Reclaiming Our Freedom

Publisher's Note

Almost 50 years ago, Pope Paul VI predicted the increased availability of contraception would have catastrophic effects on the family, leading to increased abortion and divorce and a cheapening of the gift of life. Today, abortion and contraception have resulted in almost as many children being aborted as born in the United States.

Five years ago, the U.S. bishops predicted that the U.S. government’s abdication on the Defense of Marriage Act would result in “a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.” Today, we are seeing the results playing out before us.

In 2016, men and women who identify as a member of the opposite sex are given special status. States who disagree with that will be forced by the government to accept it, and individuals who do not comply will potentially face large fines. The government’s sleight of hand is a deliberate effort to transform our constitutionally protected freedom of religion into “freedom of worship.”

What would the Founding Fathers think of this, I wonder?

As the Register went to press on May 31, I received positive news in our case against the government’s unjust HHS mandate. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued an order vacating the previous decision by a three-judge panel of that same court which ruled against EWTN. The order seems to mirror some of what the Supreme Court has done in the other mandate cases. 

In the meantime, “Witnesses to Freedom” — the U.S. bishops’ fifth-annual Fortnight for Freedom, which kicks off June 21 and continues through Independence Day — is an opportunity to witness to the freedoms upon which the United States was founded. We can and should join together to publicly and peacefully support and pray for those states, organizations and individuals who daily fight to turn the tide of what Pope Benedict in 2012 called “rampant secularism.”

Please join me this fortnight, and every day, in prayer for the rehabilitation of our country.

Our Lady of the Americas, pray for us!