Rome Invites America to Worship on Sunday May 17 to “Celebrate How Religion and America Can Come Together in a Beautiful Way”

On May 11, 2026, in a video posted by Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron—a member of President Donald Trump’s White House Religious Liberty Commission within the Department of Justice—Bishop Barron invited Americans to gather on the National Mall in Washington on May 17 for the “Rededicate 250” celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States. However, Barron placed special emphasis on what he described as the important role religion has played in the American experiment, stating that religion and America have come together in a “very beautiful way.”

Robert Barron made the following statement:

• “Hey everybody, it’s Bishop Barron. I want to take this opportunity and invite you to a very special event called Rededicate 250. It is an event in honor of our two hundred fiftieth anniversary as a nation, but with the special stress upon the role that religion has played in the American Experiment” (Video).

• “This will take place on the National Mall on May 17th. There’ll be a whole slew of speakers: Speaker Mike Johnson from the House of Representatives will be there, Dr. Larry Arnn from Hillsdale College, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary Marco Rubio, Reverend Franklin Graham will be there — and I’ll be there speaking as well” (Video).

• “The idea is to celebrate how religion and America have really come together in a beautiful way. So I invite everybody: take the time, come to Washington, National Mall. It’s going to be an all-day event beginning in the morning stretching into the afternoon. There’ll be speakers but also musicians and other forms of celebration. Hope to see you on May 17th. And God bless you” (Video).

The American experiment was never about the role religion would play in controlling the government, but rather about the role religion would not play in exercising civil authority over the conscience of the people. The founders understood from history—especially from Europe’s long record of state churches, religious persecution, inquisitions, and forced conformity—that liberty could only survive when government was forbidden from establishing or enforcing any religion.

America’s uniqueness was not that it created a Christian state, but that it created a constitutional system where people of all faiths could worship freely without the state favoring one church over another. The genius of the American experiment was the deliberate limitation placed upon religious power in civil government, protecting both the church from political corruption and the people from religious persecution.

Today, this foundation is gradually shifting from liberty toward control. Instead of emphasizing freedom of conscience, there is increasing pressure from many Catholic and Evangelical voices seeking greater religious influence within government to advance moral and social agendas. More and more, Americans are being told that individual rights must yield to the “common good” or the collective interests of the majority. At the same time, dissent is increasingly being portrayed as dangerous or divisive, while government is encouraged to take a larger role in shaping the moral and spiritual direction of society. In this environment, liberty of conscience risks being replaced by regulations and enforced consensus rather than the protection of individual freedom.

According to Bible prophecy, this shift signifies that history is repeating itself and that long-standing freedoms and constitutional protections will gradually disappear as church and state move closer together. Prophecy warns of a system in which religious influence becomes increasingly joined with civil power, allowing church doctrines to be advanced through the authority of the state. As this model develops, religious pressure from an apostate form of Christianity will seek to shape national life and influence the beliefs and behavior of society.

“In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the State, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for popery to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance,—a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority. It is the spirit of the papacy,—the spirit of conformity to worldly customs, the veneration for human traditions above the commandments of God,—that is permeating the Protestant churches, and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them” (Great Controversy, p. 573).