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As Catholics know, Lent is a time of penance, prayer and charity. Yet, no Lent in our lifetime has ever been as challenging as the Lent of 2020. Just a short time after Ash Wednesday, we were all relegated to our homes, working from there and taking care of children, whose schools have been closed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In Alabama, one of America’s most pro-life states, a state representative has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would require men of a certain age or state to have a vasectomy. The legislation is the brainchild of Democrat Rep. Rolanda Hollis. Her bill provides that a man must undergo a vasectomy “at his own expense” within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third child, “whichever comes first.”

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Consolation Parish (OLC) in Wayne Saturday, March 7, where he celebrated the 5 p.m. vigil Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent.

St. Patrick Parish in Chatham welcomed Bishop Serratelli during his pastoral visit March 8 where he celebrated Mass to mark the Second Sunday of Lent.

“Keep your steps small. It will make it easier to keep in time to the music.” Franciscan Father John Aherne, a parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish in Pompton Lakes, calls out this suggestion to a class of 55 people — lined up in rows in the gathering space in the parish center — as they attempt to follow his nimble footwork in learning a “reel,” the most basic routine in Irish dance. On the night of March 4, students — from St. Mary’s and elsewhere — share lots of smiles and laughs as they succeed, or sometimes fall short of, mastering the steps as demonstrated with great skill by Father John, a certified teacher with the Irish Dance Commission of Dublin, Ireland.

Early in her adulthood, Mary Jo Armen could have become, in her words, “a poster child for grief,” having suffered by then the deaths of her father, two brothers and a close friend. This parishioner of St. Peter the Apostle in River Edge also had carried another type of grief in her heart: pain and anger that built up over years toward her brother, Frank, who had been estranged from the family for 14 years.

We should all know by now just how deeply entrenched the Democratic Party is in the culture of death that St. Pope John Paul II warned us about in its total support of the abortion industry and its approval of infanticide. The Democrats reached another new low last week when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) went off the deep end when speaking to a crowd of abortion-rights supporters outside the Supreme Court building.

Congress last week failed to pass two pro-life bills to protect unborn babies who can feel pain, and babies who survive abortion attempts. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would ban abortions after 20 weeks gestation, around the time babies in utero can feel pain.

Peacefully and with dignity, the remains of more than 2,000 aborted children were laid to rest in Southlawn Cemetery in South Bend, Ind. last week with nary a mention of it in the secular press. The remains of the children, some 2,411 to be exact, were discovered in a garage and in the trunk of a car belonging to deceased abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer last Sept. 12, a little more than a week after Klopfer died.

In his speech at the University of Notre Dame’s Law School, U.S. Attorney General William Barr pointed out that because the Trump Admin­istration, in which he serves, firmly supports accommodation of religion, the battleground for religious freedom has shifted to the states. Barr said that some state governments are now attempting to compel religious individuals and entities to subscribe to practices, or to espouse viewpoints, that are incompatible with their religious beliefs.

With the Supreme Court deciding the fate of the blatantly anti-Catholic Blaine Amendments that have long struck a blow to the heart of religious liberty, it is good to know that we have someone who has our backs when it comes to religious freedom issues. That person is U.S. Attorney General William Barr, one of this nation’s foremost proponents of religious liberty’s vital importance to our nation.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case that will have far-reaching effects on our religious liberty. At issue are the Blaine Amendments, currently the law of the land in 37 states, mandating that no government funds benefit religious schools.

Did you know that Religious Freedom Day is celebrated in America annually? It has been observed on Jan. 16 by every U.S. president since 1993 and is marked on that specific day for good reason. On Jan. 16, 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, was enacted. This law was the foundation on which principles were developed that would later shape many state constitutions as well as the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on religious freedom.

Next week there is reason to celebrate not once, but twice. It is not only Catholic Schools Week in our Diocese and across the country but it is also National School Choice Week in America. That these two week-long celebrations run concurrently show how parochial schools and school choice are inseparably linked to each other to provide parents with the opportunity to give their children the best education possible. That’s true educational freedom.

In addition to the hundreds of thousands from around the country who will trek to Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life, on Jan. 24, thousands will attend similar events in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and here in New Jersey in Trenton. Before the March for Life in Los Angeles, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels will host a requiem Mass for the millions of unborn who have been aborted since Roe vs. Wade in 1973.

A federal rule change once again allows faith-based adoption agencies to receive federal funding without being required to place children with same-sex couples. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a religious freedom legal group, welcomed the move.

Earlier last year, legislators in Kentucky passed “The Ultra­sound Informed Consent Act.” It requires abortion doctors to present and describe an ultrasound image of an unborn child to a mother seeking an abortion, along with having to play audio of the baby’s heartbeat. Then-Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed the bill into law.

Another new year is less than a week away. For most of us these last few days of the year are times when we reflect on what we accomplished (or not) in 2019 and what positive changes we would like to make in our lives in 2020. We look at Jan. 1, 2020 as a new beginning and as a time for a fresh start in our lives. However, when we look back on the year that is in our rear-view mirror, we find that some problems we vowed to fix in 2019 still remain with us.

Christmas is less than a week away. With celebration of the Birth of Our Savior so close, it is important that Catholics and all Christians take time out from our hectic holiday planning and focus on the real reason for the season. It is amazing how society has secularized the great feast of Jesus Christ’s birth.

Before the Vatican held its annual Christmas tree lighting Dec. 5, Pope Francis expressed hope that the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square will be a reminder to all of what Christmas is truly about. A Nativity scene “is a genuine way of communicating the Gospel, in a world that sometimes seems to be afraid of remembering what Christmas really is, and blots out the Christian signs to only keep those of a banal, commercial imagination,” Pope Francis said.