Old News Worth Revisiting

The following Q&A is part of an Inside The Vatican interview with Archbishop Raymond Burke. It was published just before the November elections.

Was the decline in morals as you perceive it, one of the reasons why you approved devotion to Our Lady of America in the archdiocese of St Louis?

The Mother of God, by her apparitions as Our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego, fostered, in a dramatic way, the respect for all human life. Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe brought an end to the cruel practice of human sacrifice, and brought together into one race the Native American and the Europeans who were on the verge of a bloody conflict.

I have been praying fervently, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that the citizens of the United States of America will vote, on November 4th, for the safeguarding of the right to life and of the integrity of marriage.

The devotion to Our Lady of America is distinct from the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe who also has the title of Mother of America. Devotion to Our Lady of America was approved many years ago by the late Archbishop Paul Leibold of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Having studied the devotion and noting, in particular, its emphasis on the gift of the divine life of grace in the individual soul, which is reflected, above all, in the practice of the virtue of purity, I encouraged the devotion in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis.

The new enthusiasm for the devotion to Our Lady of America seems providential to me, for it helps the faithful to fortify themselves against the evils of pornography and other violations of pure and selfless love.