Dear Brother Knights:
As I write this message to you, I’m keeping in mind that you likely will be reading it sometime in early Autumn, a season that compels us to savor the beauty of the maturation of Spring and Summer. It’s also a season, every four years, the time of presidential elections, when we are obliged to savor and assess the condition of the exceptional civic endeavor that is our national heritage. This endeavor, as we know, has been preserved at great cost and sacrifice for two hundred and forty years by many who preceded us and continues to be preserved and advanced by those who plant, nurture and bring to fruition the virtues needed to sustain it. It’s the present condition and progress of this endeavor we call America that we need to diagnose and assess prior to voting in every election. What do we see as the current state of soul of this nation that was established upon a claim to individual unalienable rights and personal freedom granted to us not by government, but by the Creator, God Himself? Are we still a people who trust in God? Do the laws and mores of our country continue to reflect the will of the Creator as expressed in the Commandments? Are we seeing and judging issues with the eyes of those who know that the perennial battle of battles, the Mother of all wars, the root of every conflict and war is the primeval battle between good and evil, God and Satan, truth and lies? Yes, let’s reflect upon and savor the season of Autumn with open eyes this time of year, but at the same time not fail to savor and assess the condition of our country in this election season as well. Vivat Jesus.
Msgr. Ed Surwilo, Council Chaplain