The following comes from a June 21 story on Catholic News Agency.
A relic tour currently taking place in the United States highlights the virtues of two English saints who stood up for conscience and paid the ultimate price.
The “Witness to Freedom” relic tour is being held in conjunction with the U.S. bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom, which take place across the nation June 21-July 4. The fortnight aims to stress the importance of defending religious freedom in the U.S. and to raise awareness of religious persecution around the world.
The relics come from two English saints executed in the year 1535.
St. Thomas More, a renowned author and philosopher who had held the position of Chancellor, and St. John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that purported to recognize King Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of England.
“Both More and Fisher were patriots. They never rose up to incite rebellion or foment revolution. They were no traitors,” the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty said.
“But when the law of the king came into conflict with the law of Christ, they chose Christ. These men gave their lives for the freedom of the Church and for freedom of conscience. They bear witness to the truth that no government can make a claim on a person’s soul.”
Normally kept at Stonyhurst College – a Jesuit school in Lancashire, England – the relics will tour Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Denver, Phoenix, and Los Angeles before ending in Washington, D.C.
They will stop at Los Angeles’ Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels July 1-2. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles will say a Mass celebrating their arrival on July 1 at 12:10 p.m.
Other activities during the fortnight include local prayers, talks, rallies and Masses throughout the country.
The official opening Mass of the Fortnight for Freedom will be celebrated by Archbishop William Lori on June 21 at 7 p.m. at the Basilica of the
National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Maryland.
Both Masses will be broadcast on EWTN Global Catholic Network.
Concerns over religious freedom have grown in recent years. The federal government has mandated that many Catholic organizations provide drugs and procedures whose use Catholic ethics recognizes as immoral. In some jurisdictions, Catholic adoption agencies cannot operate legally because they will place children only with married mothers and fathers. Catholic schools have also faced political pressure and lawsuit threats for their morals policies for teachers, staff and students.
Taken from his (St. Thomas More’s) prayers before dying.
For Enemies:
Almighty God, have mercy on N. and N., etc., and on all that bear me evil will and would harm me. And by such easy, tender and merciful means as Your infinite wisdom can best devise, grant that their faults and mine may both be amended and redressed; and make us saved souls in heaven together, where we may ever live and love together with you and your blessed saints. O glorious Trinity, grant this for sake of the bitter passion of our sweet Savior Christ. Amen.
What are the relics? The article does not say.
The relics are a ring worn by St. John Fisher and a tooth and jaw fragment of St. Thomas More, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
SS. Thomas More & John Fisher along with Pope Clement VII supported Christ’s definitive statement on the indissolubility of marriage (Mt.18:9ff) vs. Henry VIII–the present pope in footnote 351, Amoris Laetitia, along with Card. Kasper, Maradiaga, and Marx and others hold a different teaching: marriage can be “pastorally” dissolved and re-booted.
Who should one stand with, looking ahead to the Day of Judgment? Choose wisely, gentle soul.