WDTPRS POLL: Your participation in scheduled Fortnight For Freedom events.

Here is a quick poll for you.

Use the combox! Let everyone know what is up.

Have you or will you attend some event for the Fortnight For Freedom?

View Results

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36 Comments

  1. LadyMedievalist says:

    I voted “YES!” because I’ll be at my parish’s Mass and Eucharistic Adoration tonight and Eucharistic procession tomorrow

  2. wanda says:

    I was blessed to have attended the Fortnight for Freedom Mass celebrated in Baltimore by our awesome new Archbishop William Lori. It was incredible. I hope to attend tonight a Holy Hour in a neighboring county specifically to pray for our God given Religious Liberty.

  3. papaefidelis says:

    Perhaps I am being intransigent about this and I admit that I am uncertain. Nonetheless, I feel that it is disingenuous on the part of the US bishops to have framed this problem as one of ‘religious liberty’ when, truly, it is about the inherent evil of contraceptives. [You have fallen into the media trap.] While I hear bishops high and low rant about “religious liberty”, I am deafened by the silence on the real issue, which is the evil of the use of contraceptives to frustrate the creative act. The US episcopate have really missed a “teachable moment” here and, instead, have latched on the the nicety of “religious liberty”, against which only a loon would object.

    Tsk, tsk, yet again, Your Excellencies and Eminences!

  4. abasham says:

    Our parish kicked off the Fortnight last evening with a Holy Hour which included Eucharisting Exposition and Benediction, and a communal celebration of Vespers for the Feast of st. Thomas More, our diocesan patron. So far as I know, our Parish hasn’t done communal Vespers in the 8 years I’ve been here, so this is encouraging on many levels!

  5. LouiseA says:

    The Bishops should be leading a protest movement specifically about the fact that Catholics are being penalized by the Dept of HHS for upholding the one true Faith and Catholic morals. But, it seems to me that this Fortnight of Freedom is focused generically on promoting everyone’s religious liberty and freedom of conscience, whether true or false religion. I cannot pray the recommended USCCB prayer.

  6. Mary Jane says:

    Our parish also began the Fortnight yesterday with adoration and the rosary. I went last night and am planning on attending again this evening.

    This is about freedom…this is also about contraception.

  7. acardnal says:

    Attended the noontime Mass with Bishop Morlino and Bishop Swain.

  8. Peggy R says:

    I just came back from waiting for the crowd at a public square. I could not wait longer. Had to get to office. I guess mass went well over 1 hour. I had timed what I thought I could attend w/my schedule. Rather despondent about it right now.

  9. Marysann says:

    I am out of the country so I will not be able to attend any of the events. I will participate by offering a extra rosary each day. I also printed out the Novena for Faithful Citizenship from the USCCB website, and the Litany of St. Thomas More, and Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty from the Diocese of Arlington’s (our American home diocese) website to pray each day of the Fortnight. I am so glad that the bishops have instituted this event. I hope that American Catholics will storm heaven for our religious liberties!

  10. Lurker 59 says:

    I am located in the Diocese of Madison. If one would go by what is said in my parish and what is in the bulletin, one would have no clue that there is anything going on in terms of the Fortnight For Freedom or even broader still the HHS Mandate issue. For all intents and purposes, there is nothing and no one is informed from the pulpit about the ongoings and efforts of the bishops or larger issues that are affecting the Faith. It is what it is, and I write for no other reason than the question was asked and this is the experience at my parish.

  11. poohbear says:

    There are no events in my area, and in fact, my Diocese isn’t even listed on the USCCB list of activities. I will be praying the Litany for Liberty daily and I signed up for the virtual vigil.

  12. majuscule says:

    I haven’t heard anything about it from the pulpit. I won’t say which parish or archdiocese. I am caring for an invalid so I may be out of touch and I couldn’t travel far anyway.

    But I am praying and I’m also going to distribute info at Mass on Sunday.

  13. I plan to do something… I just have not decided what it is I am doing specifically.

    I find it interesting that today’s saints (St. More, and St. Fisher) were executed a fortnight apart.

  14. anilwang says:

    papaefidelis,
    The point is, yes. This needs to be a teaching moment for the laity. However, that does not mean that one shouldn’t defend religious liberty also. One does not exclude the other.

    There is also a time and a place for everything. When a madman is chasing you with a gun, that is not the time to teach him about the beatitudes. You need to escape or defend yourself, and live another day so that perhaps another day you can teach him the beatitudes.

    And to put it bluntly, this is not the time to educate the non-Catholic public on the evils of contraception. It’s a distraction that they have a hard time listening to, even when religious freedom is not at stake. Without religious freedom, say goodbye to your possibility to educate non-Catholics ever again.

    But if you feel so strongly about getting the word out on contraception, why don’t *you* do something. There are plenty of apostolates who are doing their best to get the word out and they would love a helping hand. It’s one of the good aspects of Vatican II. Even though the priest and bishop is responsible for the souls of all the faithful under him, we are also our brother’s keeper so we’re not off the hook either.

  15. Gretchen says:

    Just attended an event at the Festival for Freedom in Canandaigu, NY at Notre Dame Retreat House, in the Diocese of Rochester. Heard a talk on the moral conscience and a roundtable discussion. Excellent! Will be back. Here’s a link: http://festivalforfreedom.com/

    Michael Voris will be speaking next Wednesday and Thursday.

  16. papaefidelis says:

    anilwang: I understand your point and I DO concur. I truly DO understand the matter of religious liberty, etc. My point was and is that while I have heard many bishops rail against this AS a religious liberty issue, I have not heard them, individually or as a group, raise the spectre of that now banished term, “sin”. Perhaps I have missed one or another of the bishops speaking publicly of this yet I have heard nary a word about sin or evil in this matter which is truly the matter at hand. Even Cardinal Dolan has publicly stated, “This is not about contraception.” No, Your Eminence? Really?

  17. Scarltherr says:

    Here are some of the slogans I’ve used for rallies:

    God says go forth and multiply, Obama says divide and conquer.

    I am not a preventable disease. (for young children)

    Jesus loves me this I know, Obama wants to make me go! (for young children)

    God gives Rights. Obama is wrong.

    We will not comply!

    And of course we quoted the First Amendment. The thing that most people don’t understand about the 1st Amendment is that it is written to reflect the knowledge that thoughts lead to words and words lead to actions. When we understand that, we can see how completely our freedom is being violated.

  18. heway says:

    @Papaefidelis – for me it is not about contraception but religious freedom. I am a nurse, obstetrics for 50 years. We have never had to participate in any procedure which was offensive to our conscience. This is just a crack in the door. It will put all medical personnel at risk.
    Also, my pastor has been on vacation -due back tomorrow. Our diocese and archdiocese are not listed on the USCCB website. I wrote to my bishop, no answer, so I wrote to the archbishop. I received a reply from him which was also forwarded to my local bishop. The next day I received a pdf file of 6 pages to download from the local diocese. tonight I will copy and print up copies of the prayer for my congregation, as I am a catechist. God help us all.

  19. AnnAsher says:

    I voted “can’t” because I’ve not found anything in my Diocese or the closest neighboring Diocese. However I WILL attend if events pop up. One further Diocese (3 hours drive) has a couple small events – a townhall and a Mass on a Saturday. It’s a bit far for that. I’m praying the fortnight prayer though!

  20. Geoffrey says:

    There doesn’t appear to be anything official going on in my diocese. I know of one priest who has spoken about it at daily Mass this past week and will be mentioning it in this Sunday’s bulletin. I hope to hear something in the general intercessions at Mass, but we’ll see.

    Privately, I printed out the daily readings and litany from the USCCB website. I also printed out the USCCB’s “Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty” and will be saying that daily, minus the last paragraph. I will also be adding the Prayer (after Low Mass) of Pope Leo XIII.

  21. Philippus says:

    I certainly am not here for trouble, but I am hesitant to give my support to this cause. The term Religious Liberty for All is not the essence of what we should be promoting. If the cause was Toleration for Catholics, then I would be supportive. The former term is very ambiguous and makes it unclear to the ones saying the prayers.

  22. Marie Teresa says:

    Voted: I’ll pray but not attend an event.

    There are no events scheduled anywhere within a three hour drive (or more). No mention of it at Mass. If it weren’t for blogs like this, I’d know nothing about it.

  23. irishgirl says:

    I voted for ‘I’ll pray but will not attend a scheduled event’.
    I don’t have any ‘extra’ money to go gallivanting about looking for rallies, Masses, or anything like that.
    And when I have gone on my Upstate NY diocesan website, the only thing I’ve seen was a Mass at the cathedral on the eve of the fortnight (the 21st). But, as I said, I don’t have the money to gas up my car and go all the way out there and try to jostle for a parking space (and pray I don’t get any windows smashed).
    So I’ll just do my ordinary hidden ‘thing’ and pray my daily Rosary. And maybe I’ll go to our local adoration chapel as well-it’s just a bit across town.
    @ papafidelis: I totally understand what you said!

  24. mamajen says:

    @Philippus I am happy that our Church leaders are standing up to the president instead of pussyfooting around as usual, but I agree, it’s a slippery topic for sure. I am not a fan of the politically correct way in which this is being presented. My friends have been tossing around quotes from the founding fathers to support this thing, and that’s all well and good until you think about the times we live in and the ways in which religious freedom is being abused…sorry, but I’m not going to pray that intolerant atheists, muslim extremists, polygamous cults, etc. get to continue to do their thing while we sit by and accept.

    But, at least God will know what we’re trying to get at, so the prayers are not wasted even if the whole thing sends a confusing message to mere mortals.

  25. Steve says:

    We can all be praying the Patriotic Rosary during this time. Here is a link:

    http://www.priestsforlife.org/prayers/patrioticrosary.htm

  26. My thoughts are along the lines of papaefidelis…that said….I’ll be offering prayers, but not using any of the official prayers on the USCCB website, but rather, the Leonian prayer after Low Mass daily.

  27. PomeroyonthePalouse says:

    I’d like to, but I was told by our pastor that our bishop isn’t publicizing the program in our diocese because there’s not enough time to do it “right.” (There’s no sign of it on the diocesan website, but something about a “forming consciences for faithful citizenship” video.) Our pastor’s not going to talk about it (he told me Thursday, we’ll see on Sunday) on Sunday because he’s been talking about conscience for 5 years (primarily our ‘c’atholic governor trying to force pharmacists to sell morning after pills) and he doesn’t want people to get tired of the subject. I somewhat jokingly asked if that meant he shouldn’t talk about not sinning because we’d get tired of that pretty soon too.

  28. The Cobbler says:

    Have I mentioned I don’t think we should be protesting this? We should challenge them to enforce it. There are too many practising, faithful Catholics in this country to lock up; you can find that working with the enemy’s statistics (a few million people in America, a third of ’em self-described Catholics, %2 of those not contracepting… let’s suppose half of those will stand up for their right not to fund it… do the math, do the math…).

  29. frjim4321 says:

    I am all for religious freedom but from what I see the leadership has coopted that principal in this instance in order to (1) secure their anti-contraception bona fides with the vatican thus advance career goals and (2) secure their donor base, the vast majority of which is anti-Obama.

    I was horrified to see the ordinary of NYC waving around a foam finger promoting “F4F” (sic). How undignified! The U.S. Catholic Church is not a high school sports banquet.

    Fascinating that Bridgeport received the vast majority of KoC funds last year and that +Lori is their head bishop and coincidendly the head of the Usccb committee spending so much KoC money on this “bury Obama” campaign. Maybe not so hard to believe when one researches Carl Anderson’s partisan pegigree.

  30. jilly4ski says:

    Praying but cannot attend. I am supposed to be having a baby today (it’s baby’s due date). (Maybe I could get some prayers for that).

  31. jilly: Praying but cannot attend. I am supposed to be having a baby today (it’s baby’s due date). (Maybe I could get some prayers for that).

    WOW! Of course! Okay everyone? A prayer for “jilly” and baby?

  32. Ben Yanke says:

    I’ll be assisting at Madison’s presbyteral ordination with Bp. Morlino, the official fortnight for freedom Mass in our diocese.

  33. Tonight June 24 at Gesu parish on the east side of Cleveland @7pm there will be guest speakers on the topic of Religious Liberty. We are encouraging our Knights of Columbus council members to make sure this is well attended.

  34. Cathy says:

    I attended Adoration and Benediction with evening prayers last night as part of the scheduled Fortnight for Freedom events at our parish. It was beautiful, but left me wondering, why do we need a particular crisis to do this? We are living in a time of great crisis, shouldn’t we do this always?

  35. Cathy says:

    frjim4321, exactly what right does the government not have in mandating the Catholic Church to do? I find it narcissistic to think that this is “about” Obama. Would it be different if this was done, under a president with an “R” behind his name? If this was simply about “anti-contraception” bona fides, why are all the bishops in the US united against this? Are they all looking for “career” advancement?

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