‘The Catholic faith has always been part of the American story. The first Christian service on our soil was a Catholic Mass.’
Editor’s Note: Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a virtual address on April 9 during the conference, “Endowed by Their Creator: Catholicism, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Experiment at 250.”
Organized by the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) at The Catholic University of America, together with the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, and Catholic University’s Carroll Forum for Citizenship and Public Life, the symposium celebrated the nation’s semiquincentennial.
Please find below the full transcript of Secretary Rubio’s remarks, published with permission.
In 1895, Pope Leo XIII penned an encyclical to the Catholic Church in the United States.
“All intelligent men are agreed,” he wrote, “that America seems destined for greater things. Now it is our wish that the Catholic Church should not only share in, but help to bring about this perspective greatness.” But as the Holy Father noted, the Church had already been here from the start.
Four centuries prior, one Catholic explorer ventured out into the great unknown and returned home with the
