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Given today’s political climate in our nation and abroad, most of us would be hard pressed to come up with the name of a single politician we admire enough that he/she should be considered for sainthood. But Giorgio La Pira, the mayor of Florence from 1951 to 1965, was not like any of the politicians of our day and age.

Everyone knows I am a big sports fan. So, it was with great interest that I read “Giving the Best of Yourself” — the very first-Vatican document focusing on sports. It was released by the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life released last month by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the dicastery’s prefect.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2018. For three-quarters of a century, CRS has been easing suffering and providing assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries. CRS’ roots go back to 1943, after an outpouring of concern from Catholics in the United States led to the creation of War Relief Services by the U.S. bishops to help thousands of World War II survivors and refugees.

The U.S. Catholic Church’s observance of Religious Freedom Week begins tomorrow on June 22, the feast of two English martyrs who fought religious persecution — St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More — and ends June 29, the feast of two apostles martyred in Rome — Ss. Peter and Paul.

This Sunday, Father’s Day, will once again be a good day for many and a tough day for some. It’s a good day because it gives all fathers the opportunity to count their blessings, thanking God for the gift of their children, and the awesome honor it is to be their Dad. But it’s also a tough day for those of us who have had our Dad called home to the Lord.

Title X is a family planning program, designed to provide low-income women with pre-pregnancy services. In its original design, and reflected in current law, there is a specific prohibition on abortion-related activities. However, in the years since the program’s creation in 1970, it has been interpreted to require grantees to refer for abortion, thus both overtly excluding health centers who object to such referrals from applying for Title X grants and also ensuring a direct link between family planning services and the promotion of abortion. This link is exemplified by the alarming number of Title X recipients that also provide and promote abortion.

As we here in the United States paused this Monday on Memorial Day to honor and pay tribute to all those who have served our nation in the Armed Forces and made the ultimate sacrifice, some of our wounded warriors were in France seeking healing and peace in the waters of Lourdes.

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this month would make it easier for Americans to receive tax deductions for charitable giving, regardless of whether they itemize on their tax returns. The Charitable Giving Tax Deduction Act would make charitable deductions “above-the-line,” meaning adjusted gross income would be reduced. This would allow taxpayers to write off charitable deductions regardless of whether households decide to itemize. Under the legislation, charitable contributions would not be capped.

President Donald Trump lauded the importance of faith in American life as a foundation for freedom in his speech at the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month. “Faith is central to American life and to liberty,” Trump said, “Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, ‘In God We Trust.’ And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim we are ‘One Nation Under God.’ ”

As Mother’s Day approaches in the month of May dedicated to the Blessed Mother, there’s a heartbeat for life in the womb, at least in Iowa. The state legislature early last week passed the “fetal heartbeat” bill. On Friday, Iowa’s governor, Republican Kim Reynolds, signed the legislation into law. It prohibits nearly all abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected, making it the strongest abortion ban in the nation.

The International Women of Courage Award is presented annually by the U.S. Department of State to recognize “women around the globe who have demonstrated exception courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”

Gov. Phil Murphy’s first fiscal budget for New Jersey contains millions of dollars in new taxes to promote his agenda yet mandates cuts for nonpublic school transportation. Does the governor not realize that transportation for nonpublic school students is the lifeblood of nonpublic schools?

Following the revelation that millions of Facebook users’ personal data had been compromised, protecting their privacy was front and center before Congress last week. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder, chairman and CEO was grilled for two days by members of Congress on how to solve his global social media platform’s innumerable failures in this regard.

This year, the Church is marking the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical “Humanae Vitae.” On July 25, 1968 Pope Paul VI promulgated his prophetic encyclical letter courageously reaffirming the Church’s constant teaching about the joyful duty of married couples to collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator in the creation of new human life.

As Holy Week began, there was a major court decision that proved to be an important victory for our religious freedoms. The decision by the U.S. District Court dealt a final, crushing blow to Obamacare’s Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, which had forced Catholic non-profits to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization in their health care packages to their employees.

Can you spend an hour in prayer on Good Friday for those in the womb who have no voice? Those who support life will be doing just that as Morris County Right to Life is sponsoring an outdoor Stations of the Cross for the unborn in front of Planned Parenthood, 196 Speedwell Ave., Morristown, on Good Friday, March 30, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

The reintroduction of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) in Congress is good news for all people of faith who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. FADA would protect individuals and institutions from discrimination by the federal government based on whatever their beliefs about marriage are.

Unfortunately, in today’s society nasty four letter words are commonplace in many conversations at home and in the workplace. They have become so much a part of the language that they pepper most conversations without an eyebrow being raised at their usage.

Spring break. Those two words often bring dread to parents of the college students who will be heading south. Within the next few days, warm spots like Florida will be inundated with thousands of college kids looking to have a good time with not a care in the world.

With the U.S. Supreme Court declining the Trump Administration’s appeal that sought to end the DACA program and the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass a bipartisan bill that would offer protections for immigrants, the clock is still ticking to find a solution for DACA recipients so that they have a pathway for citizenship.