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As the leaves change color and the air turns crisp, we look forward to the Thanksgiving Holiday, a day of feasting, football and family and a time for us to give thanks for the many blessings we share. Sadly, more than 40 million Americans live in poverty and are not able to afford basic necessities, including housing, utilities, food, clothing and healthcare, let alone Thanksgiving dinner. Last year, in the United States, one of the world’s richest countries, one in every six children lived in poverty and the poverty rate among seniors was near 10 percent.

Recently, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported that suicide rates among American teenagers increased by an alarming 56 percent in the last 10 years. Sadly, suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among Americans ages 10 to 24 and is considered a public health crisis.

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Heb 13:2) The United States and other countries around the globe are facing enormous humanitarian challenges in a world with more than 70 million refugees and displaced people – those who are fleeing violence, persecution and economic instabilities in their native countries – those who are seeking protection, security and a better future.

As part of their ongoing efforts to uphold religious liberty, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has declared Religious Freedom Week to be held June 22-29. It is a time when Catholics are encouraged to reflect, act and pray in support of religious liberty at home and abroad. The theme for this year, Strength in Hope, is taken from the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: “Among the trials of this life they find strength in hope, convinced that ‘the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us’ (Rom. 8:18)” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 4).

“Though gradually, though no one remembers exactly how it happened, the unthinkable becomes tolerable. And then acceptable. And then legal. And then applaudable.” — Joni Eareckson Tada Earlier this month, people were stunned by the news of a 29-year-old mother from northern New Jersey who slit the throat of her 5-day-old newborn son killing him while her family ate dinner in the other room. After calling 911, the young mother was arrested and charged with the baby’s murder.

On Thursday, February 7, 2019, the New Jersey Senate Committee on Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens, held a hearing on the so-called, “Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act” (A 1504/S1072). If passed in both the full Assembly and the full Senate and signed by the governor the measure would decriminalize assisting in a suicide for a particular group of people – those facing a terminal illness of six months or less to live – allowing these patients to request a lethal prescription in order to self-administer medication to end their lives.

On the days surrounding January 22, 2019, many of us traveled to Washington, D.C., and to the Statehouse in Trenton to rally for life in commemoration of the 46th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in our land. We gathered to pray, sadly acknowledging the horrific reality that abortion remains legal in our country, taking the lives of more than 60 million of our brothers and sisters since 1973.