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The U.S. State Department’s newly released annual report on international religious freedom shows continued attacks and abuse by governments and societies against religious minorities, including Catholics, in many countries. Among the countries cited was Nigeria where “terrorist organizations Boko Haram and Islamic State-West Africa continued to attack population centers and religious targets.”

In 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order that allowed for federally-funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) using embryonic stem cells. Catholic teaching respects the dignity and the equal moral worth of every human person. This view has consistently rejected research that destroys the life of some in order enhance the life of others.

The recent news in our state of three abandoned babies in a six-day period — two newborns and an infant — point to the urgency of getting the message out to every resident of the state that New Jersey has had a safe haven law in place since 2000.

Leaders of pro-life groups were among those invited to a White House social media summit July 11, amid claims of online censorship by search engines and social media sites. Scant coverage was given to their concerns in the secular media as they were lumped together with more than 200 attendees as “far-right social media provocateurs.”

A ruling late last month by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on new Title X rules is a boon to the pro-life movement in America. The new rules prohibit funds from going to clinics that perform abortions or provide abortion referrals, and with the court ruling, it means that they can now go into effect.

An important part of our state’s heritage is the historic buildings that dot the landscape of our state. Among them are many that mark the long history of our faith. Indeed, many of our churches are listed on the state and national historic registries.

As we celebrate the 243rd birthday of our nation today on July 4, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how our Founding Fathers placed their full trust in God. Their strong moral and spiritual convictions helped them to form the foundation of our great nation.

Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and other Republican members of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced earlier this month that it will discontinue funding for research that uses the body parts of aborted babies by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It will also apply a rigorous ethical review process to outside research it funds. Prior to this announcement, the NIH was estimated to spend $120 million on fetal tissue research in fiscal year 2019.

More often than not, commencement speakers give graduates advice based on the speaker’s life experiences and what they can do with that newly-minted diploma as they enter the business world. But what about giving graduates advice about their faith as they step into the secular world?

Challenges to religious freedom continue to emerge on an almost daily basis in our nation. That’s why it is so important for the U.S. Catholic Church to remain resolute in addressing them. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in his address to U.S. bishops in 2012, warned them of “Grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism” where there were “certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”

The composting of human remains is now legal in the state of Washington. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed legislation into law last week allowing the practice of “aboveground decomposition,” making Washington the first state in the nation to allow human remains to become compost. It takes effect in May 2020.

Since 2000, New Jersey has had in place the Safe Haven Infant Protection Act. It allows an individual to give up an unwanted infant safely, legally and anonymously. The parents — or someone acting on their behalf — can leave an unharmed baby less than 30 days old with staff at any hospital emergency room, police station, fire station, ambulance, first aid or rescue squad in the state. The N.J. Department of Children and Families then ensures that the infant is placed with a foster or pre-adoptive home.

Memorial Day is our nation’s most solemn holiday as we honor the men and women who gave their lives to guarantee our freedoms while they served our country in the U.S. military. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day, from the days when many Americans observed the day by visiting cemeteries or memorials to war dead and decorated them with American flags or floral displays.

Here in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy continues to support a culture of death, which St. Pope John Paul II condemned in his encyclical, “Evangelium Vitae,” (“The Gospel of Life”). The governor’s recent signing into law legislation that legalized assisted suicide in the state and his first act as governor to fully restore taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, attest to that.

The adoption of new regulations that ensure existing laws protecting conscience rights in healthcare are enforced and followed by the Department of Health and Human Ser­vices is good news not only for religious freedom in America but also for the pro-life cause.

The 15th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. was akin to a joy-filled revival rally for the 1,500 Catholics who attended the event. The messages presented by the speakers were ones all Catholics need to hear: an uncompromising call to holiness and the defense of every human life with calls for a “Catholic great awakening.”

It was heartbreaking to watch live the fire that ravaged the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on April 15. As a majestic spire was consumed by the flames and fell to the ground, thoughts of the grand history of the building over the centuries and its meaning, not only to French Catholics but also to Catholics worldwide, flashed through my mind. After all, Notre Dame had survived the ravages of the French Revolution, World War I and World War II. I thought of those faithful Catholics of the 12th century who began building this magnificent edifice in honor of Our Lady. It took more than 100 years to complete, so those who began to build it never saw its completion. That was left to a new generation of the faithful to carry on to its completion.

Today begins the most solemn and holiest days on the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. With the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper tonight, the Church enters into the Sacred Triduum. The Triduum concludes with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. On Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper relives the institution of the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Last Supper, as well as the institution of the priesthood, which took place the evening before Jesus was crucified.

Our religious freedom in this nation is firmly rooted in the First Amendment. Yet, some elected officials continually try to throw dirt on our religious freedom in an attempt to bury it, once and for all, in our increasingly progressive secular society. We witnessed it recently during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s review of Brian Buescher, a Knight of Columbus, for a judgeship on the U.S. District Court as two Democrat Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris, questioned Buescher’s membership in the Knights of Columbus. They accused this fraternal organization of having “taken a number of extreme positions.”

In just two weeks, we will be in the midst of Holy Week. And when we attend the celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday in our churches, Catholics in the Diocese and around the world will be asked in a collection to be taken up to give their support to the Holy Land, where Christ lived, died and rose from the dead.