As we gather together today to honor and celebrate our Country’s 242nd Birthday, we do so with heavy hearts, having seen and heard the relentless hostility and bad feelings that sharply divide this once great Republic. The immigration debate, along with the resurgence of identity politics of the 1970’s, have contributed to widening the division witnessed in our Country …so much so in fact, that it’ll take more than a bridge to span the separation.

Last Saturday, it was reported that some 600 events were allegedly held across the country to rally for immigrant families, especially those separated at our southern border. To be certain, this situation is indeed lamentable and inexcusable, as it is critical, to the very moral principles endowed within the human soul. Many moral and ethical leaders of the past all but abdicated their duty and responsibility and today we are witnessing the consequences of neglect and indifference. Or maybe, as some contend, it was all intentional. Either way, our Country must seek the wisdom necessary to revise our immigration system and enact a dignified and morally just policy that welcomes those who earnestly desire to assimilate into our way of life and thereby earn and provide a better life for their families.

But what is also critical to this debate, and to those very same absolute moral values as derived from Eternal Law, is the social sin of infanticide, which has resulted in over 60 million innocent children being deprived of life here in the United States since 1973 and over 1.5 billion worldwide since 1980. What about all of these children who have been literally torn apart from their families? And what about their siblings and grandparents, as well as the untold number of aunts and uncles and cousins, as well as future friends and spouses, who will not have the blessed opportunity and sacred privilege to get to know and to love them? These children are not even allowed the unalienable right to life, let alone liberty and the pursuit of happiness! Thankfully, with the imminent addition of a second nominee to the Supreme Court, it is indeed hopeful that we will see an end to the 4 decades and five law of the land that unjustly and immorally licensed the indiscriminate killing of infant children.

Of all those who vehemently rally and protest for the protection of the countless immigrant families, I wonder how many actually protect and defend the right to life? How many “March for Life” each January or vote for men and women who will be a voice for the voiceless and truly work for the common good of all persons… from conception to natural death! How many of these self-professed humanitarians work to eradicate hunger and thirst, homelessness (especially among our Nation’s veteran’s), spousal and parental abuse, gang violence, illicit drugs and the trafficking of young men and women smuggled into and out of our Country each and every day respectively? How many of these same people advocate for the elderly citizens among us to ensure they are provided and sustained with the dignity of life and proper medical care? How many freely and willingly elect to enter into military service and to give back 3 or 4 years to their Country and family for all the many blessings they have enjoyed in this “land of the free and home of the brave” as they followed after their dreams?

Yes! We are a country of immigrants, to be quite sure, as clearly attested by our Nation’s de facto motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” (From the Many, One). But we are also a country of law and order, as our one and only God, to Whom we bow and give allegiance, is God of Law and order. This is our sovereign heritage and it is why our forebears came to these shores generations ago and why every immigrant who desires to become a naturalized citizen, proudly and willingly swears their Oath to the United States of America beginning with the words, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America .”

Our Nation’s official motto, “In God We Trust,” struck for the first time on a 2cent coin in 1864, is why the 16th President of these United States, the great Abraham Lincoln, abolished slavery a year later with the 13th Amendment, and in many ways defended the republicanism values of the Founding Fathers. This is why France honored the United States of America with the Statue of Liberty, its’ very genesis conceived by Édouard René de Laboulaye in 1865 to celebrate our Nation’s Independence and freedom, as well as the abolition of slavery. This is why men and women and even adolescents have proudly and willingly taken up the unfurled banner of this federal Republic, the Stars and Stripes, and defended her near and far, even with the shedding of their blood, for the past 242 years. And this is why our Founding Fathers assured future generations that our Country would remain as such with Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution known as the Guarantee Clause: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive…against domestic Violence.” Eternal Law guided not only the quill but also the intellect of our Founding Fathers who penned their names to the Charters of Freedom. Therefore, it stands to reason that despite the sins of fallen humanity, and the pride that continues to cast souls from the heights of true Wisdom, each of us is called to live the testament of these Universal principles that are indelibly etched into the annals of this great Republic!

No matter how many democratic socialists or extremists from other countries with very different ideologies try to subvert the principles upon which our Country was founded or how many may win elections to the dismay of true Americans, the United States of America will not be irrevocably trampled upon by the evil tenets of those who would desire Her demise! We have all witnessed the best of mankind over the years, especially in times of crisis, but we have also witnessed the worst in mankind, influenced in great part by evil design and perpetrated by the enemy…foreign, domestic and of hell, that seeks to prevail upon us, our Church, our faith, our families, and all that is good, right, just, holy and pleasing unto God. But as long as we continue to stand and kneel together…as long as we have breath and bear arms with the greatest weapon known to mankind, the Holy Rosary… as long as we are willing to fight against the principalities of darkness and not of flesh for the love of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for all people …if we can do what is ours to do in this moment of time and in history, and follow Providence and our forebears who entrusted this great Nation to the generations that would follow, then maybe God will restore His Blessings upon this land and Her peoples and cover us with the mantle of Justice and Protection until the “great and awesome Day of the Lord’s return!

And so, my dear people, let us this day remember with great devotion and reverence the awesome gift of this great Nation and those who valiantly fought to protect and defend Her to the present day. Let us also thank God that we are Americans and may we, with the help of Providence and Divine grace, always be grateful and willing to do our very best to assure our progeny will benefit from our labors and well fought efforts to preserve the immortal values by which this Nation was conceived in liberty, just as we did from those who came before us. So help us God!

God Bless America!