Man’s greatest hope for freedom lies in the Cross of Jesus Christ and the founding principles represented in the flag of the United States of America.
Each year on July 4, Americans celebrate their freedom on the anniversary of when the United States of America declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 and became a new nation.
Although the 4th of July is a secular holiday, Catholic Masses for that day contain special prayers in thanksgiving for independence, asking for continued peace and justice, and remembering those who have served and made sacrifice.
The ideas of liberty and God-given individual rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America are not unlike arguments found in Catholic thought before and after the American Revolution.
The Declaration of Independence reads, “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.”
Through Baptism, Catholics become sons of God and identify with Jesus, the only One who can provide true freedom.
Freedom of the human person:
A golden triangle of freedom:
Special prayers for Mass on Independence Day:
For you were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5: 13-14
One nation, under God, indivisible:
The blessing of freedom:
Thank God for freedom:
Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.
Catechism of the Catholic Chuch 1731
Celebrating the gift of inalienable rights:
All of this is in the best tradition of your land – in the American way of life. Again, as your Declaration of Independence states, it is in order to secure these rights that “Governments are instituted among men”. Or, as a distinguished American, Thomas Jefferson – to whom I referred during my address on the Mall in Washington – once said: “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government”.
Pope John Paul II, Address to Congressmen of the United States of America, 18 January 1982
The blessing of equal liberty:
Catholic contributions to American freedom:
One Catholic signed the Declaration of Independence:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
A gift to the Church:
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