STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Rally Reports from Anchorage to New York City

Posted by Matt Yonke (March 31, 2012 at 10:00 am)

Anchorage RallyAs the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law that brought us the HHS Mandate, Rally reports are still rolling into National HQ.

The Rallies took place literally from coast to coast. In Anchorage, Alaska, over 100 gathered, including the entire K-12 student body, faculty and administrators from Holy Rosary Academy.

The event was covered by the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and the Anchorage Daily News.

New York City

On the other end of the country, New York had more Rallies than any other state in the country, including the huge Rally in New York City organized by Priests for Life and Expectant Mother Care.

New York City RallyOver 900 attended the Rally outside Federal Hall on Wall Street and speakers included Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life, Fr. Benedict Groeschel CFR, founder of the Fransiscan Friars of the Renewal and Priests for Life Pastoral Associate Alveda King.

President of the USCCB Cardinal Timothy Dolan also sent a letter that was read during the Rally. Find out more and read the letter here.

Bismarck, North Dakota

Bismarck RallyIn the middle of the country, the good people of Bismarck brought about a last minute miracle. In just a few days leading up to March 23 and managed to have an incredibly successful Rally!

From the Rally Captain’s report to National HQ:

Many individuals asked how we were able to pull this off in a few days.

We had over 700 people from all corners of our state and inbetween attend our rally. Our whole state population is a mere 683,000. Colleges, high schools, grade schools all bussed kids in. NDSU a college in a city 190 miles from Bismarck, brough down a bus full of students. We had extensive media coverage by the secular media as well as Catholic radio. Our two Bishops both had statements read at our rally.

Our rally consisted of speakers from Assembly of God church, Lutheran church and our main speaker was our very own, amazing Fr. Chad Gion. The Knights of Columbus kicked off our rally with the presentation of flags, we sang America the Beautiful, said the Pledge, Opening prayer, gave an update on rallies across the country, read our Bishop’s statements, had a main speaker, closing prayer an ended singing amazing grace. The capitol mall was dotted with people wearing red, white, and blue, carrying signs, and waving flags.

It was an amazing day. Thanks Rally HQ for a stellar job! You made the job of rally chair fun and easy with all you pre-planning!

St. Paul, Minnesota

Bismarck RallyFinally, the second largest Rally in the country took place in St. Paul, Minnesota. Here’s the report from Brian Gibson of Pro-Life Action Ministries, who made this incredibly huge Rally a reality:

About 2,200 people overflowed the Warren E. Burger Federal Building Plaza, spilling out into Robert St. at the Twin Cities Rally For Religious Freedom in response to the assault on religious liberties by the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate.

Moving talks and prayers were offered by The Most Reverend John M. Quinn, Bishop of the Diocese of Winona, Minn., Reverend Brad Brandon, Pastor of Berean Baptist Church and Reverend Maria Mitchell, Associate Pastor of Evangelist Crusaders.

Marjorie Holsten, Attorney at Law read the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and gave a history to the first two clauses which deal with religious freedom. Teresa Collett, Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas explained how the HHS mandate is a direct violation of the First Amendment and roused the crowd to great cheer for the overturning of this mandate.

Jason Adkins, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Minnesota Catholic Conference stirred the crowd to action for the days ahead, calling for pressure to be placed on our federal elected officials.

It was noted during the rally that Kathleen Sebilius, Director of HHS is in Minnesota today. I stated, “I wish I knew where Ms. Sebilius was at today. I’d invite you all (those attending the rally) to come with me to greet her and let her know what a terrible job she is doing.

See a gallery of pictures from the St. Paul Rally here.

Thanks to all the Rally Captains and participants nation wide for making this event such an unprecedented success! Keep an eye on the blog for more reports from across the country.

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4 Responses to “Rally Reports from Anchorage to New York City”

  1. j says:

    YAY equal rights for religon so long as its not jewdeism islamic or anything other than christian!! how can you ask for freedom when you dont give any to gays, jews,women or anything else?? religion only causes conflict and i feel it should not today, or any other day, have ever existed. and y cant u guys see that equal rights for gays WILL be given stop trying to pull the covers over the next generations eyes!!

    March 31st, 2012 at 10:08 am
  2. Robert says:

    Dear j,

    If you ever come back and read this. Deus Caritas Est. Read it. When you’re done, go love your life. Have a wonderful life j, You have brought renewed thought into my life and have strengthened my faith.

    March 31st, 2012 at 1:57 pm
  3. J says:

    thank you? i guess
    ???

    April 1st, 2012 at 7:01 pm
  4. Sara says:

    I’m pleased to read about the successful rallies across the U.S. Unfortunately, absolutely none of this was covered in the news media. At least not in the Washington DC metropolitan area. But that is par for the course. Keep the faith and never give up!

    April 4th, 2012 at 6:22 pm