WASHINGTON, D.C. - A solemn Mass in honor of United States servicemen and women, living and dead, will air across North America on both EWTN and CatholicTV at 12 noon (ET) on Memorial Day, May 30. The broadcast will be repeated at 8:00 p.m. on CatholicTV and at midnight on EWTN. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, is the principal celebrant and homilist with more than a dozen priests concelebrating.

The Memorial Mass was pre-recorded on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with a congregation of 2500 in attendance, including some of the U.S. Military’s highest ranking active-duty and retired senior officers. Also present was a contingent of American Gold Star Mothers and Wives who have lost sons, daughters, or husbands to combat, many other servicemen and women representing all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, members of the Catholic War Veterans (CWV) of the United States of America, and significant numbers of Knights and Dames of Malta and of the Holy Sepulchre.

In his homily, Archbishop Broglio urged those gathered to take seriously their role as “missionary disciples,” baptized to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in a spirit of communion and fraternity through the new evangelization:

“… The passage from the Acts of the Apostles that we read every year on Pentecost Sunday speaks about tongues of fire ‘which parted and came to rest on each one of’ [the Apostles]. It is the flame of love which burns out gruffness and distance. ‘It is the tongue of the Gospel that overcomes the barriers established by men and women and touches hearts so as to move them with compassion.’ (Vincenzo Paglia).

“It is a communion and a sermon that continues in each one of us. Of course, we have to open ourselves to ensure that the fire of the Holy Spirit burns up everything in our hearts which is foreign to Christian communion: closing ourselves off, an unhealthy nationalism, mediocrity, the abdication of responsibility to the dominant relativism of our age, and the inability to accompany others to Christ. It is the conviction that we can contribute to the changes necessary to better our world, because we recognize that all change has to begin with my willingness to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

“Is that not what we do today? We recognize our responsibility for our sisters and brothers and so we gather in prayer for them. We remember those who have died since our last archdiocesan celebration. There are the names of the priests in the program, but our prayer extends to all of those who have fallen in combat, as a result of illness or old age, as well as, an earnest uplifting to a loving Father of those who still bear the effects of war in their bodies or minds.”

Watch Monday, May 30, at 12 noon (ET), on either EWTN or CatholicTV, or again that night at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on CatholicTV, or May 31 at 12:00 a.m. (ET) on EWTN, to see the Mass and hear Archbishop Broglio’s full homily.