Annual Fortnight for Freedom: June 21 - July 4

The two-week celebration will focus on the theme, “Freedom to Serve,” emphasizing
the link between religious liberty and service to the poor and vulnerable.

“During the Fortnight, our liturgical calendar celebrates great martyrs who remained
faithful in the face of persecution by political power—St. John Fisher and
St. Thomas More, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul and the first martyrs of the
Church of Rome,” said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the
Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops. "This is a time when Catholics can unite themselves in prayer to the men
and women throughout history who spread the Gospel and lived out Jesus’ call to
serve the ‘least of these’ in even the direst of circumstances.”

Two nationally televised Masses will bookend the Fortnight. Archbishop Lori will
celebrate Mass at the Baltimore Basilica on June 21, at 5:30 p.m. EDT.
Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on July 4, at noon EDT.
USCCB President Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, will be the
homilist at the July 4 Mass.

FORTNIGHT FOR FREEDOM EVENTS at St. Matthias:

TBD