Over The Fourth of July, Catholics remember the difference between how Catholics and Pilgrims treated American Indians.
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Question 1: “What song is sung across America on The Fourth of July?”
Answer: “‘America The Beautiful’ is always popular.”
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Question 2: “Does it begin in beauty?”
Answer: “Yes!
‘O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!’”
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Question 3: “What about the next verse?”
Answer: “Catholics see a great insight!
‘O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern impassioned stress, A thoroughfare for freedom beat, Across the wilderness!’”
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Question 4: “What ‘insight’ do Catholics see?”
Answer: “We see a very ‘grim’ visit of ‘pilgrims’ to Block Island, 10 square miles of land 12 miles offshore from Connecticut. ‘In 1636, Col. Endicott found and destroyed there immense stores of (Indian) corn, and the settlers gave to that part the name ‘Corn Neck’, having reference to the great products of that cereal.’”
In 1664, more ‘pilgrim feet’ went to Block Island. They destroyed the Indian village, reduced the Indian population from 1,700 (170 Indians per square mile) to a few dozen, and stole their land. For the next 250 years, ‘pilgrim feet’ marched to The Pacific Coast, exterminating over 20,000,000 Indians and stealing their land.”
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Question 4: “Do Catholics see hope in the next verse:
‘America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!’?”
Answer: “We see ‘hope’ for America! As more people respect This Catholic Teaching, every ‘flaw’ may be ‘mended’: ‘Life must be protected from conception until natural death.’”
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Question 5: “What is the greatest ‘hope’ for America?”
Answer: “That God will bless us to obey The Old Testament’s Commandment: ‘Thou shall not kill.’ and better obey This Word of Jesus in The New Testament: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.’”
May we do that better than the ‘pilgrims’ whose History we sing.
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