ABVM PARISH COMMUNITY

  GOD BLESS AMERICA We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .  Thus proclaims the Declaration of Independence, promulgated on July 4, 1776 by the unanimous vote of the representatives from the thirteen colonies gathered in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (now known as Independence Hall). The founders, using religious language, appeal to the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God to justify their decision to cut ties with Great Britain.  After listing the many transgressions of the British monarch against state rights they appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world to witness to the rectitude of our intentions , insisting on the moral right, and even necessity, to end British rule.  It concludes by expressing a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence . In the years that followed, the principle

  WE ARE ONE BODY A twenty-four-year-old French Catholic named Henri stopped a man on June 8 who was attacking children with a knife in a playground in the city of Annecy.  When he saw the attack unfolding he ran towards the offender and hit him with his backpack.  It was caught on video by bystanders.  He explained to reporters that he was in Annecy on a nine-month pilgrimage to visit all of France’s cathedrals on foot.  Thanks be to God, no one was killed, but two men over 70 years old and four children 3 years old and younger were seriously injured and hospitalized.  Henri, who did not give his last name, said he simply did what any other Frenchman would have done.  He was joined by a city employee who had a shovel and helped him drive away the attacker.  The press credited him for putting his life in danger to save the children, and he was among those thanked by President Macron, who visited the victims in the hospital. When I first read the report, before getting far into the

  Catholics Invited to Pray an Act of Reparation on Solemnity of the Sacred Heart WASHINGTON - On June 16, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, joined by Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, have called on Catholics to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and make an act of reparation—an act offered to the Lord with the intention of repairing the spiritual damage inflicted by sin. The bishops’ invitation to the faithful follows: “Catholic Christians traditionally recognize June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During this time, we call to mind Christ’s love for us, which is visible in a special way in the image of His pierced heart, and we pray that our own hearts might be conformed to His

  MODERN DAY KNOW-NOTHINGS The Native American Party was a movement which had beginnings in the 1840s and grew in numbers and influence in the 1850s.  It told its members to respond to inquiries with the words “I know nothing.”  Thus, the origin of their name as the Know-Nothing Party.  The Know Nothings were convinced of a “Romanist” (i.e. Catholic) strategy to subvert the civil government and suppress religious liberty in the United States.  They considered the influx of Catholic Irish immigrants as a threat to American democracy.  The movement managed to elect a few members to Congress and in 1856 former President Millard Fillmore accepted its nomination for him as president.  He received only 21.5% of the popular vote and only won the state of Maryland.  The Know-Nothing Party collapsed shortly after the election.  It is disturbing that such a virulent anti-Catholic political party gained as much support as it did, and that a former president freely expressed strong anti-Cathol

THE REAL PRESENCE Flannery O’Connor, a popular Catholic novelist, recounted in a letter in 1955 her experience at a dinner party.  She felt that she did not have much to contribute to the conversion, feeling like she was out of her element.  However, later in the evening the subject of the Eucharist came up, and since she was the only Catholic in the group it was expected that she would defend it.  One of the ladies stated that she received the Host as a child but misunderstood it for the Holy Ghost.  She thought of it now as a pretty good symbol.  O’Connor writes that in response she said, “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it!”  In the letter she explains: “That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.” Would that we would all have the faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist as did Flannery O