Fortnight for Freedom: Prayers and flashback photos

Archbishop Lori kicked off the fourth annual Fortnight for Freedom on Sunday (June 21) at the Baltimore’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. With the theme “Freedom to Bear Witness” to the truth of the Gospel, the fortnight runs until the Fourth of July with the concluding Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Archbishop Lori, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, has been a leading spokesman for religious freedom. On the day of his installation as Archbishop of Baltimore on May 16, 2012, he advocated for this continuing legacy which is traced back to Archbishop John Carroll:
“We defend religious liberty because we are lovers of every human person, seeing in the face of every man and woman also the face of Christ, who loved us to the very end of his earthly life and who still calls on us to love and serve our neighbor with the same love he has bestowed on us.

“We do this because Archbishop John Carroll’s generation of believers and patriots bequeathed to us a precious legacy that has enabled the Church to worship in freedom, to bear witness to Christ publicly, and to do massive and amazing works of pastoral love, education, and charity in ways that are true to the faith that inspired them in the first place.”