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One of the greatest gifts to our health care system in the United States is the many faith-based hospitals we have. Faith-based hospitals’ strong religious heritage drives them to provide compassionate care to people of all faiths and backgrounds — and their wellness services go beyond just providing medical care.

In this edition of The Beacon, we salute the Class of 2017 in a special 16-page section. By now, the graduates’ heads are filled with the words of wisdom their classmates, teachers and commencement speakers have shared with them. Everything that can be said has been said, or so it seems. So our message to the Class of 2017 consists of just three words. “Never give up!”

Leaks. They emanate from our nation’s capital by the boatload in attempts to sink the ship of state. Rarely does a leak provide good news. But one last week strengthens religious liberty in our nation. This leak did not make headlines in the secular media outlets like all the others, but it needs to be broadcast loud and clear.

“Thank you, thank you. I won’t forget what you said.” With those words, President Trump concluded his private meeting with Pope Francis on the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, May 24. Afterward, the President tweeted: “Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue peace in our world.”

Five states have assisted-suicide laws, while several others, including New Jersey, are examining such legislation.Supporters argue that assisted suicide gives the terminally ill a “death with dignity.” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, debunked that argument in an address earlier this month to the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute in St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica in Toronto. He said assisted suicide is “deceptively described as ‘aid in dying.’ This is a fabricated expression whose only rhetorical function is to conceal the very nature of the death-dealing action it describes.”

As Catholic colleges across the nation hold commencement exercises this month, questions continue to be raised as to whether some of them are truly committed to providing a faithful Catholic education, based on speakers invited to campus, those they select for awards and honorary degrees and those chosen to give commencement addresses.

After leading a ceremony for the National Day of Prayer May 4, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on religious freedom that provided a big win to the Little Sisters of the Poor. During the White House ceremony, Trump told Little Sisters of the Poor there: “Your long ordeal will soon be over.” The sisters were among the religious groups that challenged the Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It’s non-negotiable. That’s what Tom Perez, the new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said last week about the party’s support for abortion on demand in the platform of the party. And, he added, all Democrats better be in lock-step with it or they will not gain the party’s support.

It might have gone unnoticed because it happened on Holy Thursday, April 13, but pro-life leaders certainly did not miss its significance. It was on that date that President Trump signed a repeal of what pro-lifers called President Obama’s “parting gift to the abortion industry.”

When Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court last week, religious freedom advocates cheered. “As Catholics, we welcome a judge whose record adheres to the Constitutional right to free exercise of religion without government bullying and whose scholarship affirms the inherent dignity in all people,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association.

On Good Friday, April 14, in the Paterson Diocese and across our nation, the Pontifical Good Friday Collection is to be taken up in every parish in the United States to support ministries and good works in the Holy Land. It will also help to provide humanitarian aid to Christians and others who have been displaced by the war in Syria.

Gov. Chris Christie’s 2018 budget is not kind when it comes to aid for non-public schools. It proposes a cut of $9 million from non-public school aid, reducing it from $95.5 million to $86.5 million. Included in the cuts are the elimination of the entire Non-public School Security Program, which had been funded at $50 per student and the elimination of increases in nonpublic school nursing services and technology aid.

Of all Marian apparitions, those relating to Our Lady of Fatima are among the most famous. On May 13, 1917, siblings Francisco, 9, and Jacinta, 7, and their cousin, 10-year-old Lucia, took their sheep to graze near the Portuguese town of Fatima when they saw a figure of a woman dressed in white and holding a rosary.

It’s been a year since the U.S. government declared that Christians, Yazidis and other religious groups in Iraq and Syria were victims of an ongoing genocide committed by ISIS, the Islamic State terrorist organization. At that time, it was seen as a critical first step to end religious persecution, but to this day the attacks continue almost unabated.

Every week, faithfully for 50 years, there has been an edition of The Beacon published to share the Good News with the people of God in the Diocese of Paterson. For five decades, The Beacon has been the official source of this news for the Diocese of Paterson. We have shared in its mission of evangelization by providing news, information, education, a forum for discussion and guidance in matters of faith, morals and spiritual life through our pages.

During his campaign, Donald Trump said he would make school choice a priority in his administration. So it was significant that when President Trump chose to make his first visit to a school as our nation’s leader, it was to a Catholic school — St. Andrew School in Florida. There March 3, he and Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education who is a proponent of school choice, visited classrooms, and meet with parents, teachers and administrators.

As Lent begins, so does Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) annual rice bowl initiative, whose theme this Lent is to promote a “culture of encounter.” Catholics who participate in it during Lent pray, fast, and give alms to CRS in solidarity with each other and with other needy families throughout the world.

On the feast day of St. Francis deSales, patron of writers, editors and communicators, Pope Francis condemned the tendency for media to focus on “bad news,” saying journalists, while being accurate, must also offer a message of hope.

Health care is one of the most important yet controversial issues facing Congress this year. Some feel that Obamacare appears to be dead on arrival with this Congress; while others say that major pieces of it will be subject to being gutted. No matter what happens to Obamacare, a very critical piece of legislation, the Conscience Protection Act, needs to be part of the new health care discussion.

Protestants in Congress have dropped from 75 percent in 1961 to 56 percent today, while the Catholics in Congress jumped from 19 percent to 31 percent in the same time frame.