Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ezra 9:5-9; Luke 9:1-6)
In today’s first reading the scribe Ezra mentions how Persian
kings honored Judaism. Some of the
greatest presidents of the United States expressed favor toward the Catholic
Church in a similar way.
George Washington in response to a letter by Bishop John
Carroll wrote to Catholics in America: “And may the members of your Society in
America, animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity … enjoy every
temporal and spiritual felicity.” After
attending a Mass surreptitiously John Adams wrote of how he was very impressed. He also contributed to the building of a
Catholic church in Boston. Abraham
Lincoln permitted a fundraiser on the White House lawn to build a Catholic
Church for African Americans in Washington.
He also wrote a letter to Pope Pius IX calling the pontiff his “Great
and Good Friend” and ending, “I pray God to have Your Holiness always in his
safe keeping.”
Religion serves government in many, especially by promoting morality. From the beginning Christians have been told
to pray for their governors. As we do
so, we look for governors to look out for the welfare -- spiritual as well as
temporal -- of all its citizens.
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