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In these final days of October, the month which the Church in the United States celebrates as Respect Life Month, it is our hope that Catholics took the opportunity to reflect more deeply on why every human life is valuable, and at the same time rededicated themselves to building a culture that protects life from conception to natural death.

President Joe Biden will have an audience with Pope Francis Oct. 29, the day before the G20 Leaders’ Summit starts in Rome. According to a statement from the White House press office, “They will discuss working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor.”

Plans to erect a small adoration chapel in honor of St. Padre Pio on a 40-acre wooded site in rural Michigan has gotten serious pushback from local residents and the town, sadly necessitating a lawsuit focusing on religious land use and religious liberty rights.

Records are made to be broken. That’s an adage in sports heard all the time, but more often than not, athletes fall short in a record-breaking moment. Then there is Justin Tucker, kicker for the Baltimore Ravens.

As the Year of St. Joseph continues, the Diocese of Paterson has offered the faithful a variety of opportunities to learn more about St. Joseph and to honor the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Those opportunities will continue until the Year of St. Joseph concludes on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The California legislature has overwhelmingly passed a bill that slanders the life and works of St. Junípero Serra. In part, the legislation falsely points to “the enslavement of both adults and children, mutilation, genocide, and assault on women as part of the mission period initiated and overseen by Father Serra.” In an essay published on the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal last week, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, called the legislation’s claims a “slander” against the saint, pushing a “false narrative” about the missions the saint founded. “None of that is true,” they write. “While there is much to criticize from this period, no serious historian has ever made such outrageous claims about St. Junípero Serra or the mission system.” As a matter of fact, Professor Gregory Orfalea, author of Journey to the Sun: Junípero Serra’s Dream and the Founding of California, published in 2014, writes, “To the Indian, he [Serra] was loving, enthusiastic, and spiritually and physically devoted.” Pope Francis canonized St. Junípero Serra in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23, 2015, the first-ever canonization on American soil.

Amid the heated reaction from national leaders against the “heartbeat” law in Texas that bans abortions starting at six weeks, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said it is “tragic that political leaders, including President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have responded with statements that ignore our nation’s sacred interest to protect the life and health of both mothers and their unborn children, instead responding with radical pledges to mobilize the full force of the federal government to block all efforts to protect the life of the child in the womb.”

We all remember where we were at the exact moment the first hijacked plane was flown into the first tower of the World Trade Center and, in what seemed like a matter of seconds, we saw another hijacked airliner hit the second tower.

As schools reopen for the academic year, this year more than ever, more parents want school choice to be available for their children. School choice empowers parents with the ability to select the schools and learning environments that best meet the needs of their children. COVID-19 changed the K–12 education landscape, at least in the short term and perhaps permanently, a survey by School Choice Week shows.

One of the arguments hurled at the pro-life community by those who are pro-abortion, including many politicians, is that the pro-life community is only pro-birth and does not provide care for the mother and her child afterward. Although nothing could be further from the truth, a congressman from Nebraska is seeking to not only bring more visibility to the countless organizations which provide care for women experiencing crisis pregnancies through birth and beyond, but also to emulate that care at the federal level and enshrine it into law.

The U.S. bishops have issued a strong rebuke to the Biden administration for dropping a conscience rights lawsuit that is a clear violation of religious liberty. On July 30, the Justice Department quietly moved to dismiss its lawsuit against a Vermont hospital, which had allegedly coerced a nurse into helping with an abortion in 2017. When news of this surfaced, the U.S. bishops’ conference issued a statement that the Justice Department was “acting in dereliction of its duty.”

If there is an organization that does more charitable works than the Knights of Columbus do, it is not on my radar. In the past year, the Knights have provided more than $150 million in donations and more than 47 million hours of hands-on volunteer service. Who can top that? And for as much as they do, the Knights have been challenged to do even more for the Church and those they serve in their communities by Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight.

The massive protests that took place across Cuba last month were the most widespread the communist country has seen in decades. The protesters, many of them young people, shouted “Freedom,” “Down with Communism,” and “Patria y Vida,” translated as “Homeland and Life,” a battle cry among protestors in direct opposition to the Cuban communist slogan of “Homeland or Death.”

President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), both professing to be “devout Catholics,” have been in lockstep with other Democrats in expanding abortion access this year and are now trying to force taxpayers to pay for abor­tions by abandoning the Hyde Amendment.

Democrats in the House of Repre­sentatives last week continued their assault on life in the womb by advancing a new spending bill for the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices without the Hyde Amendment, and other longstanding, bipartisan provisions including the Weldon Amendment. Eliminating these provisions would force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions and force health care providers and professionals to perform and refer for abortion against their deeply held religious beliefs, as well as force employers and insurers to cover and pay for abortion.

As the grandfather of six — Grace Elizabeth, Mitchell Allan, Jacob Andrew, Ryan William, Julia Rose and Luke Andrew — I am looking forward to the Catholic Church’s first celebration of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on Sunday, July 25, the closest Sunday to the feast day (July 26) of Ss. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

Last month at their spring meeting, the U.S. bishops voted decisively to approve the drafting of a teaching document on the Eucharist that in a proposed outline includes a subsection on Eucharistic consistency. The bishops’ doctrine committee, said it would include a “special call for those Catholics who are cultural, political, or parochial leaders to witness to the faith” and uphold Church teaching in public life.

In the days leading up to Religious Freedom Week June 22–29, the U.S. Supreme Court made the celebration of the week even more important. With its unanimous 9–0 decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, it defended our religious freedom. In 2018, Philadelphia ceased placing children with foster parents that partner with Catholic Social Services demanding that the agency change its religious practices (the belief in traditional marriage as between one man and one woman) or close their much-needed ministry.

This issue features The Beacon’s annual salute to graduates of our Catholic elementary and high schools. If you read the valedictorians’ addresses, a common theme is the freedom that these young men and women have to praise God for all of their and their classmates’ accomplishments and how much being disciples of Jesus has meant in their lives because of their Catholic education.

As you are reading this, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is in the midst of its annual spring meeting. The agenda includes deliberating and voting on nine action items, but there is one in particular that has garnered a ton of publicity and will be closely watched by Catholics: the approval of the drafting of a formal statement on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.