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Perspective, Political, , ,

We need more Erica – we don’t need no educational indoctrination

From SwiftKick: Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech. By the way, her hometown is not too distant from Albany. Do you think anyone in a hallowed halls of the State’s educational bureaucracy is having cold chills?

Last month, Erica Goldson graduated as valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School. Instead of using her graduation speech to celebrate the triumph of her victory, the school, and the teachers that made it happen, she channeled her inner Ivan Illich and de-constructed the logic of a valedictorian and the whole educational system.

Erica originally posted her full speech on Sign of the Times, and without need for editing or cutting, here’s the speech in its entirety:

Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not “to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States…”

Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

More on church closings

From the Los Angeles Times: Cleveland’s Catholic Church closures leave ethnic enclaves dispirited
Proud Eastern European communities fight to save what they see as a cultural heritage.

On a back street in urban Cleveland, Hungarian immigrants built St. Emeric Catholic Church, where a dozen stained glass windows recall their history and a mural of their first king, St. Stephen, overlooks the altar.

For more than 100 years, waves of Hungarians swept into Cleveland from the wars and upheavals in Europe, finding work in the area’s steel mills and auto plants. They were part of a tide of Eastern Europeans who became a backbone of the industrial economy here.

But the factories have been closing in recent decades, and now the churches are closing too.

Under orders of Cleveland Bishop Richard Gerard Lennon, St. Emeric parish will be eliminated and the church, along with an adjoining Hungarian Boy Scout center and a cultural school, will be closed.

In one of the largest retrenchments of the Roman Catholic Church in America, Lennon ordered the closure of 50 parishes in his diocese, more than half of them with ethnic congregations —” largely Eastern European.

The final closures are occurring this month, fueling sadness and anger among parishioners.

“I pray every day to keep St. Emeric open,” said Joseph Balint, who immigrated to Cleveland and worked at a naval weapons factory after he fought in the Hungarian revolution. “It is really a sad story, but I believe in miracles.”

The communities are not going down without a fight. They have marched on the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland and petitioned the church courts in Rome. Each Sunday, a group of Poles gathers outside the closed St. Casimir Church on the northeastern side of the city, praying and singing the Polish national anthem.

“These tough men came to this country and built churches for themselves,” said Malgosia Feckanin, who left Poland during the Cold War and prays outside St. Casimir. “Now this man, Richard Lennon, wants to take them away. It reminds me so much of communism.”

So far, Lennon has not backed off. On many Sundays, he personally says a final Mass at the churches scheduled for closure, though he is sometimes unwelcome.

Plainclothes Cleveland police sit in the pews and uniformed officers have a heavy presence outside. Protest signs refer to the diocese as “Lennongrad.”

“I am not without sensitivity,” a beleaguered Lennon told a congregation being closed in Akron this year. Howls of laughter erupted from the pews.

The problems in Cleveland are affecting much of the industrial Midwest, where ethnic enclaves have been hit hard during the long industrial decline. Dioceses in Scranton, Pa., Buffalo, N.Y., and Detroit have gone through similar shrinkages but without the public clash that has occurred in Cleveland.

Robert Tayek, a diocese spokesman, said Lennon was being blamed unfairly for a process that began before he arrived. Lennon took over on May 15, 2006, when it was already clear that Cleveland had too many parishes in its urban core.

The closures have been driven by monetary losses in many of the parishes, migration to the suburbs and a shortage of priests, Tayek said.

That explanation is sharply disputed by some of the parishes, which contend they are financially healthy and have recruited foreign-born priests to conduct services in native languages. The closures are pushing them into what they call impersonal suburban churches.

“Lennon wants a homogenized product,” said Stanislav Zadnik, an electrician unemployed since November 2008. On June 20, Zadnik’s Slovene parish, St. Lawrence, is scheduled to close.

Lennon supports the ethnic role the Catholic Church plays in Cleveland, Tayek said, but at some of those churches, “you can throw a baseball and not hit anybody.” In many cases, he said, the parishioners drive into the urban neighborhoods only for church services, and then often only on holidays.

A former television news reporter, Tayek identifies himself as a Bohemian —” half Slovak and half Czech. His grandfather worked in a steel mill, he said.

The sharp reaction has surprised the bishop, Tayek acknowledged. The diocese has received e-mailed threats of violence, he said.

About 10 parishes have filed formal appeals with Catholic courts in Rome. Even while those appeals are under review, the diocese has put some church properties up for sale, another sore point with the closed congregations.

In another effort to stop the closures, Nancy McGrath sued Lennon and the diocese, challenging their legal authority to move without the consent of the parishes. The diocese countersued, charging her with trespassing after a church service.

McGrath, who formed the Code Purple protest group, claims the diocese has a hidden agenda of grabbing parish bank accounts to pay off confidential settlements involving allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

St. Wendelin had $1.2 million in its account, St. Emeric $1.3 million and St. Lawrence $990,000, according to figures compiled by Endangered Catholics, a group formed to protest the church closures.

Tayek acknowledged that the diocese had made confidential legal settlements for sexual abuse claims, but he said the cost was covered by special reserves and that none of the church closings was based on a need to pay such claims.

The diocese, rather than seizing parish assets, will transfer money with the congregations when parishes are merged, Tayek said.

The bishop’s explanations fail to ring true in many of the tidy churches where closings are tearing apart friendships that go back a lifetime and threatening to loosen people’s grips on their cultural identities.

“We built these churches on the sweat and money of our ancestors who came here,” said John Juhasz, a member of St. Emeric. “The closings are an assault on the ethnic component of the church…”

From The Times: Voice grows louder for Save the Parishes
Frustration continues to grow from Save the Catholic Parishes of Streator

Sixty-five people in support of the organization met Monday at Polish National Alliance Hall to discuss the fate of their Catholic parishes. The group discussed the engineering report by Healy, Bender and Associates, a possible protest at the steps of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, and limiting donations to the parishes.

Organizer Melissa Peters invited members of the Vision 21 Board and Rev. Monsignor John Prendergast to the meeting. None attended.

Their absence stirred up a crowd looking for answers.

“Interest is starting to build as we hear about possible demolitions of the convent at St. Anthony and rectory at St. Stephen,” said Siobhan Elias, parishioner at St. Stephen. “Like I said, it’s rumors now but considering what happened with St. Stephen School (demolition). It happened so quickly, it wouldn’t surprise me if (those buildings) were slated to come down very soon. If people want to stop it, they have to stop giving or get involved.”

At the meeting, the group discussed busing people to Peoria to protest in front of Bishop Daniel Jenky’s church.

Others found it difficult to cut their donations. Karen Ricca, a St. Anthony parishioner, suggested only donating three out of the four weeks with a dollar, then on the fourth week, giving a regular donation. She said to set that money aside and give it only if the parishes decide to stay open.

“That is one of the few ways we can get the diocese to listen to us,” Elias said. “I called three people at their office and Ihaven’t heard back from any of them…”

Of course, I would invite these folks to do what the people of Scranton, Buffalo, Chicago, Toledo, and other locales have been doing since 1897, explore the faith, history, claims, governance, and polity of the Polish National Catholic Church. Do this in a positive way; you may be far more comfortable in a Church where you actually do have a voice and a vote.

Christian Witness, Political, , ,

Whatsoever you do, Wisconsin version

From Jim Wallis at Sojourner’s: Controversy in Wisconsin which speaks to the power of authentic Christian witness in the face of character assignation, threats of financial ruin, improperly making faithful youth a point of leverage, and political machinations of a few pharisees dressed in holy robes.

I doff my cheesehead hat and salute the witnesses in Wisconsin who saw past the sheep’s clothing to the wolves lurking beneath.

It was a nice invitation, not unlike many I’ve received before. Every summer, a number of Christian music and arts festivals convene around the country, featuring musicians and speakers and attracting tens of thousands of young people. I have spoken at many such events over the years and, in fact, met my wife, Joy Carroll, at the Greenbelt festival in England! I’m guessing I’ve spoken there as many as 10 times. Joy is helping to organize an —American Greenbelt— for next summer called the —Wild Goose— Festival, an image that in Celtic spirituality signifies the Holy Spirit.

So when Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin invited me to come and speak this summer, and the date was free, I accepted. Bob Lenz, who directs the annual gathering, is a wonderful man with a big heart and a powerful ministry among high school kids that has saved many from suicide. He’s the kind of guy you want to say yes to. It was put in the calendar.

Then a firestorm erupted. A local Christian radio station, which had always supported Lifest, and a local pastor started circulating attacks against me, suggesting that I was a communist, a deceiver, and, worst of all, an adviser to Barack Obama. My favorite was that I was an —avowed Marxist— and that any young person that heard me would be in —spiritual peril.— They were especially concerned that —the social justice message and agenda [Sojourners] promote[s] is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government.— Does that sound anything like the language of a certain Fox News talk show host who has recently come after —social justice— Christians and me in particular? Oh no, they insisted, this had nothing to do with Glenn Beck.

The intimidation of Bob Lenz and Lifest began, insisting that I be canceled or they would face pull-outs and protests. A letter was sent to local churches to call for my cancellation and, like Glenn Beck, the authors just made stuff up. Under a great deal of pressure, Bob called me to discuss what to do. He believed that these people were spreading lies and didn’t want to capitulate to their threats. But they were really stirring up trouble, and people were coming after him personally. I decided to call the president of the radio station myself, to ask him what his concerns were, and to offer a dialogue with his board or anybody else he wanted while I was in Wisconsin. But he refused the dialogue unless the station’s demands for my cancellation were met (sounds like Glenn Beck again).

He said he was against the —unholy marriage between the government and the church.— Me too, I said. When I told him how I successfully worked with the Obama administration to preserve religious freedom in hiring for faith-based organizations who receive any public funds (such as World Vision and The Salvation Army), and spent half of my time on health care in preserving the rule against federal funding of abortion, he became silent and kept moving on to —other issues— —“ the last of which was Sojourners supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I reminded him that there actually were Palestinian Christians, and that most mainline evangelical organizations now support a two-state solution, he got silent again. But he refused to change his position about me not speaking, and his final reason was that I had supported the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative! So my openness to a previous president’s ideas for faith-based partnerships in alleviating poverty was the reason I shouldn’t speak at Lifest? This was getting quite silly. But when the wild and fabricated charges they began with all fell flat in face of the facts, they were left with not much of an argument. But they stuck with it and pulled out of the festival.

I didn’t realize how big a deal this had become until I got to Wisconsin. Green Bay and Milwaukee television stations were there, with the story already in their local media and newspapers. I arrived to a series of press interviews and meetings with local pastors who were very sorry about all this and expressed hope that I would still come back to Wisconsin (I assured them that I loved their state and would love to come back).

Finally I got to speak to the young people, which was the reason that I came in the first place. I told them that I came because of them and the hope their generation provides to me. And that I liked the title of the talk I was to give: —The Call to Jesus and his Kingdom of Justice.— So that’s what I talked about to a very enthusiastic response from the thousands of young people who were there —“ the crowd made even larger because of the controversy, of course.

I said that when we have controversy and conflict in the church and speak badly of one another as Christians, it actually turns people away from Christ. And I said what unites us is not our different cultures, nationalities, or political views. What unites us is the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom, and their job as a new generation was to make that clear. When I quoted Jesus’ opening sermon at Nazareth and concluded that —any gospel that isn’t good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus Christ,— they all cheered.

The front page of the local paper in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I boarded my flight for home the next day, led with the story of the night before in nearby Oshkosh by saying, —Jim Wallis shared his Bible-based message of serving the poor Friday night to a large, welcoming crowd at Lifest despite a small number of boos at his introduction.— They reported what Bob Lenz courageously said in his kind introduction: —This is my brother in Christ,— he told the crowd. —I think he has a message for God’s church. Part of who I am is because of this man.—

I told the young crowd that heeding what the Bible says about serving the poor and seeking justice was not about social action or politics, but rather about nothing less than restoring the integrity of the Word of God in our lives, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Their response to that indicated that many young people today are no longer stuck in the old arguments and divisions in the church.

Most seemed to feel that the controversy and protest looked pretty foolish and unnecessary after the event had taken place. Many thanked Bob for standing firm against some pretty nasty attacks and pressure. But if the attackers had succeeded with intimidation to cancel a speaker they didn’t agree with, there is no doubt that the tactics of distortion and intimidation would have been repeated in other places. That is, after all, how some media celebrities now make their living, and they are encouraging others to follow their example. The newspaper article ended with my saying it was time to —replace the gospel of Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Bill with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.—

When I got to the TSA agent at airport security, she looked at my ID, smiled, and said, —So, you’re Jim Wallis! I hope you felt very welcome here; many of us are very glad you came.— I did feel very welcome and am very glad that I came.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, Political, , ,

IWJ’s Organizing for Worker Justice Training

Save the Dates for Interfaith Worker Justice’s Organizing for Worker Justice Training to be held October 3-7, 2010.

Do you want to learn how to strengthen partnerships between religious and labor leaders? Understand the fundamentals of Direct Action Organizing? Design creative interfaith actions? Develop strategies for building your organization? Develop effective fundraising strategies? Frame the message about religious values and workers rights to the media? If so, then this training is for you! Stay tuned for registration details…

Current Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , , , ,

U.S. History through Polish eyes

From the Niles Herald Spectator: Library exhibit shows U.S. history through pages of Polish records

As the number of Polish-Americans in Chicagoland attests, Poland and the United States have always had a special relationship. Those interested in another perspective, from the pages of Polish periodicals, can now view a large, colorful display of panels at Eisenhower Public Library in Harwood Heights.

The exhibit, “The United States in Polish Historiography and Periodicals from 1764-1919,” is presented by the Warsaw Public Library, with the special support of the Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, Bogdan Borusewicz.

On the 90th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations, the display shows how Poles viewed the United States, from before the American Revolution to the restoration of a Polish nation after World War I.

One early panel includes a letter from Poland. When the Americans were still divided into colonies, on March 20, 1768, Polish King Stanislaw August Poniatowski wrote to American Gen. Charles Lee: “Why do they deny your colonies the right to representation in the English Parliament?”

Two famous Polish military figures, Kazimierz Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, contributed to the American cause during the Revolutionary War. On display panels, one can see Pulaski felled by a bullet at Savannah in 1779, the stronghold Kosciuszko designed at West Point, and Kosciuszko winning the title of brigadier general from Gen. George Washington.

Later, panels portray Polish life during the 1890s and early-1900s, when massive numbers of immigrants came to America. Photographs and documents show paramilitary organizations like the Chicago Polish Falcons, the Polish press, the Polish Catholic Church, the Polish schools, the Polish Roman Catholic Union, and the Polish National Alliance.

Other highlights include Poles participating on both sides of the Civil War and American relief efforts for Poland during World War I led by future President Herbert Hoover, just before Poland finally regained its status as a recognized nation.

Library Director Ron Stoch said that he particularly enjoyed information about Poles across the country, not just in Chicago but in Buffalo and Detroit, and about Poles living in America in the late 19th century who organized to create a nation of Poland modeled on the image of the United States.

An interesting observation which closely ties to the history of the PNCC – a Church organized by Poles in the United States, and exported back to Poland, that is both Catholic and democratic.

Bishop Hodur and the founders sought to meld Catholicism with their experience of the ideals of American democracy. Remember that they looked to the ideals, not the actual implementation of democracy in the United States since, for the most part, their immigrant experience had been one of exclusion more than inclusion. In large measure, Polish immigrants were excluded from the upper echelons of the R.C. Church, politics, and business. Many of my friend’s families were still changing their last names right through the 1960’s so as to provide for job advancement.

The founders of the PNCC saw that in freedom they could best strive after their yearnings for God. True freedom, which respects the rights of all, not just the elite or the “I know what’s best for you” government and chattering classes, is best provided for in a society that is truly free and democratic. It is one of the things that Poles had always admired about the United States.

The display is at the Eisenhower Public Library, 4613 N. Oketo Ave., Harwood Heights, IL. and can be reached by phone at (708) 867-7827. The exhibit opened July 6th and will be in place until October 31st.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Freedom and soup

Dr. John Guzlowski reflects on freedom in Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues and tries to find the best cover in “Subterranean Homesick Blues” Covers.

His hot weather experience as seen through the eyes of old Polish wisdom is found in Shchav Soup: Recipe for a Hot Day

Back in the old days before anybody had air-conditioning, my mother, a Polish woman from the old country, felt that the surest cure for hot weather was szczawiowa zupa, shchav, swiss chard soup.

She’d get up early on a day that promised to be in the high 90s, and she’d fix schav. It wouldn’t take long and it didn’t require a lot of cooking, so it didn’t heat up our apartment. When she had it prepared, she’d stick it into the refrigerator to cool off. In the evening, she’d serve it for dinner when it was in the 90s both outside and inside.

Believe me, it always took the temperature down 10 degrees.

Here’s my recipe…

Here’s another take on sorrel soup, with a recipe, from the Straight from the Farm blog.

I received the same bits of wisdom from my Busha… Hot day? Hot drinks and hot soup… and yes, it does work.

From Kotlet TV: Jak zrobić zupę szczawiową (preparing sorrel soup)

Smacznego!

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

More on the 600th Anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald

The 600th Anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, considered one of the most important battles of Medieval Europe, will be celebrated in Poland on July 13, 2010 with reenactments.

King Władysaw Jagiełło lead an alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, against the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The Order was decisively defeated in this battle and never regained its previous power.

In the painting, by Jan Matejko, one of Poland’s greatest artists, you find the Grand Master of the Order at the middle left being slain. King Jagiełło is in red to the right.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Commemorating and celebrating

From the AngloPolish Blog – July 15th marks the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, a major turning point in European history, when the combined forces of Poland and Lithuania turned aside the hegemony of the Teutonic Knights and their falsified claim on Polish and Lithuanian lands.

…and another in the series

The Battle of Grunwald was one of the largest battles in Medieval Europe. It took place on July 15, 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila (Władysław Jagiełło) and Grand Duke Vytautas (Witold), decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. Most of the Teutonic leadership was killed or taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege on their capital in Malbork and suffered only minimal territorial losses in the Peace of Toruń (1411). Territorial disputes lasted until the Peace of Melno of 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and economic decline in their lands. The battle shifted the balance of power in Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant player in the region.

More from Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Christian Witness, PNCC, , , , ,

Praise God for His gift of liberty

On July 4, 1897, Independence Day, the Rev. Francis Hodur blessed the cornerstone of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

It was fitting that a Church which called men and women to the freedom given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and which recognized that they had the freedom of citizens, to self-govern and to have a voice and a vote in the legislative governance of the Church, a say over how their hard earned contributions are used, such that it is to the glory of God and for their benefit in reaching heaven, would look to this feast of freedom as a symbolic day. The Polish National Catholic Church, founded in Scranton, Pennsylvania, saw this enlightened moment in American history for what it was, a recognition that our independence, our rights as free people are not something given by man.

The founders were clear in their effort to establish this country on what is from God. Man’s judgments and attitudes are changeable. One man may be in a moment a freedom fighter and in the next a dictator. Instead, as the founders wrote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —” That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —” That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Self-evident truths and unalienable rights are not man’s truths or the rights given by men, are not just a fashion for the times, or a changeable fad, but rather eternally established truths and rights, set forth by God, for the happiness and enlightenment of all people. As Samuel Adams stated:

—He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all.— — from American Independence, a speech delivered by Samuel Adams at the State House in Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

On this day which we honor as our birthday, the 234th anniversary of the founding of our nation, and a day on which we gather in churches throughout our country because we are free to do so by the very document signed this day, we also recognize that our Holy Polish National Catholic Church was established as a Church in which our freedom is honored, in which we have not only obligations, but rights. Let us exercise those rights and set forth to always put Jesus Christ first as He is our only mission, our only light, and the Word in which all freedom is established and found.

We thank Thee, Lord, for America, our home. We bless Thee for the liberty, the opportunity, and the abundance we share. But above all we praise Thee for the traditions which have made our country great, and for patriots who have laid the foundations through faith, courage, and self-sacrifice. Teach us in our own day the meaning of citizenship, and help us to be faithful stewards of the responsibility which Thou entrusted to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — A Prayer for our Country from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church.

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