In the latest episode of the Virtue of Patriotism video series, Cardinal Raymond Burke cautioned against efforts to dissolve national sovereignty in favor of global governance.
He argued that proposals for a single global authority — often framed as instruments of peace — contradict the moral order established by God.
"The family and the nation are not accidents of history nor products of ideology," Cardinal Burke said. "They arise from the natural law and are indispensable for the attainment of the common good."
He invoked Pope Benedict XVI's framework of subsidiarity and solidarity as the proper model for international cooperation. International structures, Cardinal Burke said, "exist to assist nations, not to absorb or replace them."
He warned that when authorities detach from the natural societies willed by God, they threaten "the inviability of human life, the integrity of marriage and the family, and the freedom to worship God according to right reason and divine revelation."
"A global government not rooted in the truth about God and man would inevitably erode authentic freedom," he said. “For this reason, patriotism, rightly understood, is a necessary virtue.”
Patriotism, as Cardinal Burke describes it, is not nationalism; it is a virtue that "renders due love and service to the community assigned to us by divine providence and safeguards the moral foundations upon which any just international cooperation must rest."
The episode ends with a prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, invoking Our Lady of Guadalupe as patroness of the Americas.
The series, produced by the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and hosted on CatholicVote's Zeale for America 250 campaign page, explores the Catholic understanding of patriotism as the U.S. approaches the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence on July 4.
New episodes are released every two weeks. Registrants will be notified as each episode becomes available.