EWTN News portal reports that several elected officials, including the governors of Arkansas and Utah, have recognized June as “Fidelity Month,” a grassroots movement founded in 2023 by Princeton professor Robert P. George to promote faithfulness to God, family, and America. The movement encourages Americans to “rededicate themselves to basic values” such as patriotism, religion, having children, and community involvement. While the initiative may appear superficially commendable, it fundamentally reduces the supernatural order to a mere instrument of civic unity, completely omitting the absolute necessity of the social reign of Christ the King, the obligation of states to profess the Catholic faith, and the reality that no true fidelity to God is possible outside the one true Church.
A Movement Built on Naturalistic Foundations
The very conception of Fidelity Month, as described by its spokesman Christopher Parr, reveals a profoundly naturalistic and ultimately Protestant understanding of the relationship between faith and civic life. The movement’s stated aim is to promote “faith in God, our spouses and families, and our country and communities” as “the sources of America’s unity and strength.” This formulation is theologically vacuous. It places “faith in God” on the same plane as patriotism and family loyalty, as though these were parallel and complementary values rather than realities ordered in a strict hierarchy under the supreme lordship of Jesus Christ.
Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the error that the state and civil society can be organized independently of the authority of our Savior. The Pope taught that “the Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and that “men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.” He further declared that “rulers of states therefore should not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but should fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” Fidelity Month, by contrast, speaks of “faith in God” without any reference to the Church Christ founded, without any acknowledgment that the Catholic Church is the sole ark of salvation, and without any recognition that the state has a formal duty to profess and protect the Catholic religion.
The Omission of the Church: A Telltale Silence
The most damning feature of the Fidelity Month movement is not what it says but what it refuses to say. Nowhere in the reported statements is there any mention of the Catholic Church as the one true Church of Christ, any reference to the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, any acknowledgment of the social kingship of Christ over nations, or any recognition that the United States — a nation founded largely on Protestant and Masonic principles — has never formally submitted itself to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.
This silence is not accidental. It is the hallmark of the indifferentism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, which anathematized the proposition that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15) and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16). By promoting “faith in God” as a generic civic virtue, Fidelity Month implicitly endorses the heretical notion that the specific content of religious belief is irrelevant to the health of the nation — a proposition that the Church has repeatedly and solemnly condemned.
Patriotism Without the Supernatural Order
The proclamation issued by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders illustrates the movement’s fundamental deficiency. She declared that “the United States of America was founded on the values of faith, liberty, and patriotism as acknowledged in its founding documents and in the statements of its Founding Fathers.” This statement, while politically conventional, is theologically disastrous. The founding documents of the United States — products of Enlightenment rationalism and, in many cases, Masonic influence — enshrine the very errors that the Church has condemned: religious indifferentism, the separation of Church and State, and the subordination of divine revelation to human reason.
Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei, taught that “the Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, each supreme in its own order.” He further warned that “the best parent and guardian of liberty amongst men is truth” and that “the liberty of those who are in authority does not consist in the power to lay unreasonable and capricious commands upon their subjects.” The American founding, with its explicit rejection of any established religion and its enshrinement of “freedom of worship” as a natural right, stands in direct contradiction to this teaching.
The Grassroots Illusion and the Absence of Ecclesial Authority
Christopher Parr’s description of Fidelity Month as “a grassroots movement, not a top-down organization” further reveals its fundamentally Protestant and democratic character. The Catholic Church is not a grassroots movement; she is a divinely instituted hierarchical society with the authority to teach, govern, and sanctify. The notion that the renewal of fidelity to God can be accomplished through individual initiative and community organizing, without submission to the authority of the Church and her sacramental life, is a manifestation of the very spirit of private judgment that the Reformation unleashed upon the world.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili sane exitu, condemned the modernist proposition that “the Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Proposition 6). Fidelity Month, by its very structure, embodies this error: it treats religious truth as something to be determined by popular consensus rather than received from the authoritative Magisterium of the Church.
The Illusion of Unity Without Truth
Parr stated that the movement hopes “to unify all Americans around what matters most.” But unity without truth is not unity; it is a coalition of error. The Catholic Church has always taught that true peace and unity can only be found in the Kingdom of Christ. Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “Oh, what happiness we would enjoy if individuals, families, and states allowed themselves to be governed by Christ.” He added that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior.”
Fidelity Month seeks unity on the lowest common denominator — a vague “faith in God” that offends no one and commits no one to anything. This is not the unity that Christ prayed for in the Gospel of John, the unity of those who “may be one” as He and the Father are one. It is the false unity of indifferentism, which the Church has consistently identified as one of the most pernicious errors of modern times.
The Condemnation of Secularism Without Naming It
Ironically, the Fidelity Month movement implicitly acknowledges the devastating effects of secularism — the “declining rates of commitment to patriotism, religion, having children, and community involvement” that inspired its founder — while proposing a remedy that is itself thoroughly secular in its approach. The movement operates entirely within the framework of civil society: proclamations by governors, events in congressional office buildings, social media campaigns, and high school essay contests. There is no call to repentance, no exhortation to receive the sacraments, no summons to submit to the authority of the Church, and no recognition that the restoration of all things in Christ requires not merely civic renewal but supernatural conversion.
Pius XI identified secularism — “so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors” — as “the plague that poisons human society” and taught that the remedy is not civic activism but the recognition of Christ’s royal authority over all aspects of life. Fidelity Month, by reducing the faith to a matter of civic virtue and national unity, inadvertently reinforces the very secularism it claims to oppose.
Conclusion: A Well-Intentioned but Fundamentally Deficient Initiative
Fidelity Month represents the best that natural virtue and civic-mindedness can produce in a nation that has formally rejected the social kingship of Christ. Its proponents may be sincere in their desire to promote faithfulness to God, family, and country. But sincerity without truth is insufficient. The movement’s failure to acknowledge the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation, its implicit endorsement of religious indifferentism, its reduction of faith to a civic virtue, and its reliance on democratic and grassroots methods rather than ecclesial authority render it fundamentally incompatible with the integral Catholic faith.
The faithful who desire true fidelity to God must look not to proclamations from state governors or events in congressional buildings but to the unchanging teaching of the Church: that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, that His kingdom extends over all nations and all aspects of life, that the Catholic Church is the only true religion, and that there is no salvation outside her. Non est salus extra Ecclesiam. Any movement that omits these truths, however well-intentioned, is building on sand.
The EWTN News article reports on the recognition of “Fidelity Month” by several elected officials, including the governors of Arkansas and Utah. The movement, founded in 2023 by Princeton professor Robert P. George, aims to promote faithfulness to God, family, and America during the month of June. While the initiative may appear superficially commendable, it fundamentally reduces the supernatural order to a mere instrument of civic unity, completely omitting the absolute necessity of the social reign of Christ the King, the obligation of states to profess the Catholic faith, and the reality that no true fidelity to God is possible outside the one true Church.
A Movement Built on Naturalistic Foundations
The very conception of Fidelity Month, as described by its spokesman Christopher Parr, reveals a profoundly naturalistic and ultimately Protestant understanding of the relationship between faith and civic life. The movement’s stated aim is to promote “faith in God, our spouses and families, and our country and communities” as “the sources of America’s unity and strength.” This formulation is theologically vacuous. It places “faith in God” on the same plane as patriotism and family loyalty, as though these were parallel and complementary values rather than realities ordered in a strict hierarchy under the supreme lordship of Jesus Christ.
Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the error that the state and civil society can be organized independently of the authority of our Savior. The Pope taught that “the Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and that “men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.” He further declared that “rulers of states therefore should not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but should fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” Fidelity Month, by contrast, speaks of “faith in God” without any reference to the Church Christ founded, without any acknowledgment that the Catholic Church is the sole ark of salvation, and without any recognition that the state has a formal duty to profess and protect the Catholic religion.
The Omission of the Church: A Telltale Silence
The most damning feature of the Fidelity Month movement is not what it says but what it refuses to say. Nowhere in the reported statements is there any mention of the Catholic Church as the one true Church of Christ, any reference to the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, any acknowledgment of the social kingship of Christ over nations, or any recognition that the United States — a nation founded largely on Protestant and Masonic principles — has never formally submitted itself to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.
This silence is not accidental. It is the hallmark of the indifferentism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, which anathematized the proposition that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15) and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16). By promoting “faith in God” as a generic civic virtue, Fidelity Month implicitly endorses the heretical notion that the specific content of religious belief is irrelevant to the health of the nation — a proposition that the Church has repeatedly and solemnly condemned.
Patriotism Without the Supernatural Order
The proclamation issued by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders illustrates the movement’s fundamental deficiency. She declared that “the United States of America was founded on the values of faith, liberty, and patriotism as acknowledged in its founding documents and in the statements of its Founding Fathers.” This statement, while politically conventional, is theologically disastrous. The founding documents of the United States — products of Enlightenment rationalism and, in many cases, Masonic influence — enshrine the very errors that the Church has condemned: religious indifferentism, the separation of Church and State, and the subordination of divine revelation to human reason.
Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei, taught that “the Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, each supreme in its own order.” He further warned that “the best parent and guardian of liberty amongst men is truth” and that “the liberty of those who are in authority does not consist in the power to lay unreasonable and capricious commands upon their subjects.” The American founding, with its explicit rejection of any established religion and its enshrinement of “freedom of worship” as a natural right, stands in direct contradiction to this teaching.
The Grassroots Illusion and the Absence of Ecclesial Authority
Christopher Parr’s description of Fidelity Month as “a grassroots movement, not a top-down organization” further reveals its fundamentally Protestant and democratic character. The Catholic Church is not a grassroots movement; she is a divinely instituted hierarchical society with the authority to teach, govern, and sanctify. The notion that the renewal of fidelity to God can be accomplished through individual initiative and community organizing, without submission to the authority of the Church and her sacramental life, is a manifestation of the very spirit of private judgment that the Reformation unleashed upon the world.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili sane exitu, condemned the modernist proposition that “the Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Proposition 6). Fidelity Month, by its very structure, embodies this error: it treats religious truth as something to be determined by popular consensus rather than received from the authoritative Magisterium of the Church.
The Illusion of Unity Without Truth
Parr stated that the movement hopes “to unify all Americans around what matters most.” But unity without truth is not unity; it is a coalition of error. The Catholic Church has always taught that true peace and unity can only be found in the Kingdom of Christ. Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “Oh, what happiness we would enjoy if individuals, families, and states allowed themselves to be governed by Christ.” He added that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior.”
Fidelity Month seeks unity on the lowest common denominator — a vague “faith in God” that offends no one and commits no one to anything. This is not the unity that Christ prayed for in the Gospel of John, the unity of those who “may be one” as He and the Father are one. It is the false unity of indifferentism, which the Church has consistently identified as one of the most pernicious errors of modern times.
The Condemnation of Secularism Without Naming It
Ironically, the Fidelity Month movement implicitly acknowledges the devastating effects of secularism — the “declining rates of commitment to patriotism, religion, having children, and community involvement” that inspired its founder — while proposing a remedy that is itself thoroughly secular in its approach. The movement operates entirely within the framework of civil society: proclamations by governors, events in congressional office buildings, social media campaigns, and high school essay contests. There is no call to repentance, no exhortance to receive the sacraments, no summons to submit to the authority of the Church, and no recognition that the restoration of all things in Christ requires not merely civic renewal but supernatural conversion.
Pius XI identified secularism — “so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors” — as “the plague that poisons human society” and taught that the remedy is not civic activism but the recognition of Christ’s royal authority over all aspects of life. Fidelity Month, by reducing the faith to a matter of civic virtue and national unity, inadvertently reinforces the very secularism it claims to oppose.
Conclusion: A Well-Intentioned but Fundamentally Deficient Initiative
Fidelity Month represents the best that natural virtue and civic-mindedness can produce in a nation that has formally rejected the social kingship of Christ. Its proponents may be sincere in their desire to promote faithfulness to God, family, and country. But sincerity without truth is insufficient. The movement’s failure to acknowledge the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation, its implicit endorsement of religious indifferentism, its reduction of faith to a civic virtue, and its reliance on democratic and grassroots methods rather than ecclesial authority render it fundamentally incompatible with the integral Catholic faith.
The faithful who desire true fidelity to God must look not to proclamations from state governors or events in congressional buildings but to the unchanging teaching of the Church: that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, that His kingdom extends over all nations and all aspects of life, that the Catholic Church is the only true religion, and that there is no salvation outside her. Non est salus extra Ecclesiam (There is no salvation outside the Church). Any movement that omits these truths, however well-intentioned, is building on sand.
Source:
Elected officials recognize grassroots June celebration of ‘Fidelity Month’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 02.06.2026