Top photo caption: A statue depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus is seen at Sacred Heart Church in the North End neighborhood of Boston April 22, 2026. OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz
By Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News
OSV News – How might you help a nation in political turmoil celebrate its 250th anniversary and the unlikely creation of the first large-scale, self-governing republic in the modern world?
Dedicate it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – as the U.S. bishops will do for the United States of America on June 11, marking the first such formal consecration of the country to Christ’s heart.
The prelates made the decision to do this during a Nov. 11, 2025, session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall plenary assembly in Baltimore – and while they were singularly focused on an exceptional gesture to mark our country’s semiquincentennial, the consecration still probably can’t come at a better time.
According to a CNN/SSRS poll released April 3, Americans are divided by intense levels of cynicism, viewing both the Democratic and Republican parties in deeply negative terms. A full 77% of Americans, the Pew Research Center reported April 15, think the nation’s political system needs major changes or complete reform.
Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, who chairs the USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty, told OSV News there are three essential reasons the bishops voted for the consecration.
First “would be to place our nation under the kingship of Christ,” he said. “Yes, we are a democratic republic; we are a civil society – but no civil society can long endure without being under the kingship of Christ himself; to place ourselves under God’s providence and care.”
And while our young nation fought a revolution to throw off a monarchy, Archbishop Sample emphasized the continuity between Jesus’ kingship and America’s founding ideals.
“In the history of our nation, it’s undoubtable and it’s irrefutable that the faith – and our reliance on God – really was the foundation that our Founding Fathers placed this nation on,” he said. “So at this time, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it’s to remind all of us that – whatever civil government we might have – we are all under, ultimately, the kingship of Christ.”
Second, Archbishop Sample noted “there’s a certain reparation aspect to the Sacred Heart. I think we can’t forget that part of the consecration is to make reparation for offenses against God; against the heart of Christ.”
Some of those offenses, he remarked, are part of American history.
“We are a great and blessed nation – but there are mistakes that we have made as a people over these 250 years. And so this is a good time,” the archbishop added, “to also make reparation to the heart of Christ for those offenses against his love, and his mercy, and his justice – for all peoples.”
Finally, Archbishop Sample said, “there’s this desire, through this consecration, to also call us to have a greater heart for the poor and the suffering … as we honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we can’t just honor it as a private devotion. It has to move us, and move our hearts.”
Pope Francis, he said, “was a man who loved these beautiful, rich devotions we have in the faith … and wanted to call our attention to the fact that the heart of Christ is the heart of mercy … and through the heart of Jesus, we find healing and reconciliation.”
Pope Francis brought the Sacred Heart to wider Catholic attention with the 2024 encyclical “Dilexit Nos” (“He Loved Us”), observing the devotion needs to be revived for our era.
Devotion to the Sacred of Heart of Jesus – which traces its roots to at least the second century – grew during the Middle Ages and was later extended to the universal Church following Christ’s revelations of his Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th-century French woman religious.
Emily Schumacher-Novak – associate director of Education and Outreach at the USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace – said the June 11 consecration is accompanied by an abundance of USCCB resources, including a prayer and downloadable prayer card; a Novena to the Sacred Heart (June 3-11); a ceremony to enthrone the Sacred Heart in the home; consecration resources for parishes; materials from the Knights of Columbus and the Pope’s Prayer Network; and the “We Hold These Truths – America 250” article and video series, which feature the contributions of Catholics to the United States.
“We are also offering a resource that invites people to do 250 hours of adoration and 250 works of mercy,” Schumaker-Novak said. “It’s that connection back to charity and justice that our Church calls us to – to pray for all the things in our world that need healing – that we can do in front of the Blessed Sacrament.”
The national consecration – at Mary, Queen of the Universe Basilica in Orlando, Florida – will be live streamed via the USCCB homepage on June 11.
“As the bishops of the United States do the consecration of the whole nation to the heart of Christ, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we’re also encouraging local communities to do the same – especially in our families and in our dioceses,” concluded Archbishop Sample.
He noted family, parish and diocesan consecrations are not meant to replace the national consecration.
“It’s so we’re sort of doing it on all levels, so to speak,” said Archbishop Sample, “to really make this a meaningful moment in the light of the Church here in this great and blessed land.”
Kimberley Heatherington is a correspondent for OSV News. She writes from Virginia.
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