Scripture reference, prayers close out final night of GOP convention

Published: 2004-09-03

NEW YORK (CNS) -- President Bush closed his nomination acceptance speech Sept. 2 with a paraphrased quote from Ecclesiastes that "to everything we know there is a season -- a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding." In a 64-minute speech that referred in only general terms to his policy proposals and focused at length on U.S. actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush said that by "promoting liberty abroad we will build a safer world. By encouraging liberty at home, we will build a more hopeful America." He said the American people have, "like generations before us, ... a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom." Bush's speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention was followed by a closing prayer offered by New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan. He asked God to "make us a people of genuine compassion" for the hungry, the homeless, the abandoned and the stranger, as well as "a people of justice who revere the rights of others ... especially the precious right to live which resides in children coming into this world and in the aged and infirm departing from it."

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