At Gettysburg, 150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln rewrote the very idea of America. And he did it in a mere 278 words.

Catholics can keep faith with the Fathers of the Church and the Founding Fathers of our Nation only by voting for those who defend the fundamental right to life and the First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom.

In a frequently misquoted line from the Life of Reason, George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

While the Civil War brought violence and destruction to the nation on a horrific scale, it did provide the Catholic Church in America, a means to show the "better angels of our nature" and the loyalty and Christian sense of duty of its parishioners.

With the exception of history buffs, most people are unaware that this month America begins the sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War.

From presidential speeches to role-playing games, the crusades are depicted as a deplorably violent episode in which thuggish Westerners trundled off, unprovoked, to murder and pillage peace-loving, sophisticated Muslims.

A friend once said I think shrewdly that if people want to understand the United States, they need to read two documents. Neither one is the Declaration of Independence. Neither one is the Constitution.

Nothing is sacred, as it were not even the facts of American history, not even the words spoken by Abraham Lincoln at the most solemn ceremony of our nation's history.

What were the religious beliefs of the founding fathers? That question is at the heart of many of the most contentious debates about the role of religion in the American public square.

Noticeably absent from recent discussions about Obama Obama and the honouring of Abraham Lincoln has been any discussion of Lincolns relationship with American Catholics, their church, and issues that affected their lives.