In his July 5 homily, “The Meaning of Patriotism As We Celebrate Our Nation’s Birth,” Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington preached that “we stand in awe of the vision” that the nation’s founders “emblazoned on this new continent, and of the community and nation that have been built during these past two and a half centuries.”
“As we celebrate this great moment that marks our nation’s past and calls us to its future, let us as people of faith embrace a patriotism rooted both in the founding vision of our nation and in our deep love for the specific culture and society in which we live,” Cardinal McElroy preached. “And let us also as people of faith constantly reform both of these foundations of patriotism in the light of the Gospel and the Beatitudes which are the template for our transformation of the world.”
“For we must always, in patriotism, be moving forward, never complacent, always aspirational and called to the greatness, the true greatness to which our country should move,” he concluded.