State Chaplain,
Milwaukee Archdiocese Chaplain   

July 4, 2007 marks our 231^st year of independence from England and the signing of our Declaration as the United States of America.  We are and have been free for a long time.  Unfortunately ‘freedom’ is an oft misunderstood and misused word in our American vocabulary.  One must understand that we are one nation under God – and we can debate long and hard about whether the founding fathers intended America to be Christian or not—no one can debate that they believed in one God.  In that sense we are not free, not independent, but very dependent.  We are not free to do whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want, and with whomever we want.  No, we are not free to, but free for service to God and all other citizens.  We are free from tyranny, oppression, and outside rule so that we can freely submit to God and admit that we are very dependent.  Everything we have is a gift from a generous and loving Creator-God who will not force us to do anything, but is ardently longing for us to respond in total submission.

If we admit that we are free for God and for service to God and country, then another important truth begins to unfold in our awareness and action.  If God has created us in love and destined us for happiness here and eternal life forever—so has that same God done for everyone else.  That begins to explain why Knights of Columbus are so totally pro-life.  God looks at a pre-born baby or a serial killer or a drug addict or a senile, bed-ridden and diseased senior and sees only a very precious and beautiful daughter or son.  And then God acts on behalf of that person and loves infinitely and unconditionally.  That is the goal for all free and dependent Americans who claim to be one under God – to love and respond in the same way toward each individual good or bad, citizen or not, legal or illegal, regardless of race or creed or sexual orientation.  All those labels and barriers are simply human limitations invisible to a Creator who desired and willed each individual even before time began and the world as we know it existed.

In that spirit and frame of reference I express wishes for a happy Fourth of July.  We have come a long way; and the Knights of Columbus have helped to blaze that path of glory.  But as we look at the war-torn, hungry, illiterate, and sick masses of humanity across the USA and throughout the world we know we still have a long way to go.