Music Recommendations: Some Alternative (Revolutionary?) Sounds for the 4th of July

My friend Don McClarey, in his continuing efforts to promote educational family activities for Independence Day, offers his Top Ten Movies For the Fourth.

In the comments to that post, I've added a few honorable mentions, as well as listed some of the best documentaries available on the American Revolution (or, as the Brits more aptly refer to it in their ineffable ability to give things their proper names, "the American War of Independence" or "the War of American Independence").

Hopefully, however, you won't be stuck in front of the boob tube all weekend, and will instead be out enjoying the day with your family. You'll need some tunes, though. Therefore, I'm going to revisit my post from last year on the subject of period music fitting for the occasion.

If you've grown weary of hearing the same old Sousa/Copeland/Berlin-as-performed-by-the-Boston Pops/National Symphony and/or the syrupy "God Bless the USA" fare that is generally offered up on the 4th of July, here are a few CD recommendations that will go a long way toward curing what musically ails you.

First up is Liberty Tree by The Boston Camerata.

The Boston Camerata are favorites of mine whenever it comes to early music. And this selection of early American music is no exception. From the program notes:

Our view of the American past is shaped by many things -- dimly remembered history lessons from our earliest school days; the posturings of present-day public people; and, perhaps most importantly, by the popular media -- radio, television, and the movies. Talk about static! Can we ever, then, experience our collective past as it "really" was? Hardly -- those days are gone forever. But, on the other hand, can we get closer to our roots than heretofore? Can we eliminate some of the distortion and noise? At least as far as music goes, I am convinced that a cleaner, truer approach is possible.

The partsongs, marches, anthems, jigs, and ballads we perform for you here were all part of American life during the early decades of the country's existence: between the founding of the Republic and the Civil War. This, the everyday music of villages and towns, represents a hybrid tradition. Notated and harmonised in a rough, pragmatic way by musicians of the time, these pieces are not learned or complex enough to be taken seriously as "high" art by most music historians. Yet, since they managed nonetheless to make their way onto paper and into "polite" society, they are surely a bit more refined and worldy-wise than the folk song of the truly rural settlers. It is in this neglected, between-two-worlds repertoire, I maintain, that we can find much of the soul of early America.

A few of our works have retained popularity since those earlest times; some tunes, once secular "hits", now survive, spiritualised, in the still-vital shapenote hymn tradition. But many of these pieces, once beloved in their day, have not been heard in generations, and have been transcribed and edited specially for this recording from original sources.

You will hear in our performances the kinds of musical instruments that were played a century and a half ago; softer and more rounded in tone than their modern counterparts. Though we don't know with any certainty how "art" music may have been sung in nineteenth-century America, the timbres of the musical instruments provide important parallel clues as to how the human voice may have sounded before the age of roaring tenors and the Boeing 747.

The result? You will experience a lighter, less aggresive tonal pallette than the one we tend to associate with patriotic fervour, or with history with a capital H. Yankee Doodle can be heard as the perky, disrespectful teenage piece it originally was. On the Road to Boston makes one visualise the road, perhaps the old one from Quincy and Dorchester; much narrower than the commuter-clogged Southeast Expressway, unpaved, with horse and foot traffic only -- and no billboards. And the untutored harmonies in a piece like Clovergreen give a truer, sharper sense of life on the (cultural) frontier than the sugary sweetness of the same tune played b y saxophones (as Auld Lang Syne) on New Year's Eve from coast to coast. True it is that we can't go back to those places, but fragments of what they once were do illumine and enrich our contemporary imagination.

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Program includes:

I. Liberty Tree
1 Yankee Doodle 2'56
2 Chester 2'11
3 Liberty Tree 2'34
4 The Boston March 1'11
5 David's Lamentation 1'45
6 Jefferson and Liberty 2'39
7 Rights of Woman 1'12
8 The Appletree 1'12

II. Dormant
9 Dormant 2'29
10 Hero and Leander 2'13
11 Mary's dream 3'59

III. Jolly Soldier
12 On the Road to Boston 0'49
13 Jolly Soldier 3'23
14 Jefferson and Liberty 1'03
15 Abraham's Daughter 2'19
16 Brave Wolfe 4'49
17 Irish air 1'22
18 The Blue Bells of Scotland 2'00

IV. The Working Boy
19 The Working boy 2'03
20 Poor old Maids 0'57
21 Bob in the Bed 0'32
22 Old Tare River 1'53
23 The Rose Tree (The Knoxville Harmony) 2'06

V. Parting Friends
24 Clovergreen 3'41
25 Parting Friends 3'46
26 Ode to Science

_______________

Next up is Liberty! by fiddler Mark O'Connor (with Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, and James Taylor).


This is the soundtrack from the excellent PBS series Liberty! The American Revolution. Here's a description of the recording from the PBS website:

The music for LIBERTY! The American Revolution features arrangements of traditional Revolutionary-era folk melodies by Mark O'Connor, as well as original compositions by Richard Einhorn and O'Connor. O'Connor, a Grammy Award-winning violinist, performs, along with: Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Pulitizer Prize-winning composer and trumpet player Wynton Marsalis; David and Ginger Hildebrand; and the Nashville Symphony. O'Connor's "Song of the Liberty Bell" is the series' main theme. James Taylor and O'Connor perform the traditional song, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier," over the closing credits... American music of the revolutionary era drew upon the cultural influences of the people of the new nation - English, Scottish, Irish, German and African - and blended into a sound of its own. Through the interest and involvement of a remarkable collection of artists, that music has been recreated for LIBERTY! in a memorable soundtrack and score, from Sony Classical.

Program includes:

1. Song Of The Liberty Bell
2. Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier
3. Surrender The Sword
4. Soldier's Joy
5. When Bidden To The Wake Or Fair
6. The World Turned Upside Down
7. Bunker Hill
8. Freedom
9. The Flowers Of Edinburgh
10. Brave Wolfe
11. Devil's Dream
12. Song Of The Liberty Bell

_______________

My third recommendation is a CD that I purchased just prior to last July 4th called Davy Crockett's Fiddle by Colonial Williamsburg musician Dean Shostak. It has become my favorite of the bunch.
This recording features the fiddle that purportedly belonged to Davy Crockett. All the instruments and music on this CD are from the time of Davy Crockett (1786-1836). From the program notes:

I first learned about Davy Crockett's fiddle when I saw its picture in the April 2001 issue of USAToday; an old well-worn violin. That was the beginning of a wonderful musical adventure. I contacted the good folks at the Witte Museum, who owned the fiddle, and proposed that we have it restored. I wanted to make a recording of music of Davy Crockett's time on his very own fiddle accompanied by period instruments.

They enthusiastically agreed, and we embarked on an remarkable historical journey; restoring the violin, researching and learning the music Davy Crockett would have played, and recording it right in San Antonio where he spent his final, heroic days.

When I returned to Williamsburg, VA, I assembled some of my favorite early American musicians together to create musical scenes from Davy's life using his own fiddle...

Program includes:

1. Perry's Victory
2. Yankee Doodle
3. Amazing Grace
4. Speed The Plow
5. Hunters of Kentucky
6. Shenandoah
7. Turkey In The Straw
8. Haste To The Wedding
9. German Waltz
10. The President's March (Hail Columbia)
11. Home Sweet Home
12. Durang's Hornpipe / College Hornpipe
13. Jefferson And Liberty
14. Soldier's Joy / Bonaparte's Retreat
15. Duke of Kent Waltz
16. Cindy
17. The Girl I Left Behind Me / Leather Breeches
18. Rock of Ages
19. Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
20. Star Spangled Banner
21. The Legend Of Davy Crockett

_______________

My final reccomendation is The World Turned Upside Down by Barry Phillips and Friends.


Of my recommendations, I've owned this recording the longest - I bought it on cassette tape many years ago (while I was still in law school), and recently purchased it again on CD. The title of the recording refers to the tune that tradition says the surrendering British troops played as they paraded by the victorious Continental and French Armies at Yorktown during the American Revolution - the tune is also known as the Cavalier (and later, Jacobite) ballad "When the King Enjoys His Own Again". (It's also the tune to which Sarah marched down the aisle at our wedding.)

Here's more about the recording:

Barry Phillips and Friends explore the colorful variety of music popular in late 18th and early 19th century America, from elegant Colonial drawing rooms to homely frontier hearths to rollicking waterside taverns. The title tune, according to legend, was played by Cornwallis' surrendering troops at Yorktown; the album also includes dances and folk songs (All The Pretty Little Horses, Rights of Man, Fisher's Hornpipe, Love in a Village) along with a suite of early American classical music by the Boston master William Billings. As always, liner notes provide colorful background history of the music and the times.

Go here for the complete liner notes. Program includes:

1. The World Turned Upside Down 2:42
2. Love in a Village / Love Forever 3:05
3. The Rights of Man 3:20
4. When Jesus Wept 3:46 (by William Billings)
5. Billings Suite 3:48 (by William Billings)
6. Dutchess of Brunswick 2:21 (Traditional)
7. Young Widow/Black Joke 2:22
8. New German Spa 3:59
9. All The Pretty Little Horses 3:13 (Traditional)
10. Sweet Richard 4:07
11. Fisher's Hornpipe / Patterson's Hornpipe 4:55 (by James A. Fisher)
12. Rights of Conscience 4:19 (by Issachar Bates)

_______________

Whether you're a history buff, a fan of early American music, or just want something different to listen to on Independence Day, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ALL of these recordings.

And, finally, there is one more recording that I'd like to mention, which I do not own, but which looks promising. It is titled Music of the American Revolution: The Birth of Liberty. This recording appears to cover some of the same ground as the recordings I've listed above, but is limited only to music of the American Revolution. Could be worth checking out.

Pope Hope I (a.k.a. "The Great")

(Hat tip: Chris Blosser)

A new portrait of President Obama, no doubt commissioned by the folks at Catholic Democrats, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Catholics United, (insert other Soros-funded "Catholic" groups here), etc., etc.:



I understand that the President sat for this portrait while in President Jenkins' office on the campus of Notre Dame, and that the portrait will be placed in the main lobby of the Hesburgh Library.

/sarcasm


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Pope Greets "Hope"?

President Obama to Visit Vatican

Cardinal Rigali vs. Congress Re: Federally Funded Abortions

Creative Minority Report has the details:

... That's right. Government funding of abortion just got a little closer to reality. A Congressional subcommittee last week voted to directly fund with taxpayer money abortions in Washington D.C., a direct breach of the Dornan Amendment which prohibits taxpayer funded abortions in the nation's capitol.

CMR is a huge fan of Cardinal Rigali who is standing up against this outrage...

[Read the whole thing]

Digest of Today's Posts (30 June 2009)

Pope Greets "Hope"?

The American Catholic on America's Founding

Deacon Keith Fournier: "What Truths Do We Still Hold?"

Pope Greets "Hope"?

My friends at Darwin Catholic just forwarded me this sickening piece of propaganda from Catholic Democrats:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2009

Media Contacts:
media@catholicdemocrats.org
Ph: 617-817-8617


Catholic Democrats Announces "Pope Greets Hope" Campaign to Support July 10th Meeting Between President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI

Thousands of Catholics Signing Letter of Solidarity at http://www.popeandpresident.org/

Boston, Mass. - Catholic Democrats, a not-for-profit national organization advancing a public understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and its potential to help solve the challenges confronting out society, is announcing today a new Web site - http://www.popeandpresident.org/ - in support of the upcoming meeting between President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI on July 10th. The site invites Catholics to sign a Letter of Solidarity with the Pope and the President.

The letter outlines the mutual efforts of the pope and the president on a broad range of pressing issues, including:

building true understanding among nations

eliminating nuclear weapons

promoting economic justice and reducing the poverty that diminishes the dignity and potential of people across the globe

working toward the common ground of promoting the sanctity of all life [ED.: This would be laughably funny if it weren't such a pathetic misstatement of this President's intentions and if real lives weren't being lost due to his policy preferences]

encouraging the world's great religions to greater dialogue and understanding, thus promoting peace and tolerance

and supporting programs and policies that preserve God's creation

"As Catholics in America, we are gratified that you, our Pontiff, and you, our President, recognize the opportunity before you now to promote the common good. [ED.: What? The Vatican (under this Pope and previous Popes) and previous presidents didn't recognize previous opportunites to promote the common good? Only "now" this is happening? Spin, spin, spin.] You inspire our hope and call us to personal and social responsibility to help make the world a better place for our human family. We pledge to work with both of you in this effort and we pray that your meeting will lead to a new quest to establish peace, promote freedom, and enhance the dignity of all humanity," reads the Letter of Solidarity.

"By meeting in the early days of this new administration, President Obama and Pope Benedict have signaled their intent to embark on a productive collaboration," [ED.: That's a somewhat presumptuous statement regarding the Pope's intentions, is it not?] said Dr. Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats. "At a personal level, these two men share an expansive intellect and a love of learning. But the real story of this meeting is the extensive common ground shared by the Vatican and this White House [ED.: That's the "real story", huh? Or is that the spin you'd like to put on the story in order to gloss over the GLARING differences between the Church and the President on life issues?] on confronting issues ranging from the devastation of poverty due to the world economic crisis, to healing the planet and promoting peace."
The president and the pope will meet on the afternoon of July 10th at the Vatican, following the G8 Economic Summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

"When popes and presidents meet, great things can happen," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "Given the global issues before us today, arguably the most daunting in generations, as well as the anticipated papal encyclical on economic justice, this meeting takes on added significance. It presents an historic opportunity for these two pivotal leaders to provide a vision of the possibilities to address the world's challenges from the common ground they share, including the hope that shapes their lives. We urge people to join us in offering their prayers and support for the pope and the president."

//End



About Catholic Democrats
Catholic Democrats is an association of state based groups representing a Catholic voice within the Democratic Party, and advancing a public understanding of the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching and its potential to help solve the broad range of problems confronting all Americans. For more information about Catholic Democrats please go to www.catholicdemocrats.org

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

My Comments:
And before the "tu quoque" games begin, I defy anyone to find a similar statement regarding the Pope's various meetings with the previous occumpant of the Oval Office (especially one equating George W. Bush with one of the cardinal/theological virtues ... much less designating him as the embodiment thereof) coming from a prominent group of Catholic conservatives.


UPDATE
The Cranky Conservative offers his take here: "Shameless".


UPDATE #2 (1 July 2009)
My post on the subject at First Thoughts:
President to Give Author of Spe Salvi Pointers on “Hope”
(hat tip to Christine for the idea)



Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
President Obama to Visit Vatican

The American Catholic on America's Founding

In anticipation of this weekend's 4th of July festivities, my friends at The American Catholic have a series of posts on the subject of America's founding:

Read The Declaration on the Fourth

Pope Benedict XVI & John Paul II on America’s founding

Uncomfortable Thoughts on the Declaration

The Omega Glory

Deacon Keith Fournier: "What Truths Do We Still Hold?"

Deacon Keith Fournier writes at Catholic Online:

... Those courageous men were influenced by the great treasury brought to Western Civilization by the Christian Church. They believed there actually were truths to be held and that those truths are self evident. Those truths include the existence of unalienable rights which are given to all men and women by a Creator. They believed that those truths and those rights can be discerned by all men and women because they are revealed by the Natural Law which is written on all human hearts and is a participation in God’s law.

The question which we need to ask ourselves in the United States of America as we come to the celebration of our Independence is a sobering one, What Truths do we Still Hold?

***
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 I will join with leaders from throughout the United States who represent broad sectors of the Christian community. We will gather in Washington, D.C. Together we share a common belief in what the late CS Lewis called “Mere Christianity.” The term is sometimes misunderstood to mean a kind of lowest common denominator approach to Christian cooperation. Lewis actually meant the basic “kerygma” of the Gospel message which all orthodox Christians should hold in common. That is what I mean as well.

***
On Tuesday we will come together as a “Freedom Federation” not to form any new organization but to stand together as Christians who are Americans and pledge, as did the founders of this Nation, our life our liberty and our sacred honor. At the top of our list of common areas wherein we will try to work together are these commitments to common action:

“To secure the sanctity of human life by affirming the dignity of and right to life for the disabled, the ill, the aged, the poor, the disadvantaged, and for the unborn from the moment of conception. Every person is made in the image of God, and it is the responsibility and duty of all individuals and communities of faith to extend the hand of loving compassion to care for those in poverty and distress;

"To secure our national interest in the institution of marriage and family by embracing the union of one man and one woman as the sole form of legitimate marriage and the proper basis of family; to secure the fundamental rights of parents to the care, custody, and control of their children regarding their upbringing and education.; To secure the free exercise of religion for all people, including the freedom to acknowledge God through our public institutions and other modes of public expression and the freedom of religious conscience without coercion by penalty or force of law.”

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Obama Adopts Bush Policy of Indefinite Detention

For the Catholics who thought they were voting for "hope and change" (or, at least, who claimed to believe that's what we were getting):

... Obama has essentially endorsed the detention policies of George Bush without the courtesy of apologizing for slandering him over the last two and a half years. Obama and his allies screeched endlessly about indefinite detentions, and not just in Gitmo, either. They specifically railed against the holding of terrorists without access to civil courts in military detention facilities around the world, specifically Bagram, but in general as well. Not even six months into his term of office, Obama realized that Bush had it right all along.

Did he even have the grace to admit that? No. Instead, the White House took the cowardly method of a late-Friday leak to let people know that Obama had adopted the Bush policy all over again. Barack Obama just appeared at a press conference this last Tuesday to discuss Iran, energy policy, and ObamaCare, where he could have told the national press that he had changed his mind on indefinite detention. Instead, he kept his mouth shut, and had his media staff whisper it into phones to a couple of White House favorites in the press.

It’s a shameful performance, and the measure of the man in charge...

Digest of Today's Posts (26 June 2009)

Yet Another Biden Gaffe: Calls Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine "Great Governor of New Jersey"

Gov. Palin: "John Kerry, why the long face?"

Catholic New Media Celebration Starts Today in San Antonio

(Digest of Yesterday's Posts (25 June 2009))

Yet Another Biden Gaffe: Calls Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine "Great Governor of New Jersey"

What a maroon. Kaine also happens to be Biden's fellow Catholic Democrat and the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee. Fairly prominent figure for Biden, the smartest man in D.C., to have missed such a key fact.

But it was Gov. Palin who allegedly wasn't ready to be Vice President?

Because, you know, Holy Joe has done such a bang up job in the 2nd slot to date.

Gov. Palin: "John Kerry, why the long face?"

LOL! Gov. Palin responds with humor to John Kerry's hateful "joke" about wishing she had gone missing:

Senator John Kerry makes this joke..I don't know if you saw this...but he makes this joke saying "Well, shoot, of all the governors in the nation to disappear, too bad it couldn't have been that Governor from Alaska."

Well, when he said it he looked quite frustrated, and he looked so sad, and I just wanted to reach out to the TV and say "John Kerry, why the long face?"

(laughter)

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Former Catholic Altar Boy John Kerry Says "Too Bad Sarah Palin Didn't Go Missing"

Catholic New Media Celebration Starts Today in San Antonio

The 2nd annual Catholic New Media Celebration begins today down in San Antonio.

Missed it by one week. I thought about staying over until this weekend in order to attend, but I think Sarah would've balked at being left for an entire week alone with the kids. Still, I wish I could be there in my favorite city.

Hope all my friends in attendance have a great time. Be sure to head over to Mi Tierra in El Mercado for awesome margaritas, excellent food, and outstanding music (see below).

Digest of Today's Posts (25 June 2009)

Farewell, Farrah

15 Manly Smells

President Obama to Visit Vatican

Presidential Hypocrisy: "ObamaCare for Thee, But Not for Me and Mine"

Former Catholic Altar Boy John Kerry Says "Too Bad Sarah Palin Didn't Go Missing"

Farewell, Farrah

Farrah Fawcett, a 1970s TV and modeling icon, a Texas native (from Corpus Christi), and a Roman Catholic, has died of cancer at the age of 62. She received the anointing of the sick shortly before she passed.

She was my first movie-star crush. I would venture to guess that almost every young man of my generation had a copy of this iconic poster.

Resquiescat in pace.

15 Manly Smells

Courtesy of The Art of Manliness. An excellent list, which includes some topics we've discussed before here at Pro Ecclesia (and, for the record, I use Old Spice original scent).

Hat tip to The Cranky Conservative, with whom I concur that cigar smoke, contrary to what the author of the piece linked above opines, is fairly close to pipe smoke in the category of manly smells.

President Obama to Visit Vatican

Chris Blosser has a good post on the subject at Catholics in the Public Square, in which he addresses the somewhat puzzling gloating of our old "friend" Michael Sean Winters over the prospect of this fairly routine visit by a head of state to the Vatican.

Presidential Hypocrisy: "ObamaCare for Thee, But Not for Me and Mine"

Ed Morrissey reports at HotAir:

Barack Obama got ABC to move their news division into the White House in order to make the big pitch for his egalitarian, everyone-gets-treated-equally ObamaCare push. Instead, Obama fumbled into a Michael Dukakis moment that exposed him as a hypocrite. ABC itself leads with Obama’s response that he wouldn’t stay within his own plan for his family:

President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people — like the president himself — wouldn’t face...

***
If ObamaCare isn’t good enough for Sasha, Malia, or Michelle, then it’s not good enough for America.

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Former Catholic Altar Boy John Kerry Says "Too Bad Sarah Palin Didn't Go Missing"

Stay classy, Lurch:

The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“Too bad,’’ Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.’’

Wishing Sarah Palin had gone missing, no doubt permanently. Hmmmm. Imagine the outcry, if you will, had the tables been turned and Gov. Palin said something like this: "Too bad, if Teresa Heinz had to lose a U.S. Senator husband in a tragic helecopter crash it couldn't have been the second one. You know, the one from Massachusetts."

(Hat tip: HotAir)

Adopt a Catholic Member of Congress

National group launches prayer campaign for ‘conversion of Catholic politicians’:

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 22 /Christian Newswire -- In a spirit of hope and Christian charity, OneNationUnderGod is launching a yearlong prayer campaign specifically focused on the conversion of Catholic politicians to further foster a Culture of Life in our country.

This effort will commence June 22, 2009 -- the feast day of St. Thomas More, whom Pope John Paul II proclaimed the patron saint of statesmen and politicians. A 16th-century English chancellor who refused to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, St. Thomas More held a passion for the truth that enlightened his conscience and led him to know that, just as man must be one with God, so politics must be with morality.

In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II reiterates what the Catholic Church has always taught: that lawmakers have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that contradicts humanity's fundamental right to life.

Months ago, we discovered that 50 percent of Catholic politicians serving in the 111th Congress have accepted large donations from pro-abortion lobby groups while reinforcing their support for abortion rights legislation. These elected officials are deeply confused about Catholic teaching on the morality of abortion.

Catholic legislators who support abortion rights fail to recognize that legitimate social policy must be guided by absolute truth. Many of these legislators cite "primacy of conscience" to justify their support for abortion rights, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia. However, a properly formed conscience recognizes the essential truth of Catholic teaching --that human life is sacred and inviolable from the moment of conception until natural death.

Over the past few months, we contacted the bishops of these Catholic members of Congress, to shed light on their abortion rights voting records and the money they accepted from abortion lobbyists. We respectfully asked that they continue to minister to these lawmakers. Their spiritual direction gives invaluable insight to our Catholic legislators, reaffirming "that life is entrusted to man's responsibility."

Through the spiritual gifts of our Catholic faith we invite you to join our Prayer Campaign for the Conversion of our Catholic Politicians who hold such great influence over the lives of the innocent.

Specifically, we ask that you adopt a Catholic member of Congress and pledge a daily spiritual devotion for their enlightenment and for the continued inspiration of their bishop.

Please go to our website to support this effort: http://www.onenationundergod.org/.