By Jay Sorgi • Posted June 24, 2026

Catholics in Philadelphia and across the United States are unifying in daily prayer for eight particular causes connected to religious freedom.

They are taking the call to prayer and action arising from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Religious Freedom Week, which began June 22. That is the feast day of both St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. Each were martyred by King Henry VIII in 1535 over issues connected to freedom to live out their Catholic faith.

“They are our exemplars,” said Daniel Drain, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Life and Family.

“‘I am the king’s good servant, but God’s first,’ St. Thomas More said. You can only do that if you’ve properly examined your conscience and answered those questions. Have I spoken untruthfully? Have I failed to treat others with genuine charity? There’s a beautiful linkage there of the cause with the patrons that day and how to act.”

Religious Freedom Week stems from the Fortnight for Freedom, which was launched by the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty and held throughout much of the 2010s. The effort dedicated 14 summer days toward prayer and action supporting religious freedom in the United States.

It came from what Pope Benedict XVI said at the time was an effort by parts of the U.S. government to “deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.”

Drain says the Church’s perspective on freedom involves how humanity is made for God, that God has revealed himself throughout history, and that we are called to seek that revelation in freedom.

“There are particular versions and ways of talking of religious freedom that delineate more specifically the freedom to worship, and to worship in a way in accord with your conscience,” Drain said, “but I would say that all those other types of freedom are in this larger context of being made for free relationship with God, and therefore free to pursue that absent coercion from any source.”

The committee changed its effort to an eight-day Religious Freedom Week in 2018, dedicating every June 22-29 to days of prayer and action on specific daily topics connected to religious freedom.

This year, the USCCB is focusing on these areas during the eight days of June 22-28:
– June 22: Political and Anti-Religious Violence
– June 23: Immigration Enforcement
– June 24: Africa
– June 25: Gender Ideology
– June 26: Religious Discrimination
– June 27: Parental Choice in Education
– June 28: Federal Grants
– June 29: Nicaragua

The first day’s effort focused on religious and political violence in the United States stemming from what the USCCB says are “forces influencing people to cultivate political and tribal identities defined, in part, by their hatred for others” and in which religious and political dialogue are “devolving into a cycle of attack and retribution.”

Day two asked Catholics to take active steps in closeness and solidarity with immigrants who are facing fear due to the actions of immigration enforcement.

Drain was part of advisory conversations about calling Catholics to a deeper commitment on this issue, including signing the USCCB’s Cabrini Pledge in support of migrants and refugees.

“Immigration is not an easy issue to solve, and acknowledging the dual needs of justice for those who rightfully flee situations of violence or persecution and the need for nations to justly police … their borders, that’s a difficult needle to thread,” Drain said. “Therefore, we take it to prayer and make this pledge to support immigrant families.”

June 24 and 29 call Catholics to support religious freedom internationally, particularly in places of intense religious persecution.

Other days include issues of moral conscience such as gender ideology, the state of federal grants for faith-centered initiatives of compassion and charity, and freedom and empowerment for parents to pursue faith-centered education.

The specific intention of July 26, religious discrimination, particularly focuses on what the USCCB considers to be the question of public policies that don’t allow religious organizations to participate in public programs.

Drain says that in the United States, we tend to build a distinct separation of religion and politics, but the act of liturgy stems from what Drain says is the Greek word for “work of the people.”

“When you begin from that conviction that worship is a human act and not a religious act, that worship is not simply supernatural but a natural human thing, then you can have very different conversations about the place of religion in public life. Religion is distinctly public, and that informs the Church’s perspective.”

Drain capstones the week’s themes as a way for American Catholics to discern key questions about the place of prayer in public life, what the human person is and is made for, and how we should live in freedom together, saying the Catholic Church has a consistent voice on those issues.

“But at the same time, it’s a matter of concern that very basic human realities are called into question,” Drain said, “hence the urgency of our prayer, hence preserving a week dedicated to these themes and naming particular causes in it.”

To find prayers and action steps one may take to support religious freedom and the daily themes of the USCCB’s Religious Freedom Week, visit this USCCB page.