From Cardinal Dolan - Fortnight of Prayer for Religious Freedom & New E-Book

Our First, Most Cherished Liberty


A favor: this year, on the Fourth of July, will you not only shoot off fireworks, but ring the bells at every church in the archdiocese at noon as we conclude our national Fortnight of Prayer for Religious Freedom?

This promising endeavor will begin this Thursday, June 21.

The cause is as old as the country we love, whose independence we’ll celebrate on July 4: religious freedom.

It’s not new at all: Our first bishop, John Carroll — whose cousin, Charles, signed the Declaration of Independence — constantly urged the tiny Catholic flock of his time to pray in thanksgiving for the freedom promised us to exercise our faith without harassment from anybody, government included, and to pray for its protection.

Nor is it uniquely American, for that matter. Just look at the saints whose feasts we’ll celebrate over the two-weeks of prayer:

St. John Fisher (June 22), who refused to render the king the allegiance that only belonged to God, and was murdered for it;

St. Thomas More (June 22), who would not violate his properly formed conscience to appease the crown, and lost his head;

St. John the Baptist (June 24), who would not disobey God’s law about marriage, and was beheaded by King Herod;

SS. Peter and Paul (June 29), who were martyred by Caesar for not worshipping him as a god.

The First Martyrs of Rome (June 30), slaughtered in the first generation of Christians for not genuflecting to the emperor, but only to the Lord.

St. Thomas the Apostle (July 3), whose defense of the basic freedom of faith led to his martyrdom in India.

What people of every faith longed for — the liberty to worship God and live out their religious convictions without oppression — finally came to be fulfilled in the country whose 236th birthday we will observe this July 4th.

I invite you to join this Fortnight of Prayer June 21 – July 4, thanking God for this first of our God-given rights — freedom of religion — and to ask the Lord to preserve it in the country we love as our earthly home.

Check the Archdiocese of New York website and the USCCB website for prayers and activities. I trust every parish will encourage this promising endeavor, as we will at the cathedral.



True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty

I am happy to share with you my new eBook, TrueFreedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty, which was released today! (Image Books, June 19, 2012.) The Archdiocese of New York issued the following press release to the media.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, today released an original eBook, TrueFreedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty (Image Books, June 19, 2012.)

His Eminence writes:

“In only the last few years we’ve experienced rampant disregard for religious beliefs in this country with the approval of embryonic stem cell research; legal justification for the torture of prisoners; the provision of tax dollars to abortion providers; the HHS mandates; and, most recently, a redefinition of marriage by many of our leading political figures. We can see that there is a loss of a sense of truth here, and objective moral norms—rules of conduct that apply always, to everyone, everywhere—and an “eclipse of a sense of God and of man.”

…To this culture of death the Church boldly and joyfully promotes the culture of life.

We recognize that we humans are at our best when we give ourselves away in selfless love and live no longer for ourselves, but for another. This is what Pope John Paul the Great calls the “law of the gift,” echoing the words of Jesus that, “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

The eBook includes the introduction of A People of Hope (Image Books, Nov. 1, 2011), in which journalist John Allen Jr. interviews Cardinal Dolan on a number of topics.