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Today, the Christian Faith is in danger
of being undermined and weakened
by the spirit that is abroad in the
world: the spirit of materialism and
indifference to things divine. We point
out the danger and call upon all our
people to “stand fast and be not held
under the yoke of bondage.” We cry out
to you, beloved Americans, “Put on the
armor of God that you may be able to
stand against the deceits of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and
blood but against the principalities and
powers, against the spirits of wickedness
in the high places. We call upon you to
offer not the negative resistance of a war
of words, but the positive resistance of
an intensified Christian life through the
observance of the Holy Gospels and of the
age-old Catholic customs and traditions
which keep us from being absorbed and
destroyed. We call upon you to stand fast,
let your rallying cry be, “One Lord, One
Faith, One Baptism!” To accomplish
this, we must LEARN our Faith, LOVE
our Faith and LIVE our Faith!
To be good Catholics means that we
believe in God - One True God in whom
there are three Divine Persons: The
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
To be Catholic means we believe the Son
of God became man for our salvation
and established the One True Church:
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.
To be Catholic means we believe that
Christ constituted St. Peter and his
successors as His Vicars on earth, when
He said: “Thou art Peter and, upon this
rock, I will build my Church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against
Her. And to thee, I will give the keys of
the Kingdom of Heaven.”
To be Catholic means that we take
literally the words of Jesus in giving us
the Sacraments, especially His own Body
and Blood in the Most Holy Sacrament
of the Altar.
To be Catholic means that we accept
Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and, as
He has laid down His Life for us, we are
ready to lay down our lives for Him. We
must be ready to make sacrifices for Him.
To be Catholic means we accept the
commission of Jesus on the Cross:
“Behold, thy Mother!” (John 19: 27) which
were His last words to man before His
death upon the Cross. Together with
St. John, we accept Mary as our own. In
honoring her, we honor the creature
most loved by God, to whom He gave
the greatest privileges and graces.
To be Catholic means we are ready
to keep the vows made at Baptism
by our sponsors - that is to renounce
Satan and his works and to believe in
Christ and the Church.
To be Catholic means we are ready
to perform the Spiritual and Corporal
Works of Mercy for the love of God by