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On June 11, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Catholic bishops of the United States will consecrate America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Devotion to the Sacred Heart has developed over the centuries following the experiences of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the apparitions she witnessed in the seventeenth century,” explains Archbishop Alexander Sample, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Religious Liberty. “Popes have lauded the practice of consecration of the self, home, and even whole nations to the Sacred Heart.”
For example, Archbishop Sample cites Pope Leo XIII, who in 1899 wrote of “a sort of wall being raised between Church and civil society.” Consecration to the Sacred Heart, Leo XIII wrote, “can establish or draw tighter the bonds which naturally connect public affairs with God,” and thus “gives to States a hope of better things.” Connecting “public affairs with God”, as Pope Leo XIII encouraged, reminds Americans of the blessing on our Nation when God gave us founders committed to the natural God-given rights of each man which impelled them to strive to create a “more perfect union” to protect those rights through a unique structure of government “deriving their power from the consent of the governed.”
America’s freedom of religion, the freedom of belief and the freedom to practice faith openly, without fear, in the home, church and the public square emanated from the founder’s understanding that America’s extensive individual freedoms could be preserved only by a moral and religious people. The founders showed their trust in God in public affairs by their words, actions and public prayers. They protected the right of each of us to do the same…it is our sacred duty to understand and preserve that right for ages and millions yet unborn.
The bishops are encouraging local celebrations in dioceses and parishes coinciding with the USCCB’s special Mass of consecration on June 11 during the USCCB’s Spring Plenary Assembly in Orlando, Florida. It will be livestreamed on the USCCB’s YouTube channel.
Resources are available on the USCCB website including a nine-day novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, from June 3-June 11.
“This anniversary and consecration will be a great opportunity to promote the beautiful devotion to the Sacred Heart,” writes Archbishop Sample, “and to encourage the laity to offer their lives in service to God and their country.”
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of the Rosary for America
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Pray the Rosary for America
O God, Our Creator, we pray for President Donald J Trump.
We beseech you to bless, protect and guide President Trump, his family and his administration to the good of our nation and of the whole world.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen
A PATRIOT'S PRAYER
I am one American.
I strive to be an American patriot.
Sometimes, Lord, I feel alone and discouraged.
Sometimes the work of defending my country is too hard
and I am not adequate to the task.
I pray that you, Lord, who inspired America’s Founding Fathers,
who strengthen our soldier sons and daughters,
who bless this country to the good of its citizens and the world,
would open my eyes to the light of your truth.
That You ask nothing of me without giving me the way.
That You put nothing before me without giving me the strength.
That I need only open my heart to Your love and Your will.
America trusts in God and on You I can rely.
I am strong enough.
You have made me so.
I am wise enough.
You have made me so.
If You are with me, who can prevail against me?
I will stand as the American Patriot You guide me to be.
Amen.
©2024 by Barbara Samuells
STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
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Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
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AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
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Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
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To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
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To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
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To invite and include other faith communities
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To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
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To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
