These difficult times for the Church require a deeply spiritual response, above and beyond the policy-making.
During the 1950s, Sr. Mary Ephrem of Ohio received a series of private revelations regarding the United States of America. The devotion to "Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin" received the approbation of Bishop Paul Leibold of Cincinnati; he also gave the imprimatur to the prayer attached to the devotion.
On November 15, 1956, Our Lady appeared and requested that a statue of her image as Our Lady of America be carried in solemn procession and placed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., so that she may be honored there as a special safeguard for our country. She said in January of 1957, "Tell the Bishops of the United States, my loyal sons, of my desires and how I wish them to be carried out… Will my loyal sons carry out my desires and thus help me bring the peace of Christ once again to mankind?" This statue was displayed at the fall meeting of the USCCB in November, 2006, but has not yet been given a permanent place in our National Shrine.
We are asking the USCCB to prayerfully consider working toward fulfilling very soon this request of our Mother, whose Immaculate Heart will triumph, who intercedes for us always, and who can never be outdone in generosity.
