A Time for Witness

July 1, 2026

This milestone anniversary year in the United States invites Catholics to renew their commitment to Christ, country and the common good

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

July 1, 2026

American flags stand in a row. — (Photo by Matthew Barrick)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following text is excerpted and adapted from In Charity & Truth: Toward a Renewed Political Culture, Archbishop Lori’s pastoral letter of Feb. 9, 2026. The full letter and related resources are available at archbalt.org/charity-and-truth.

As our nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we find ourselves invited into a moment of profound reflection and renewal. Anniversaries are not merely occasions for nostalgia or celebration. Authentic remembrance always orients us toward renewal; it calls us to consider not only who we have been, and who we are becoming — but, by God’s grace, who we are called to be.

This anniversary can be a moment of grace if embraced also as a moment of responsibility. For while we rightly take pride in the achievements of our nation and the vibrancy of our Catholic faith, we cannot ignore the fractures, wounds and crises that mark both our national life and, sadly, even at times our ecclesial life. The task before us is not to romanticize the past but to offer a hopeful and credible witness today.

At the heart of this witness is a truth the Church never ceases to proclaim: The human person finds his or her full meaning and dignity only in Jesus Christ. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “Christ … fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). Our reflections on politics, culture, unity and civic responsibility must therefore begin — and end — with Christ, who reveals both the dignity of the human person and the path to authentic freedom.

BEING CATHOLIC IN AMERICA

Among the first words of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate was a call for unity — unity in the Church, and unity among the peoples of the earth. Unity is not a strategy; it is grounded in Christ, who prayed that his disciples might be one. Unity is not uniformity. It is harmony in diversity. It is the recognition that we belong to one another, even when we see the world differently.

Unity requires responsibility. It calls us to be united first in faith and service, thereby strengthening the communion of the Church, while simultaneously working for the good of the communities and nation in which we live.

From the beginning, Catholics in this country have wrestled with how to live faithfully in a culture that does not always share or support the Gospel. The Catholic experience in the United States has always included both gratitude and tension — gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, and tension when those freedoms are used in ways that wound human dignity. Yet our history also shows that these tensions can be navigated with integrity. Catholics do not need to abandon their faith to participate in public life, nor do they need to abandon public life to remain faithful. Instead, our faith offers the compass we need to walk this path with clarity and hope.

Being Catholic in America has never meant uncritical allegiance, nor has it required withdrawal. It means allowing the Gospel to form our conscience, guide our choices and inspire our commitment to the common good. When we do that, we contribute not only to the unity of the Church but also to the healing and strengthening of our nation, helping it grow into the best version of itself, even when the journey is difficult.

THE WITNESS OF BLESSED MICHAEL MCGIVNEY

At this pivotal moment in our nation’s life, we are blessed with a distinctly American witness in Blessed Michael McGivney, whose life embodies the virtues our time so desperately needs.

A Knight prays after placing a flag at the grave of a fallen service member at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii. — Kevin Clark, treasurer of Father Damien de Veuster Council 6906 in Aiea, Oahu, prays after placing a flag at the grave of a fallen service member in preparation for Memorial Day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Marco Garcia)

As a parish priest serving immigrant families, Father McGivney recognized the concrete wounds of his people — economic insecurity, social exclusion and cultural suspicion. His response was not ideological, but incarnational. He founded the Knights of Columbus, which fosters charity, unity, fraternity and a patriotic love that seeks the good of the nation without sacrificing fidelity to Christ.

Father McGivney understood that charity is not abstract sentiment, but love made visible through solidarity and sacrifice. He understood that fraternity flows from baptism, not from political alignment. He understood that authentic patriotism is not blind allegiance, but a commitment to help one’s country live up to its highest ideals.

In Father McGivney, we see a lived Christological anthropology: a man who knew that to follow Christ is to serve the whole person — body and soul — and to build communities where dignity is protected and hope is sustained. His witness reminds us that love of country and love of neighbor are not rivals, but companions, when rooted in the Gospel.

THE ROLE OF VIRTUE IN PUBLIC LIFE

A healthy republic does not rest solely on the strength of its institutions, its courts, or its electoral systems. It rests, above all, on the character of its people. The Founding Fathers themselves understood this well. John Adams famously wrote that the Constitution was made “only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” His insight resonates deeply with the Catholic tradition, which has long taught that political life — not unlike personal life — requires virtue. Law guides and establishes structure, but virtue is what animates.

In our times, many of the crises affecting our political culture — polarization, suspicion, hostility and the temptation to reduce opponents to caricatures — are ultimately crises of the human heart. They arise from habits of vice: pride, anger, rash judgment, fear and greed.

A renewed political culture will not emerge from policy changes alone. It will require the cultivation of virtue, which begins in individuals and takes root in families. From there, virtue radiates outward into society.

For this reason, the renewal of our political culture cannot begin in legislatures or courts; it must begin in the places where the human heart is first formed. The family is the primary school of virtue, where patience, honesty, responsibility, forgiveness and concern for others are learned through daily life. …

The classical and Christian traditions identify four cardinal virtues — prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance — which form the moral framework needed for healthy political engagement. These virtues do not belong only to one party or ideology. They are the shared moral grammar that enables people of goodwill to work together for the common good.

A BEACON OF HOPE

In the midst of political upheaval, the Church does not withdraw from public life, nor does she align herself with any partisan identity. She remains what she has always been: a sacrament of unity, a beacon of hope and a teacher of truth. Her mission is not to win elections, but to form saints. Not to secure power, but to proclaim the Gospel. Not to mirror the divisions of society, but to heal them.

Our nation needs Catholics who embody this mission — women and men whose lives witness to the dignity of every human person, whose love bridges divides, whose courage resists hatred and whose faith insists that despair does not have the final word. The civic landscape may look dark at times, but the Church has lived through darker times and emerged stronger, purified and more faithful. So, too, can our nation.

The saints and countless others throughout time did not wait until circumstances were perfect before offering their lives. They responded to God’s call amid turmoil, uncertainty and division. They remind us that hope is not optimism; it is fidelity. Hope is the quiet, steady conviction that God is at work even when we cannot see the path ahead.

As disciples of Christ and citizens of this great nation, we are called to that same hope. We are called to participate in the renewal of our political culture not out of fear, but out of love — love for God, love for neighbor and love for the country that has been entrusted to us. We are called to be saints for our time.

May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.

Warriors to Lourdes pilgrims and other military personnel gather for Mass at the Grotto beneath the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

A Time for Witness

BEING CATHOLIC IN AMERICA

THE WITNESS OF BLESSED MICHAEL MCGIVNEY

THE ROLE OF VIRTUE IN PUBLIC LIFE

A BEACON OF HOPE

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