Man is never cut free from obedience, heeding his own will alone; that is only to say that man does not create himself. The question is whether he will worship God, the Creator who made him to be free as an obedient son is free, raising himself by obedience into greater responsibility and greater capacity for action; or a false god, one that promises freedom but claps the manacles on his mind and heart, and often enough on his hands as well.
In Indianapolis, in the midst of tens of thousands of faithful sinners, the Lord was present – as He is in every Mass, and in every tabernacle across the land. I have no doubt that the Eucharistic Congress will prove a singular moment of grace for the Church in the United States. What fruits will come of it, I could not possibly guess, but they will come and come in abundance.
The triumph, as always, is His alone.
Along the way, together, we have sought to show the Church’s true nature as a “pilgrim Church on earth,” as the Eucharistic Jesus continues to summon us to come to Him, to follow Him, and to go out and proclaim the Gospel, conscious that, by means of His earth-shaking self-gift in the Holy Eucharist, He is with us always until the end of time.
“I began to see the Sisters of Mary’s work as woven into the priest’s call — my own call — to suffer and offer sacrifice with no fanfare. Their ministry of sacrifice and relentless work for souls is the same as the High Priest of Jesus Christ. … As a bishop, I, too, am called to enter into that type of sacrifice and suffering. Otherwise, my priesthood isn’t authentic.”
In this, the progressives failed, though they did so while causing considerable harm to immigrant groups as well as to religious freedom. Since the 1960s, however, the progressives have continued to assault Catholics at nearly every level, especially against Catholic schools and hospitals. Still, in all of this, we Catholics have hope. No matter how alien Catholics might have been on the eve of the American Revolution, the philosophical principles and theological beliefs of Catholics fit with—not to mention uphold and defend—the natural law and natural rights traditions of the American Founding.