with great rapidity and in huge numbers, especially since World War II.

It’s a complex, fascinating tale, not well understood by many Catholics themselves, yet central to the situation in which the Church now finds itself. The subtitle of my book sums it up: “The remarkable rise, meteoric fall, and uncertain future of Catholicism in America.”

There’s a solution, but it isn’t easy. It requires rebuilding a strong Catholic subculture committed to sustaining the religious identity of American Catholics and forming them for the task of evangelizing America. Can that be done? Perhaps. Will it be attempted? That has yet to be seen.

This 4th of July, say a prayer that it is. Remember to say thanks for church-state separation. Things would be a lot worse without it.

Ronald Reagan and Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

Mr. President, General, the distinguished guests here with us today, my fellow citizens:

In America's cities and towns today, flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries; public officials will speak of the sacrifice and the valor of those whose memory we honor.

In 1863, when he dedicated a small cemetery in Pennsylvania marking a terrible collision between the armies of North and South, Abraham Lincoln noted the swift obscurity of such speeches. Well, we know now that Lincoln was wrong about that particular occasion. His remarks commemorating those who gave their "last full measure of devotion" were long remembered. But since that moment at Gettysburg, few other such addresses have become part of our national heritage—not because of the inadequacy of the speakers, but because of the inadequacy of words.

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

It is this, beyond the controversy and the congressional debate, beyond the blizzard of budget numbers and the complexity of modern weapons systems, that motivates us in our search for security and peace. War will not come again, other young men will not have to die, if we will speak honestly of the dangers that confront us and remain strong enough to meet those dangers.

It's not just strength or courage that we need, but understanding and a measure of wisdom as well. We must understand enough about our world to see the value of our alliances. We must be wise enough about ourselves to listen to our allies, to work with them, to build and strengthen the bonds between us.

Our understanding must also extend to potential adversaries. We must strive to speak of them not belligerently, but firmly and frankly. And that's why we must never fail to note, as frequently as necessary, the wide gulf between our codes of morality. And that's why we must never hesitate to acknowledge the irrefutable difference between our view of man as master of the state and their view of man as servant of the state. Nor must we ever underestimate the seriousness of their aspirations to global expansion. The risk is the very freedom that has been so dearly won.

It is this honesty of mind that can open paths to peace, that can lead to fruitful negotiation, that can build a foundation upon which treaties between our nations can stand and last—treaties that can someday bring about a reduction in the terrible arms of destruction, arms that threaten us with war even more terrible than those that have taken the lives of the Americans we honor today.

In the quest for peace, the United States has proposed to the Soviet Union that we reduce the threat of nuclear weapons by negotiating a stable balance at far lower levels of strategic forces. This is a fitting occasion to announce that START, as we call it, strategic arms reductions, that the negotiations between our country and the Soviet Union will begin on the 29th of June.

As for existing strategic arms agreements, we will refrain from actions which undercut them so long as the Soviet Union shows equal restraint. With good will and dedication on both sides, I pray that we will achieve a safer world.

Our goal is peace. We can gain that peace by strengthening our alliances, by speaking candidly of the dangers before us, by assuring potential adversaries of our seriousness, by actively pursuing every chance of honest and fruitful negotiation.

It is with these goals in mind that I will depart Wednesday for Europe, and it's altogether fitting that we have this moment to reflect on the price of freedom and those who have so willingly paid it. For however important the matters of state before us this next week, they must not disturb the solemnity of this occasion. Nor must they dilute our sense of reverence and the silent gratitude we hold for those who are buried here.

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI's of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, "just the best darn kids in the world." Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will every have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem—I can't claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don't know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.
Thank you.
                                                                President Ronald Reagan