President Donald Trump issued a presidential message Thursday praising the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for consecrating the country to Our Lord’s Sacred Heart ahead of the country’s semiquincentennial next month.
In the June 11 statement, Trump lauded the consecration, saying he and First Lady Melania Trump would be joining the bishops in prayer and highlighted the supposed Christian roots of the United States, the previous consecration of America to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While many Catholics have offered similar praise to the USCCB for its consecration of the U.S. to the Sacred Heart on the second day of its Spring Plenary Assembly, others have suggested that the USCCB did not validly consecrate the country because the word “consecrate” was never mentioned in the prayer.
“Even in the centuries before the United States was conceived in nationhood, America was a land of prayer, a place of miracles, and home to some of the most faithful and devoted Christians to ever live,” the president wrote. “From the heroic bands of Christian missionaries, settlers, and explorers who tamed the unknown to spread the Gospel to the priests, chaplains, and churchgoers who forged our spirit in every generation since, the love of Jesus Christ has stood at the center of our identity and way of life.”
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