In this Year of Faith, the Catholic Bishops of the United States have called for a nationwide effort to advance a movement for Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty through prayer, penance, and sacrifice. Catholics across the nation are being encouraged to pray for rebuilding a culture favorable to life and marriage and for increased protections of religious liberty.

A video presentation including messages from Archbishop Schnurr and Bishop Binzer.

O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord,
Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.

We thank you for the privilege
Of being able to organize ourselves politically
And of knowing that political loyalty
Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.

We thank you for your law,
Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged
And recognized as higher than any human law.

We thank you for the opportunity that this election
year puts before us,
To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote,
But to influence countless others to vote,
And to vote correctly.

Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened.
Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation,
Their response to you requires that they be politically active.

Awaken your people to know that they are
not called to be a sect fleeing the world
But rather a community of faith renewing the world.

Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer
Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth;
That the same eyes that read your Word
Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot,
And that they do not cease to be Christians
When they enter the voting booth.

Awaken your people to a commitment to justice
To the sanctity of marriage and the family,
To the dignity of each individual human life,
And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin,
And not one moment later.

Lord, we rejoice today
That we are citizens of your kingdom.

May that make us all the more committed
To being faithful citizens on earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Written by Dave Bohon

Priests for Life, a Catholic organization that has been on the front lines of the pro-life cause for the past 20 years, announced August 1 that it will not comply with the Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception mandate which went into effect on that date. The mandate, which is already the target of over a score of lawsuits filed by nearly 60 faith-based organizations, requires that all non-church employers provide their employees with health insurance that includes free access to sterilization and contraception — including abortion-inducing drugs.

Catholics are being told to substitute state belief for their religious belief.

How ironic it will be if Catholic voters, about 27% of the electorate, put the first Mormon in the White House some 50 years after John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic president. More telling, though, about the current state of the American mind will be the fact that after more than a thousand days and events in Barack Obama's presidency, the reason for this result will be an unexpected reaffirmation of an American principle older than the country's first presidential election: the free exercise of religion.

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THE MOST CHERISHED OF AMERICAN FREEDOMS
Past and Present

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty

By Dr. Rebecca Peck Weekly Briefing: 2012 (v14)
Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs, a Philadelphia Democrat, recently attacked her pro-life women colleagues in the state legislature for supporting a bill that would allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion, calling them “men with breasts.” But who are the real “men with breasts,” Dr. Rebecca Peck asks.

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Cardinal Dolan thought he heard Barack Obama pledge respect for the Catholic Church's rights of conscience. Then came the contraception coverage mandate.

By JAMES TARANTO

New York

The president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops is careful to show due respect for the president of the United States. "I was deeply honored that he would call me and discuss these things with me," says the newly elevated Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York. But when Archbishop Dolan tells me his account of their discussions of the ObamaCare birth-control mandate, Barack Obama sounds imperious and deceitful to me.
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Rev. André-Joseph LaCasse and Sr. Mary Aquinas wanted to make this awesome homily from Fr. Jonathan Rais from St. William Church in Round Rock, TX available.

As a parishioner states, "... he eloquently states the Church’s teaching, but then he issued a gentle message to anyone who may not currently accept this doctrine, challenging them to reconsider their stance. In the tone of a caring father, he suggested that each of us pray for conversion within the broader issue of respect for life and human sexuality, wherever we may be in need of it. He ended by saying, “This is at the heart of our Faith, because it’s at the heart of who we are as human beings.”"

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President

February 21, 2012
Dear Brother Bishops,
Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to
protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati calls parishes, schools and institutions to a time of prayer for religious liberty as church bells ring at noon on Ash Wednesday, February 22. A suggested prayer is provided below. May the toll of bells unite us in prayer for religious freedom for all people.

DON’T CLAIM TO SPEAK FOR ALL WOMEN

We are women who support the competing voice offered by Catholic institutions on matters of sex, marriage and family life. Most of us are Catholic, but some are not. We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Many, at some point in their career, have worked for a Catholic institution. We are proud to have been part of the religious mission of that school, or hospital, or social service organization. We are proud to have been associated not only with the work Catholic institutions perform in the community – particularly for the most vulnerable -- but also with the shared sense of purpose found among colleagues who chose their job because, in a religious institution, a job is always also a vocation.

Sign the Letter

They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Mark 1:22

G. K. Chesterton was once lunching with an acquaintance and, as he liked to do, he talked about many things. At some point Chesterton expounded on the relationship between authority and power, saying, “If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant right now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatsoever” (Fadiman, 117). An ability to compel someone by force or violence is quite distinct from a right to compel someone’s will — it is the difference between the power of a bully and the authority of a parent. Authority does not derive from power, but the other way around.