Celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving marking the nation’s 250th anniversary, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said the vision of the Gospel and the Beatitudes offer a template for American Catholics’ patriotism.
“The Beatitudes are meant to be directly the pattern that we live as disciples of Jesus Christ. They are not merely a dream of what might be in our lives and our world, but they are the call and the mission of Christ to transform our world,” Cardinal McElroy said in his homily at the Mass on July 5, 2026 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington.
The Mass was celebrated on the morning after the July 4 holiday marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
In his homily, the cardinal reflected on the meaning of patriotism for American Catholics as the United States marks its 250th year. He said the anniversary of the founding of this nation “is a time for prayer, thanksgiving and renewal.”
“Patriotism rooted in the founding principles of our nation is a profoundly aspirational patriotism, never content with limitations on fundamental human rights. In this way, it correlates with Catholic social doctrine which continually seeks reform and is never complacent. It is a mission which never diminishes and never ends for us as Catholics and as citizens of the United States,” Cardinal McElroy said.
Then he noted, “If patriotism proceeding from our founding principles provides one essential foundation for understanding what Catholic patriotism should be, a love for the concrete society and culture in which we live is the other.”
Both of those pathways to patriotism for American Catholics “are essential for understanding the call of the believer to act as citizen and patriot in the turbulent times in which we live,” Washington’s archbishop said.
The cardinal said that day’s Gospel reading from Matthew 5:1-12, in which Jesus presented the Beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount, offers a template for the lives of Catholics as believers and citizens. In that Gospel passage, Jesus said blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and who are merciful, clean of heart and are peacemakers, and who are persecuted because of their faith in Him.
St. Matthew’s Cathedral was filled to capacity with about 1,000 people attending the Mass, which opened with the hymn “Christ Be Our Light.” Less than 12 hours earlier, a massive fireworks display had illuminated the nighttime sky over the nation’s capital.
At the Mass, Cardinal McElroy offered a special welcome to Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, whom he noted was concelebrating a Mass at the cathedral for the first time, and he said the nuncio’s presence was a sign of the unity that Catholics have with the American-born Pope Leo XIV. The cardinal said he had encouraged all the parishes in the archdiocese to commemorate the nation’s anniversary with Masses or community gatherings.
The concelebrants at the Mass also included Washington Auxiliary Bishop Juan Esposito, the archdiocese’s vicar general and moderator of the Curia; and Bishop-elect Robert Boxie III, who will be ordained as a new auxiliary bishop of Washington on July 7 along with Bishop-elect Gary Studniewski.
In his opening remarks at the Mass, Cardinal McElroy asked for God’s blessings “upon all that we undertake in this land, that as we move forward, the vision of the Gospel might become ever more enmeshed and intertwined in the history of our nation, and that unity may be at the center of our life as a nation and as a people.”
Later in his homily, the cardinal praised the courage and vision of the nation’s founders. He said the nation’s rich heritage and culture “have flowed from that moment when the leaders of the 13 colonies put at risk everything that they valued in their lives to embark upon a perilous experiment to create a new nation founded upon democratic principles and human rights. We stand in awe of the vision they emblazoned on this new continent, and of the community and nation that have been built during these past two and a half centuries. “
Noting the dilemma that the nation’s Founders faced when they declared independence from Great Britain, the cardinal pointed out that “they understood at that moment that they were launching an experiment in democracy in a world that had not known a democratic republic for more than twelve hundred years. They were embarking upon a war with the greatest military power in the world. And they had to forge unity among the fractious 13 colonies.”
Cardinal McElroy said that their Declaration of Independence “set forth a series of principles that gripped the world with its beauty and depth. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. These included life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Justice was to be the framework of political life and of law. To these principles, and to the democracy they were launching, the Founders pledged ‘their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.’”
The cardinal emphasized that for Catholics, “these principles and standards stand as a compelling foundation for American patriotism. They are explicitly rooted in God as the ultimate source of human dignity. They point to major elements of contemporary Catholic social teaching on equality, freedom, and justice. Most importantly, these principles have cried out and still cry out continually for reform in our society to eliminate the massive failures we have encountered: slavery, the treatment of indigenous peoples, the rights of women, imperialism, racism and religious persecution.”
Washington’s archbishop said that in the nation’s recent history, “dedication and love for America have been seen as a commitment to the ideals that the Founders set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the reformative efforts that have unfolded throughout our national history to correct the massive historical failures in our efforts to live them out as a nation.”
After underscoring the importance of those founding principles, Cardinal McElroy noted how the four most recent popes have highlighted how a love for the nation and its culture is another hallmark of patriotism for American Catholics.
He pointed out how St. John Paul II in his 1987 visit to the United States praised the country’s “indivisible national unity,” and how freedom in the nation has been “channeled to the fullness of human life, to the preservation of human dignity and to the safeguarding of all human rights.”
Pope Benedict during his 2008 visit praised the United States for “bringing a robust religious perspective into the heart of public life, while creating a culture of genuine religious liberty,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal McElroy noted how Pope Francis in his 2015 visit to the United States praised the country as “a land of dreams,” where Americans’ sacrifice and hard work have shaped the values of successive generations, instilling a spirit in them that has helped them face challenges and move forward with dignity.
Then the cardinal pointed out how that very weekend as Pope Leo accepted the Liberty Medal, the pontiff emphasized how through the nation’s 250 year history, “it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants….It was this same love of freedom that inspired the United States, in the darkest hours of the last century, at the time of the two world wars, to look beyond itself and, at great sacrifice, to champion the cause of freedom beyond its own borders.”
Summarizing the insights of those pontiffs and how it relates to patriotism for American Catholics, Cardinal McElroy said, “Unity, freedom, religious liberty, a land of dreams, a nation of sacrifice and the thirst for justice. These and so many other profound qualities of our culture call us to love our nation for its accomplishments and richness in these past two hundred and fifty years. They are a strong anchor for a genuine affective patriotism and celebration in these days.”
Catholic teaching on solidarity, the cardinal said, “provides a framework for understanding this affective patriotism.”
“Solidarity is an antidote to the radical individualism that can blind us to the many riches we have received from our society and culture as a whole. It leads us to understand that our participation in social life calls us to build up our civic communities, to provide for the well-being of others, to seek harmony among us all,” Cardinal McElroy said.
He warned that “this solidarity is being eclipsed by the polarization that is tearing our nation apart at this moment. Any genuine patriotism, especially one rooted in Catholic faith, must resist the social tides that estrange us from one another and turn our society inward, transforming it into a warped patriotism that is exclusive and purest.”
Concluding his homily, the cardinal said, “As we celebrate this great moment that marks our nation’s past and calls us to its future, let us as people of faith embrace a patriotism rooted both in the founding vision of our nation and in our deep love for the specific culture and society in which we live.”
And the cardinal encouraged American Catholics as people of faith to “constantly reform both of these foundations of patriotism in the light of the Gospel and the Beatitudes which are the template for our transformation of the world. For we must always, in patriotism, be moving forward, never complacent, always aspirational and called to the greatness, the true greatness to which our country should move.”
In an opening prayer, the cardinal had thanked God for the nation’s blessings, and asked God’s help “for the work that still remains.” Washington’s archbishop also prayed that just as God has “called us from may peoples to be one nation, grant that, under your Providence, our country my share your blessings with all the peoples of the earth.”
After the homily, prayers were offered for the victims of the earthquake in Venezuela and for those assisting them, for peace in war-torn areas including Ukraine and the Middle East, for migrants and refugees including immigrants in the United States facing “upheaval and uncertainty,” and for the safety of travelers, including those celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary.
In his closing remarks at the Mass, Cardinal McElroy said, “Let us emblazon on our hearts the Beatitudes as the core and foundation for our lives as citizens and believers and as patriots, true patriots, of this great land.”
The congregation then sang “America the Beautiful” as the recessional hymn.
Link to text of Cardinal McElroy's homily at July 5 Mass marking nation's 250th anniversary:
https://www.cathstan.org/voice...
