After a year of Soros led violence by Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other violent Marxist groups, President Donald Trump has brought about an Executive Order that will seek to establish a ‘Garden of American Heroes’ as a way of preserving the nation’s traditions and protecting them from Marxist revisionism.
Catholics have been particular targets of Marxist hate, with statues of Christopher Columbus and St. Junipero Serra regularly attacked. Self professed Catholic politician Alexandria Ocasia Cortez (regularly praised by Jesuit Magazine America) even stated that St. Damien was a ‘white supremacist’, for helping native lepers in Hawaii apparently.
The Executive Order states:
The National Garden is America’s answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life. On its grounds, the devastation and discord of the moment will be overcome with abiding love of country and lasting patriotism. This is the American way. When the forces of anti-Americanism have sought to burn, tear down, and destroy, patriots have built, rebuilt, and lifted up. That is our history.
There are a number of famous Catholics, lay and clerical included.
One of the interesting ones is Native American Red Cloud, who converted to Catholicism along with other tribe leaders in 1884. There is also Buffalo Bill, the famous Western figure who converted in 1917.
Another interesting one is Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, who tragically died last year but who credited his Catholic faith with turning his life around and becoming a family man.
There are also figures such as Justice Anthony Scalia and Alfred Hitchcock.
Most interesting is the inclusion of Catholic figures who are either saints like Junipero Serra, or those currently having their causes examined such as Dorothy Day.
Two Twentieth Century figures that stand out are Archbishop Fulton Sheen and William F. Buckley.
Sheen is a colossal figure in Catholicism, his books such as Life of Christ have been incredibly influential as was his TV show Life is Worth Living.
Buckley also maintained a public presence, even hosting episodes with Sheen in the 70s, including this great clip discussing Saint Augustine.
This news is a welcome but small boost for Catholic Americans, who are now faced with one of the most anti Catholic administrations in the modern era, with a nominal Catholic being presented as the face of it. Most of those in the garden of heroes faced worse times than we do, let us hold their examples.