American Flag. / Kim Hill via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0) filter added.
Washington D.C., Jul 5, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The Pledge of Allegiance didn’t always include the words “under God.”
When it was first composed, the pledge made no reference to God at all. Instead, in 1893, Americans recited “. . . one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The wording stayed that way for more than 60 years – until the Knights of Columbus intervened.
A Catholic fraternal organization founded in 1882, the Knights of Columbus today represent a worldwide financial and charitable organization. Because of their efforts, “under God” became a central part of the pledge as Americans know it today.
“The Knights of Columbus board of directors passed a resolution asking that the United States adopt ‘under God’ into the Pledge of Allegiance,” the head of the Knights, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, explained to EWTN News In Depth on July 2.
At the time, the Knights had already begun adding “under God” into the pledge at their meetings. After they passed the resolution, they sent it “to policymakers, to the House and to the Senate, and to the Eisenhower administration,” Kelly said.
Lawmakers embraced the change and agreed to amend the pledge. And, with the signature of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Flag Day in 1954, “under God” was inserted.
The president expressed his gratitude to the Knights in a letter to the supreme knight at the time, Luke E. Hart.
“These words will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble,” he urged. “They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.”
The Knights support this message today.
“Our rights – our human rights – come from the Lord,” Kelly urged. “It comes from God and the state can’t take these rights away.”
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A family of religious Jews walks at the beginning of Armenian Quarter Street, the entry point to the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem in April 2024. Behind them stands the complex of the Tower of David Museum. / Credit: Marinella Bandini
Thousands protest outside Dodgers Stadium June 16, 2023, while the Dodgers’ honored the controversial group the “Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence.” / Photo courtesy of CatholicVote
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 19, 2023 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Thousands of Catholics and other Christians marched in a prayerful procession Friday protesting the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring an anti-Catholic drag group called the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
As thousands marched outside of Dodger Stadium, inside the stadium the Dodgers honored the drag group with a “Community Hero Award.”
The recognition ceremony took place 40 minutes before the game and was sparsely attended, with Dodger Stadium largely empty when the Sisters received their award, according to Savanah Hernandez, a reporter for Turning Point USA.
Video taken by Hernandez shows the Dodgers announcer recognizing two of the Sisters to scattered applause and a couple of people booing inside the stadium.
DODGER STADIUM-The “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” are recognized for Pride night to a mostly empty audience.
Outside thousands prayed the rosary, chanted, and sang hymns in reparation and protest for offenses against Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Controversy over the group erupted in May after the Dodgers announced they would be honoring them.
The Sisters are known for using Catholic religious imagery and themes in sexualized performances. The performers call themselves nuns and regularly use the likenesses of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and women religious in ways that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has called “blasphemous.”
Protestors pray outside Dodger Stadium in California on June 16, 2023, while the Dodgers honored two members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with award. Photo courtesy of CatholicVote
Prominent Catholics and other Christian leaders across the country criticized the Dodgers’ decision to honor the Sisters, including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who called the Sisters “a group that insults Jesus and mocks Catholic believers.”
Gomez celebrated a special Mass on the day of the game in reparation for the group’s performances.
“Religious freedom and the respect for the beliefs of others are hallmarks of our nation,” Gomez said during the Mass. “When God is insulted, when the beliefs of any of our neighbors are ridiculed, it diminishes all of us.”
Tommy Valentine, a spokesman for the Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote who attended and spoke at the prayer protest, told CNA that the Mass was “simply beautiful.”
“The environment was truly one of love, prayer, and reparation,” Valentine said, adding that he estimated “at least” 5,000 people participated.
“Many people brought religious art and family heirlooms and rosaries — the traditions and symbols which are so important to us which are mocked by this hate group,” Valentine explained. “It made quite a contrast between the huge prayerful crowd inside compared to the two bigots being honored inside a nearly empty stadium.”
Knights of Columbus join protestors to pray outside Dodger Stadium on June 16, 2023. Photo courtesy of CatholicVote
Shortly after the Dodgers announced they would honor the Sisters, CatholicVote revealed it would be raising $1 million for an ad campaign to boycott the team.
According to Valentine, CatholicVote’s boycott campaign is “just getting started.”
“We smashed our million-dollar fundraising goal and put some of the money aside to keep running,” Valentine said, adding that “people are still donating.”
Valentine said that the ad campaign has thus far garnered nearly 10 million views and listens on TV and radio.
The campaign has faced some opposition as well, according to Valentine.
After purchasing airtime for an ad on Spectrum SportsNet LA, the channel then rescinded its agreement with CatholicVote and refused to run the ad. Spectrum SportsNet LA is partially owned by the Dodgers.
Thousands raise their arms in prayer to protest the Dodgers’ event honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on June 16, 2023. Photo courtesy of CatholicVote
Valentine said that Lamar, Clear Channel, and Outfront also refused to rent out any billboards for the boycott campaign.
“We asked them what specifically they objected to and how we could revise the wording. They ignored us,” Valentine said. “So, we got mobile billboard trucks to circle Dodger Stadium before, during, and after all games.”
CatholicVote also had billboard trucks circulate outside Dodgers’ co-owner Mark Walter’s Malibu house as well as in Manhattan for the MLB owners’ meetings last week, according to Valentine.
Valentine also said that though plans for additional ads are still in the works, he could not disclose any more details.
Rome Newsroom, Mar 25, 2021 / 05:20 am (CNA).- An Italian cardinal who remained in Syria for the entire duration of the 10-year civil war has said that he fears “time is running out” to rebuild the country as it descends into deeper poverty… […]
2 Comments
The phrase “under God” summarizes well what George Washington, way back when, already said in his public prayer for the United States:
“Almighty God; we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government. . . . And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose to all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
The pledge is an endorsement of American Empire, union by coercion. Catholics should have been working to resist its spread, but instead they were assimilated into it.
By 
The phrase “under God” summarizes well what George Washington, way back when, already said in his public prayer for the United States:
“Almighty God; we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government. . . . And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose to all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
The pledge is an endorsement of American Empire, union by coercion. Catholics should have been working to resist its spread, but instead they were assimilated into it.