The Pledge of Martin Treptow

In this time, when the citizens of the United States have lost their honor, walking away from debts and obligations, promoting sin through legislation and bad example, engaging in exploitative business practices and perverting science for profit and political power, we should ponder what we have lost, a country where ordinary men gave their all to save the lives and gain freedom for others.

As Catholics, we have been called to a life of faithfulness and sacrifice, yet we have proven no better than the lost ones to whom we were charged with bringing the good news. Rather than rescue others, we have plunged into the same moral cesspool and dragged our fellows in. Now more than ever, the people of the United States need us to be the People of God, the shining lamp, the beautiful city on the heavenly hill.

We are in a war, not fought with rifles and bombs but prayer and lived virtue. Will you take this pledge, a greater one even than Private Treptow?

Christ shall win the war. Therefore, I will work. I will save. I will sacrifice. I will endure. I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the whole issue of the struggle depended on me alone.