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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.

On the surface, the Equality Act, which was reintroduced in Congress this month and would add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to existing protections for race, color, national origin, sex, disability and religion, seems innocuous enough to many Americans. However, in a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, three bishops warned that while the proposed Equality Act purports to address issues of discrimination, it would actually create new problems and threaten fundamental freedoms.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently gave the movie, “Unplanned,” which will open in theaters March 29, an R-rating. According to the MPAA, “an R-rated film may depict adult activity, hard language, intense graphic or persistent violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements. Parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously. Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated films unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian.”

On March 1, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Educa­tion Betsy DeVos, along with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), unveiled Education Freedom Schol­arships (EFS), the Trump Administration’s key proposal to expand and improve the education options available to students across the country.

In the last week, the pro-life movement gained some ground in one area but in another lost ground. A victory for life came when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Trump Administration, as promised, is restoring Title X family planning regulations to prohibit grantees from co-locating with abortion clinics, or from referring clients for abortion. “The Protect Life Rule” requires clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.

Blessed John Henry Newman, a Roman Catholic cardinal, scholar, and founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England, will soon be a saint. Pope Francis approved his canonization on Feb. 13, after the Holy Father signed off on a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Newman, who was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

An investigative report, conducted by a private detective agency, into the interaction last month between Coving­ton Catholic high school students and a Native American man has exonerated the students, according to the Diocese of Covington, Ky. The report was released nearly a month after controversy first erupted following an edited video emerging on Twitter showing what appeared to be a confrontation between a Native American elderly man with a drum — later identified as activist Nathan Phillips — and a group of students from Covington Catholic.

What a contrast in emotions! In President Trump’s State of the Union address last week, he honored the important role women play in society, pointing to the fact that there are more women serving in Congress now than at any time in the nation’s history.

No sooner had the ink dried on Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signing an abortion bill into law, effectively giving license to kill a child up to the moment of birth, than other states followed suit on such insanity. Last week, Democrats in the Virginia statehouse presented a bill to repeal restrictions on abortion, allowing terminations up until the moment of birth. Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran introduced the Repeal Act, which would allow a doctor to perform an abortion when a woman is dilating, moments before birth. It received support from Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a pediatrician, no less. Thankfully, the rest of the delegates came to their senses, and the measure failed to be voted out of subcommittee.

A new poll released on the eve of the annual March for Life finds that millennials, the largest group of American voters, are not in lock step with politicians on abortion on demand and their support of Roe v. Wade. Long considered a top issue for the younger generation, a Students for Life poll found that millennials are equally divided, 39 percent to 39 percent, in their support and opposition to abortion.