Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Independence
2026 Queen of the Americas Guild Annual Conference
Our Lady of Guadalupe: ‘Compassionate Mother … of All the People that Live Together in This Land’ (Nican Mopohua, nos. 20-30)
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, Wisconsin
17 October 2026
Keynote Address
What Our Lady of Guadalupe Teaches Us about the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Introduction
I am most grateful to the organizers of the 2026 Conference. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Queen of the Americas Guild which makes possible the Annual Conference and, through the Conference, our growth in ardent love of Our Lord through our union of heart with the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe. In particular, I thank Christopher and Matthew Smoczynski, and Rebecca Nichols.
I also express deepest gratitude to Monsignor Fernando Felices and Father Gerald Murray, exemplary teachers of the faith and long-time friends of the Shrine here, for their inspiring presentations. I regret that I was unable to be present for their presentations.
As we celebrate 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is right that we should ask ourselves what Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, teaches us about the freedom and happiness that our founding fathers sought by declaring the independence of the thirteen colonies from the British Crown and, in particular, the British monarch, King George III. Today, such a question may seem extraordinary to some. Patriotism and civic duty have always been integral to the Christian life and, as such were treated in the standard catechisms of the Catholic faith.[1] Our Lady of Guadalupe is venerated as the Mother of Mexico and of all America.
In recent decades, however, the teaching on our relationship of piety towards our homeland has disappeared from catechetical instruction. In a totally secularized culture, a culture which, in the words of Pope Saint John Paul II, inspires a life lived “as if God did not exist,”[2] respect for the natural moral law, inscribed by God in every human heart, and taught by the Ten Commandments and all the Holy Scriptures, is compromised, if not entirely lost. In an atheistic and materialist culture, marriage and the family are not a gift of God but are whatever we want them to be. Even more so, our homeland is seen as a manmade reality without any enduring relationship to who we are in relationship to God and to one another.
At the same time, the totally secularized culture denies any relationship between religious faith and civic duty. The state is no longer seen as founded upon the good order of the Creator and Redeemer, but as the invention of men in accord with their desires and purposes. For the secular mind, the idea that the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe could have anything to say regarding the Declaration of Independence is ridiculous.
When, however, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the American continent from December 9th to the 12th of 1531, she immediately declared her maternity of the homelands of all who dwell on our continent. After having identified herself as “the ever perfect Holy Virgin Mary, who has the honor to be the Mother of the one true God for whom we all live, the Creator of people, the Lord of all around us and what is close to us, the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth,”[3] Our Lady declared her maternity of every individual, every family, and every nation. In asking that a chapel be built in which she could show forth her Divine Son and His Mercy, she expressed the reason for her request with these words: “Because truly I am honored to be your compassionate mother, yours and that of all the people who live together in this land, and also of all the other various lineages of men; those who love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me.”[4] Clearly, then, Our Lady of Guadalupe, as mother of our nation, has something profoundly important to teach us as we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, of the foundation of our nation.
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, signed by the Representatives of the Thirteen United States of America on July 4, 1776, is simple in its structure. It begins with the statement of the foundations of a nation. There follows a list of 27 grievances against the King of Great Britain, King George III, and a summary of the recourses against the same grievances. It concludes with the declaration of the Thirteen United States of America as free and independent of the State of Great Britain.
Today, I will address solely what Our Lady teaches us about the foundation of a nation, the first part of the Declaration of Independence, and its freedom and independence, the third part of the Declaration. Although it would be fruitful to reflect on the grievances which provoked the Declaration, I wish to give priority to the fundamental question of what is a nation and how it fosters freedom and happiness.
The first part of the Declaration establishes the foundation of a nation in “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle [the citizens of the nation].”[5] The ultimate foundation of nationhood must rest upon the solid metaphysical ground of the natural law written upon every human heart by God Who has created man in His own image and likeness. The description of the twofold source of the natural law, both nature and nature’s God, reflects the two ways of knowledge of the natural law: reason and Divine Revelation.[6] The law is the same, even as nature is the same. The twofold knowledge of the law has the same font: God Who has both endowed man with reason to know the natural law and has revealed to man the natural law through Sacred Tradition.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence, except one, were not of the Catholic faith. Some were Anglicans or Episcopalians, as we call them in the United States. Some were strongly influenced by the Enlightenment. Some were Deists, that is, they accepted the existence of God on purely rational grounds, excluding a supernatural order. What then does the invocation of the natural law mean? It signifies the recognition of the Supreme Being who has ordered nature, His creation and, above all, the creation of man in His own image and likeness, for the good, true, and beautiful. For the Deists, the relationship of God to creation, once the creation has taken place, is one of complete indifference. For those of more Christian faith, creation shares in the Being of God, of He Who Is. It participates in the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. But for all, there is an objective order in creation which is not the fabrication of man, of his desires and purposes. Nature or creation has an objective end: what is good, true, and beautiful, or what, for man, may be called the common good. The Declaration of Independence identifies the metaphysical end of man: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration then declares the “causes which impel” the separation of the Thirteen Colonies from the British Crown.[7] According to the Declaration, governments are “instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” to secure “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” with which the Creator has endowed all men.[8] When, therefore, a government “becomes destructive of these ends,” a people rightly separates itself to found a new nation.[9] The Declaration recognizes the gravity of such an act, and, therefore, lists its most serious accusations of grievance against the British Crown and declares its efforts to seek recourse without any just response.
Having listed 27 causes for its separation from the British Crown and having summarized the efforts to seek recourse against these causes without any remedy but only additional grievances, the Declaration concludes:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; …
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.[10]
The most solemn part of the Declaration expresses the conviction of the authors that what they are doing is in accord with divine justice. What is more, they express their confidence that what they are doing enjoys the protection of Divine Providence.
The Declaration of Independence indeed has a solid theological foundation. A recent commentator on the Declaration, Professor Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale College, writes:
The theology of the Declaration is a natural theology to begin, but it consciously points beyond that. The Declaration’s theology is not a ceiling meant to confine man’s search for transcendence but a solid foundation upon which man can pursue the greatest of goods and highest truths of faith as well as reason. By appealing to the precepts common to both faith and reason, the Declaration, whether intentionally or not, defines the preconditions of and even invites a more complete understanding of and faith in a Creator God who makes laws, endows rights, gives judgment, and oversees human events.[11]
Having explored the theological underpinnings of the Declaration of Independence, let us see what words Our Lady of Guadalupe addresses to complete the expression of faith in God on the part of our Founding Fathers.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe, in her first apparition to Saint Juan Diego, announces that she is the Mother of God: “I am truly the ever perfect Holy Virgin Mary, who has the honor to be the Mother of the one true God for whom we all live, the Creator of people, the Lord of all around us and of what is close to us, the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth.”[12] She immediately announces the reason of her heavenly appearance on earth. She desires that a chapel be built for her in which, in her words, “I will show Him [the one true God], I will exalt Him upon making Him manifest, I will give Him to all people in all my personal love, Him that is my compassionate gaze, Him that is my help, Him that is my salvation.”[13] Our Lady of Guadalupe has come to bring us her Divine Son, Christ the King of Heaven and of Earth, to lead us to Him Who alone is the object of her love, the source of our help and salvation.
The Kingship of Christ is, by nature, universal, that is, it extends to all men, to the whole world. It is not a kingship over only the faithful or over only the things of the Church, but over all men and over all of their affairs. The Kingship is exercised from the Heart of Christ in human hearts. It does not pretend to govern directly the world but to govern it through man, the steward of the world. Pope Pius XI, quoting Pope Leo XIII, declared:
It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power. Nevertheless, during his life on earth he refrained from the exercise of such authority, and although he himself disdained to possess or to care for earthly goods, he did not, nor does he today, interfere with those who possess them. ….
Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII: “His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error or have been cut off from her by schism, but also those who are outside the Christian faith. So that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.
All men, whether collectively or individually, are subject to Christ.” Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society. … He is the author of happiness and true prosperity for every man and for every nation.”[14]
Christians do not pretend to govern the civil state by means of the Church, as, for instance, is the primary mission of the adherents of Islam, but, at the same time, are called to give a heroic public witness to the truth of the moral law, of the law of God. Thus, Christ’s Kingship is exercised by hearts one with His Royal Heart.
Pope Pius XI makes reference to Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum by which Pope Leo consecrated all of humanity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In Annum Sacrum, Pope Leo, referring to the sovereign and absolute power of Christ, declared:
And verily He has acted on this extraordinary and peculiar right when He commanded His Apostles to preach His doctrine over the earth, to gather all men together into the one body of the Church by the Baptism of salvation, and to bind them by laws, which no one could reject without risking his eternal salvation.[15]
Christ exercises His Kingship through the grace of the Holy Spirit which He unstintingly and unfailingly pours into the hearts of His faithful who are His co-workers in the mission of the salvation of the world. They are the stewards of His divine right in virtue of His grace dwelling within their hearts.
Here, it is important to note that the Kingship of Christ over human hearts is prior in being to any state or government. The state or government, in fact, must, first and foremost respect the freedom of religion, the freedom of man in His relationship with God, which has its most fundamental expression in the freedom of conscience. In fact, the State depends upon religion for its right ordering. Anthony Esolen, in his book, Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: A Defense of the Church’s True Teachings on Marriage, Family, and the State, quoting the Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, observed:
Above all, Pope Leo reminds us that without the virtue of religion, the State becomes little more than a compact of selfishness and sensuality, not worthy of human allegiance. As to poverty and rapacity, “religion alone,” says the Pope, “can avail to destroy the evil at its root,” so that “all men should rest persuaded that the main thing needful is to return to real Christianity, apart from which all the plans and devices of the wisest will prove of little avail” (RN, 247).[16]
A healthy State or nation will treasure, in a particular way, the practice of the Christian religion as essential to the right order of homes and of the wider society.
Likewise, the fundamental rights of man in society – and I am not talking about the ever-growing number of so-called rights invented to promote the secularization of all life – are prior to the State, have their ground in the analogy of being, in the participation of man in the Being of God, in His Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Pope Leo XIII made clear that the family is “a true society, and one older than any State” and that “[c]onsequently, it has rights and duties peculiar to itself which are quite independent of the State.”[17] Those rights and duties are inherent to the nature of man, male and female, which leads the individual man and individual woman to marriage and its fruit, the family. The Kingship of Christ in the home frees the members of the family and the family as a society to enjoy those rights and fulfill those duties, in accord with the will of God.
When we reflect upon the rebellion against the good order and peace with which God endows every human heart, especially through the conscience, leading the world and even the Church into ever greater confusion, division, destruction of others and of self, we understand, as Pope Pius XI understood, the importance of our worship of Christ under His title of King of Heaven and Earth. Such worship is not a form of ideology. It is not the worship of an idea or an ideal. It is communion with Christ the King, especially through the Most Holy Eucharist, by which our own royal mission in Him is both understood, embraced, and lived. It is the reality in which we are called to live, the reality of obedience to the Law of God written upon our hearts and into the very nature of all things. It is the reality to which our conscience unfailingly calls us to conform our being and according to which it also judges our thoughts, words and actions. It is the reality of our dignity in Christ and of the high mission inherent in that dignity.
It is the reality of all things, of our world, of every political order, which we are commanded and strengthened to respect and observe, for which we are endowed with the grace to transform not only our individual lives and our families, but indeed the whole of society. We see an heroic witness to the truth of the Universal Reign of Christ in the martyrdom of the Cristeros, who were also Guadalupanos. They gave their lives, in order to be true to their King and His Mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Saint José Sánchez del Río who, at 14 years of age, bravely embraced martyrdom in the service of Our Lord, praying as he was cruelly tortured and at the moment he was executed: “¡Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! – Long live Christ the King! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!”[18]
Yes, God is the source of the order of all things, the order which our heart is formed to honor and observe, but He is not some remote and disinterested Supreme Being. Rather, He is a loving Father Who has sent us, in the Virgin of Guadalupe’s womb, His Divine Son, God the Son, to save us, once and for all, from sin and to remain with us in the Church to fight the good fight, to stay the course, to keep the faith by which His saving grace has its effects in each of our lives.[19] The Virgin of Guadalupe is ever the Mother and Perfect Disciple of Christ the King. Whenever, we pledge our faith in and love of Christ the King, ¡Viva Cristo Rey!, we pledge our confidence in and love of His Virgin Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Blessed Father Miguel Pro inscribed these two acclamations of faith and love on the wall of the prison in which he was held before his execution by firing squad. At the moment, he was to be killed, he cried out: ¡Viva Cristo Rey![20]
Our Lady of Guadalupe guides us to the achievement of life, freedom, and happiness which are found in her Divine Son alone. Having declared herself to be the Mother of God, she immediately declares herself to be the Mother of God’s sons and daughters through the adoption of the waters of Baptism: “I am truly honored to be your compassionate mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land, and also of all the other various lineages of men; those who love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me.”[21] Even as Christ died on the Cross to save all men, not only the people of a particular time or place, He gave His Mother to all men as their Mother, the Mother of Divine Grace. Seeing His Mother and His Beloved Disciple, Saint John Apostle and Evangelist, representing all who would become His disciples, He spoke these words: “Woman, behold, your son! … Behold, your mother!”[22] The Virgin Mother of God is the Mother of all who seek God, who seek the fullness of His Revelation in His Redemptive Incarnation, as the source and fulfillment of life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.
As sons and daughters of God the Father in God the Son through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we all have responsibility for the carrying out of the saving work of the Lord. When Juan Diego experienced the difficulty of doing what Our Lady asked of him, he suggested that it might be the work of another, someone more talented, to which Our Lady replied:
Listen my youngest son, know for sure that I have no lack of servants, of messengers, to whom I can give the task of carrying my breath, my word, so that they carry out my will; but it is necessary that you, personally, go and plead, that by your intercession, my wish, my will, become a reality. And I beg you, my youngest son, and I strictly order you, to go again tomorrow to see the Bishop. And in my name, make him know, make him hear my wish, my will, so that he will bring into being, he will build my sacred house that I ask of him.[23]
Our Lady teaches us that our individual life and our life in the family, in the neighborhood, and in the nation is a gift of God, entrusted into our care. Life will only flourish to the degree that we fulfill our responsibilities taught to us by the natural law and Church doctrine. It is said that, when, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin whether the Congress had granted the country a republic or a monarchy, he replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”[24] In other words, a government can only serve the good to the degree that the citizens live in accord with the founding principles of the government, in our case, “the Laws of nature and of nature’s God.”[25]
Our Lady’s insistence that we be, with her, messengers of Christ the King in the world is most timely for the celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Today, the very foundations acknowledged by our founding fathers are betrayed by our laws. Popular legal theory in the United States denies the foundation of positive laws upon the natural law. Law no longer serves the metaphysical order established by God the Creator and Redeemer but the desires and purposes of men, many of which are openly in rebellion against the natural order. There is, in fact, no more critical need in our nation than to return to the recognition of the natural moral law and its dictates which safeguard life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
At the time of the founding of our nation, the Catholic Church was viewed with great suspicion as the agent of a foreign tyrant, the Pope. Throughout the history of our nation, prejudice against the Catholic religion has continued to be acceptable. One of the principal reasons for the prejudice is the supposed inherent opposition of the Catholic faith to the freedom which Americans so much cherish. The truth, as Our Lady of Guadalupe teaches us, is that the Catholic religion ultimately safeguards freedom by upholding the virtues by which man lives in freedom from the slavery of wrong desires and passions, respecting the objective ends of persons and things. While supposedly guarding the nation against the slavery of the foreign power of the Roman Pontiff, the nation has enslaved itself to the disordered desires and passions of individual citizens, leading to the killing of millions of unborn babies, the so-called mercy-killing of those burdened by grave illness, special needs, or advanced years, the physical mutilation and psychological abuse associated with the so-called “gender theory,” and the denial of the freedom of religion by reducing it to freedom of worship, such that citizens are forced by the government to act against the most sacred tenets of the conscience. In permitting these crimes which deny life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to a certain number of citizens, the United States government certainly cannot appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of [their] intentions.”[26] How we need to turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe who, “in all [her] personal love,” will take us to her Divine Son who alone is our help and our salvation.[27]
Conclusion
In conclusion, I suggest that one of the best expressions of gratitude for the Declaration of Independence is making known the apparitions and message of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She came to our continent to bring us to Christ the King and to guide us in following Him. She remains on our continent by her miraculous image, made by God and impressed upon the tilma of Saint Juan Diego, to teach us the foundations of our life as individuals, as members of a family, and as citizens of a nation, in the reign of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus over our hearts.
May I further suggest that one of the best acts of love for our nation is the undertaking of reparation for all the ways in which “the Laws of nature and of nature’s God” have been grievously violated, denying its citizens the divinely-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Reparation made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will bring light and healing to our nation and to its citizens.
Yes, Our Lady of Guadalupe has much to say to us as we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. With firm trust in Our Lord, in His Love, and in His promises of salvation, let us heed her words, especially by our pilgrimage to the holy place of her chapel in which she manifests to us her Divine Son, Christ the King. ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! God bless America!
Thank you for your kind attention. May God bless you and your homes. May Our Lady of Guadalupe always intercede for your intentions.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Cfr. Baltimore Catechism No. 3: The Text of the Official Revised Edition 1949 with Summarizations of Doctrine and Study Helps by Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.Ss.R., S.T.D. (Front Royal: Seton Press, 2016), nos. 243, 245-249.
[2] “ … «etsi Deus non daretur».” Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Adhortatio Apostolica Christifideles Laici, “De vocatione et missione Laicorum in Ecclesia et in mundo,” 30 Decembris 1988, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 81 (1989), p. 454, no. 34. English translation: Pope John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 30 December 1988, “On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World,” Vatican City State: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, nd, p. 95, no. 34.
[3] “… la perfecta siempre Virgen Santa María, que tengo el honor de ser Madre del verdaderísimo Dios por quien se vive, el Creador de las personas, el Dueño de la cercanía y de la inmediación, el Dueño del cielo, el Dueño de la tierra.” “Apéndice A, El Nican Mopohua,” Carl A. Anderson y Eduardo Chávez, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Madre de la civilización del amor, tr. Gerardo Hernández Clark (México DF: Random House Mondadori, 2010), p. 214, n. 26. [NM]. English translation: Carl A. Anderson and Eduardo Chávez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009), p. 173, no. 26. [NMEng].
[4] “Porque, en verdad, yo me honro en ser tu madre compasiva, tuya y de todos los hombres que vivís juntos en esta tierra, y también de todas las demas variadas estirpes de hombres, los que me amen; los que me llamen, los que me busquen, los que confíen en mi.” NM, p. 214, nn. 29-31. English translation: NMEng, p. 174, nos. 29-31.
[5] “Appendix: The Declaration of Independence” in Matthew Spalding, The Making of the American Mind: The Story of Our Declaration of Independence (New York: Encounter Books, 2025), p. 237. [Hereafter, Spalding].
[6] Cf. Spalding, pp. 81-90.
[7] Spalding, p. 237.
[8] Spalding, p. 237.
[9] Spalding, p. 237.
[10] Spalding, p. 241.
[11] Spalding, p. 214.
[12] “… yo soy en Verdad la perfecta siempre Virgen Santa María, que tengo el honor de ser Madre del verdaderísimo Dios por quien se vive, el Creador de las personas, el Dueño de la cercanía y de la inmediación, el Dueño del cielo, el Dueño de la tierra.” NM, p. 214, n. 26. English translation: NMEng, p. 173, no. 26.
[13] “… lo [el verdaderísimo Dios] mostraré, lo ensalzaré al ponerlo de manifiesto, lo entregaré a las gentes en todo mi amor personal, a Él que es mi mirada compasíva, a Él que es mi auxilio, a Él que es mi salvación.” NM, p. 214, nn. 27-28. English translation: NMEng, p. 173, nos. 27-28.
[14] “Turpiter, ceteroquin, erret, qui a Christo homine rerum civilium quarumlibet imperium abiudicet, cum is a Patre ius in res creatas absolutissimum sic obtineat, ut omnia in suo arbitrio sint posita. At tamen, quoad in terris vitam traduxit, ab eiusmodi dominatu exercendo se prorsus abstinuit, atque, ut humanarum rerum possessionem procurationemque olim contempsit, ita eas possessoribus et tum permisit et hodie permittit. … Itaque principatus Redemptoris nostri universos complectitur homines; quam ad rem verba immortalis memoriae decessoris Nostri Leonis XIII Nostra libenter facimus: «Videlicet imperium eius non est tantummodo in gentes catholici nominis, aut in eos solum, qui, sacro baptismate abluti, utique ad Ecclesiam, si spectetur ius, pertinent, quamvis vel error opinionum devios agat, vel dissensio a caritate seiungat; sed complectitur etiam quotquot numerantur christianae fidei expertes, ita ut verissime in potestate Iesus Christi sit universitas generis humani». Nec quicquam inter singulos hac in re et convictiones domesticas civilesque interest, quia homines societate coniuncti nihilo sunt minus in potestate Christi quam singuli. Idem profecto fons privatae ac communis salutis: …; idem et singulis civilibus et rei publicae prosperitatis auctor germanaeque beatitatis: ….” Pius PP. XI, Litterae Encyclicae Quas primas, “De Festo Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Regis constituendo,” 11 Decembris 1925, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 17 (1925) 600-601. [QP]. English translation: http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_11121925_quas-primas.html, p. 6, nos. 17-18. [QPEng].
[15] “Re autem vera ius istud evulgare doctrinam suam, congregare homines in unum corpus Ecclesiae per lavacrum salutis, leges denique imponere, quas recusare sine salutis sempiternae discrimine nemo posset.” Leo PP. XIII, Litterae Encyclicae Annum Sacrum, “De hominibus Sacratissimo Cordi Iesu devovendis,” 25 Maii 1899, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XXXI, 648. English translation: http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_250501899_annum-sacrum.html, p. 2, no. 4.
[16] Anthony Esolen, Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: A Defense of the Church’s True Teachings on Marriage, Family, and the State (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2014), p. 168. [Esolen].
[17] “… vera societas, eademque omni civitate antiquior; cui propterea quaedam iura officiaque esse necesse est, quae minime pendeant a republica.” Leo PP. XIII, Litterae Encyclicae Rerum Novarum, “De condicione opificum,” 15 Maii 1891, Acta Sanctae Sedis, XXIII, 645. English translation: http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html, p. 5, no. 12.
[18] Cf. Fidel González Fernández, José Sánchez del Río, Il giovane martire che diede la vita per la fede, ed. Federica Picchi Roncali (Firenze: Dominus Production Edizioni, 2016), pp. 129-133.
[19] Cf. 2 Tim 4, 7.
[20] Cf. Antonio Dragón, Vida íntima del Padre Pro, tr. Rafael Martínez del Campo, 6a ed. (México, D.F.: Obra Nacional de la Buena Prensa, A.C., 1993), p. 234.
[21] “… yo me honro en ser tu madre compasiva, tuya y de todos los hombres que vivís juntos en esta tierra, y también de todas las demás variadas estirpes de hombres, los que me amen; los que me llamen, los que me busquen, los que confíen en mí.” NM, p. 214, nn. 29-31. English translation: NMEng, p. 174, nos. 29-31.
[22] Jn 19, 26-27.
[23] “Escucha, tú, el más pequeño de mis hijos, ten por cierto que no son escasos mis servidores, mis mensajeros, a quien encargue que lleven mi aliento, mi palabra, para que efectúen mi voluntad: pero es necesario que tú, personalmente, vayas, ruegues, que por tu intercesión se realice, se lleve a efecto mi querer, mi voluntad. Y mucho te ruego, hijo mío el menor, y con rigor te mando, que otra vez vayas mañana a ver al obipo. Y de mi parte hazle saber, hazle oir mi querer, mi voluntad, para que realice, edifique mi casa sagrada que le pido.” NM, p. 216, nn. 58-61. English translation: NMEng, pp. 175-176, nos. 58-61.
[24] https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel-benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/
[25] Spalding, p. 237.
[26] Spalding, p. 241.
[27] “… in todo [su] amor personal.” NM, p. 214, n. 28. English translation: NMEng, p. 173, no. 28.