A Non-Catholic
President

Puts American
Catholics to Shame
President Donald Trump,
a non-Catholic Christian with a Catholic wife, defies the
“Culture of Correct” — and puts the cowardly and disgraced
Episcopacy of America to shame by officially “proclaiming
December 29, 2020, as the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom
of Saint Thomas Becket”. A NON-CATHOLIC PRESIDENT is
courageous enough through the grace of God to declare that
“our freedom from religious persecution is not a mere
luxury or accident of history, but rather an essential
element of our liberty. It is our priceless treasure and
inheritance. And it
was bought with the blood of martyrs.” When
would you hear that from a Catholic pulpit or an American
bishop or cardinal? Never! It is not “correct”, and is ...
“insensitive” ... to atheists and other malcontents who detest
both America and the authentic
Teaching of Holy Mother Church. Here in Boston, our
not-so-bold
Cardinal O’Malley ... says nothing about
this
historic act by a sitting American President.
2,559 years ago Cyrus the Great,
King of Persia, issued an edict freeing the Jews from
Babylonian Captivity and commissioning the rebuilding of
their Temple. He, too, was not from the true House of God,
but nevertheless acted under the express command of God and
the impulse of grace. Alas ... here in Boston, we have no
Cyrus; only a feckless O'Malley and a virtually pagan pope.
But, for a while, we have Trump to champion the cause our
own shepherds have abandoned. God bless President Trump. If
that offends your “sensitivities” ... tough!
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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Comments? Write
us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com

Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the
Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket
PROCLAMATIONS
Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the
Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket
Issued on: December 28, 2020
Today is the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint
Thomas Becket on December 29, 1170. Thomas Becket was
a statesman, a scholar, a chancellor, a priest, an
archbishop, and a lion of religious liberty.
Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right
to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s
first freedom in our glorious Constitution, Thomas gave
his life so that, as he said, “the Church will attain
liberty and peace.”
The son of a London sheriff and once described as “a low
born clerk” by the King who had him killed, Thomas Becket
rose to become the leader of the church in England. When the
crown attempted to encroach upon the affairs of the house of
God through the Constitutions of Clarendon, Thomas
refused to sign the offending document. When the furious
King Henry II threatened to hold him in contempt of royal
authority and questioned why this “poor and humble” priest
would dare defy him, Archbishop Becket responded “God is the
supreme ruler, above Kings” and “we ought to obey God
rather than men.” [Ed. Acts 5:29]
Because Thomas would not assent to rendering the church
subservient to the state, he was forced to forfeit all
his property and flee his own country. Years later, after
the intervention of the Pope, Becket was allowed to return —
and continued to resist the King’s oppressive interferences
into the life of the church. Finally, the King had enough of
Thomas Becket’s stalwart defence of religious faith and
reportedly exclaimed in consternation: “Will no one rid me
of this meddlesome priest?”
The King’s knights responded and rode to Canterbury
Cathedral to deliver Thomas Becket an ultimatum: give in to
the King’s demands or die. Thomas’s reply echoes around the
world and across the ages. His last words on this earth
were these: “For the name of Jesus and the protection of the
Church, I am ready to embrace death.” Dressed in holy
robes, Thomas was cut down where he stood inside the walls
of his own church.
Thomas Becket’s martyrdom changed the course of history. It
eventually brought about numerous constitutional limitations
on the power of the state over the Church across the West.
In England, Becket’s murder led to the Magna Carta’s
declaration 45 years later that: “[T]he English church shall
be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its
liberties unimpaired.”
When the Archbishop refused to allow the King to interfere
in the affairs of the Church, Thomas Becket stood at the
intersection of church and state. That stand, after
centuries of state-sponsored religious oppression and
religious wars throughout Europe, eventually led to the
establishment of religious liberty in the New World. It
is because of great men like Thomas Becket that the first
American President George Washington could proclaim more
than 600 years later that, in the United States, “All
possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of
citizenship” and that “it is now no more that toleration is
spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of
people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent
natural rights.”
Thomas Becket’s death serves as a powerful and timeless
reminder to every American that our freedom from religious
persecution is not a mere luxury or accident of history, but
rather an essential element of our liberty. It is our
priceless treasure and inheritance. And it was bought with
the blood of martyrs.
As Americans, we were first united by our belief that
“rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” and that
defending liberty is more important than life itself. If we
are to continue to be the land of the free, no government
official, no governor, no bureaucrat, no judge, and no
legislator must be allowed to decree what is orthodox in
matters of religion or to require religious believers to
violate their consciences. No right is more fundamental
to a peaceful, prosperous, and virtuous society than the
right to follow one’s religious convictions. As I
declared in Krasiński Square in Warsaw, Poland on July 6,
2017, the people of America and the people of the world
still cry out: “We want God.”
On this day, we celebrate and revere Thomas Becket’s
courageous stand for religious liberty and we reaffirm our
call to end religious persecution worldwide. In my historic
address to the United Nations last year, I made clear that
America stands with believers in every country who ask only
for the freedom to live according to the faith that is
within their own hearts. I also stated that
global bureaucrats
have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of
nations that wish to protect innocent life, reflecting the
belief held by the United States and many other countries
that every child — born and unborn — is a sacred gift from
God. Earlier this year, I signed an Executive Order
to prioritize religious freedom as a core dimension of
United States foreign policy. We have directed every
Ambassador — and the over 13,000 United States Foreign
Service officers and specialists — in more than 195
countries to promote, defend, and support religious
freedom as a central pillar of American diplomacy.
We pray for religious believers everywhere who suffer
persecution for their faith. We especially pray for their
brave and inspiring shepherds — like Cardinal Joseph Zen
of Hong Kong and Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu — who are
tireless witnesses to hope.
To honor Thomas Becket’s memory,
the crimes against
people of faith must stop, prisoners of conscience must be
released, laws restricting freedom of religion and belief
must be repealed, and the vulnerable, the
defenceless, and the oppressed must be protected. The
tyranny and murder that shocked the conscience of the Middle
Ages must never be allowed to happen again. As long as
America stands, we will always defend religious liberty.
A society without
religion cannot prosper. A nation without faith cannot
endure — because justice, goodness, and peace cannot prevail
without the grace of God.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do
hereby proclaim December 29, 2020, as the 850th anniversary
of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. I invite the people
of the United States to observe the day in schools and
churches and customary places of meeting with appropriate
ceremonies in commemoration of the life and legacy of Thomas
Becket.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
DONALD J. TRUMP
www.WhiteHouse.gov
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us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com

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