This year we celebrate the birthday of our country with renewed hope and vigor for having participated in the U.S. Bishops "Fortnight for Freedom" through reflection, discussion and prayer for the continued honoring of our right to religious freedom. And so we pray:

FOR THE PROTECTION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Almighty God, Father of all nations,
For freedom you have set is free in Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:1).
We praise and less you for the gift of religious liberty, the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good.
Grant to our leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties.
By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves and for all those who live in this blessed land.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness and in the name or your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, with whom you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

By Tanya Connor

It’s like God speaking.
It brings back memories, and is for the Church today.
It helps people minister – and sleep.
That’s what the director and members of Assumption Schola Gregoriana say of the Gregorian chant they sing around the diocese and beyond.
The Schola celebrates its 15th anniversary Aug. 15, currently boasting 22 members, some originals.
Some spoke with The Catholic Free Press recently, before breaking for the summer.
“We accept all people as long as they accept the spirit of this ministry,” said co-founder John McManamon. “We wanted this to be a ministry that would do God’s work” in liturgical settings, not a hobby or an adult education class.

By Fr. Alain Marchadour, AA

(Fr. Alain Marchadour is an Assumptionist Scripture scholar who taught for many years at the Catholic University of Toulouse and served for 12 years as director of the Assumptionist shrine in Jerusalem, St. Peter-in-Gallicantu. He is the author of some ten books on the Bible, most notably a commentary on the Gospel of John, L’évangile de Jean.)

In October 1962 the Second Vatican Council had just begun. With other students of my generation, I was lucky enough to be there, a humble observer of an historic event in the life of the Church. I can still remember October 11, 1962 and that evening when John XXIII opened the Council.

For the first time in its history, APAC (the Asian pacific Augustinian Conference) has named a president who is not a member of the Order of St. Augustine. He is Fr. Bernard Holzer, an Assumptionist, who is currently the regional superior of the Philippines, the Superior General's delegate for the entire Asia mission. Fr. Bernard became the 14^th president of the Conference at its 11^th triennial convention held at the Villa Consuelo Retreat House, Novaliches, near Manila (the Philippines).