EDITORIAL (National Catholic Register): We would do well to appreciate the vital role that Catholics and the Catholic Church and its institutions and apostolates have had in the founding, defense and strengthening of our Union.
A pair of fevers swept across America a half-century ago. The first was disco, the irrepressible craze that got Americans of all ages into polyester pants and out on the dance floor. The second was the U.S. bicentennial, which triggered a surge of patriotism the nation wouldn’t experience again for another 25 years, following the 9/11 terror attacks.
It’s important to remember that those were troubled times, too. The 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence came just three years after U.S. troops had pulled out of Vietnam — and just two years after the Watergate scandal had brought Richard Nixon’s presidency to an ignoble end.