Editorials

With just two months left before the Biden Administration takes office, the pro-life community is acutely aware that the clock is ticking until the time when more stringent attacks on life in the womb will begin. With the imminent changes the Democrats want to make to strengthen abortion laws even more, Catholic scholars are calling on the Trump Administration to issue an executive order that offers legal protection for the unborn.

“In the future, there will be pitched battles for religious freedom in courts and Congress, in state legislatures and town halls.” Those prophetic words were spoken by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in his speech March 15, 2017 at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard in Madison. Fast forward to Nov. 14 where in a Zoom presentation to the Federalist Society, the justice again issued a clarion call that religious liberty today was emerging as a “second tier” right, especially during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, vandals ran amuck across the nation tearing down statues of religious and historic figures with impunity. Very few political leaders called for these vandals to be prosecuted according to the law for their random acts of violence. When asked about the vandalism of statues earlier this year, Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California, a Catholic whose district includes San Francisco, said, “People will do what people will do.”

On Oct. 31, the Knights of Colum­bus were treated to a special day as their founder, Father Michael McGivney, continued on his path to sainthood with his beatification in the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Conn. As members of the organization beamed proudly, Father McGivney was formally beatified through an apostolic letter from Pope Francis that was read by Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, appointed representative of Pope Francis, who was the principal celebrant of the beatification Mass.

If you were asked, who is on your voting ballot, it would be an easy question to answer. However, if you were asked, what is on your voting ballot, for many the answer might be a head scratcher. The answer to the second question should be as easy as the first, if you realize that whomever you cast your vote for is what is on the ballot.