Thanksgiving is here. The time to give thanks in an intentional way —in silent prayer and/or before the family feast and/or in a sanctuary service and/or in a public square—has arrived. We give thanks to God, the source of all blessings—graces acknowledged and unacknowledged, recognized and not. Though often overlooked, two gifts from God can and should be remembered by us this season, and thanks offered up for them.

First, we can and should give thanks to God for the founders, and the founding, of the United States of America. We trust that the founders, though far from perfect in their thinking and believing and living, were providentially guided in laying the foundation of our nation.

This past September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a notable speech in Jerusalem. “The United States,” he observed, “was founded on a powerful idea, defined not by geography, ethnicity, or anything else. It was founded on the very powerful principle that the rights of mankind come from their creator.”

Or, as the Declaration of Independence clearly asserts: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Secretary Rubio went on to describe the American founding in greater detail:

 It was here [in Jerusalem] that God fulfilled his promise to his people. It was here that the lessons that formed the base rock and the foundations of our [American] laws, of the principles upon which we decide what is right and what is wrong, was built upon. If you think about the things that today we, in civilized societies, use as rules to govern us, these things did not come because good people wrote them. They came because they were rooted in ancient teachings. For deep inside of us, we all know that we were created for a purpose and for a reason, that our dignity comes from our creator.

According to Secretary Rubio, the United States fundamentally embraces generally agreed upon theological, moral, and political claims, many of which are derived from the Bible. Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik, of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, supports Secretary Rubio and proposes that “at its core, America is a covenantal nation, defined by a set of principles.” And with a “creedal nature.” (“Marco Rubio in the City of David,” Commentary, November 2025)

The Biblical principles (complemented with contributions from the Enlightenment) are baked into the nation’s founding. We the People will remember them at times; forget them; recall them again. But they will never go away, because they have been with us from the beginning—they are in our historical, national DNA.

These principles encourage, actually command us to acknowledge and respect the gift of every human life—without exception. Every unborn child. Every chronically ill young adult. Every severely injured soldier. Every isolated, dying senior. Even every scoundrel and lawbreaker. These principles urge us to encourage others to see that oft forgotten and despised people are still marked by the image of their Creator.

And second, we can and should give thanks to God for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Catholics, Protestants, the Orthodox, Jews, and all who respect the gift that is every human life should offer thanks to God for American Catholicism.

This is why: Confronted by a hostile culture including prestigious newspapers and magazines, top colleges and universities, popular movies and music, powerful politicians and celebrities that advocated for the legality—and even the goodness—of abortion before as well as after the United States Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the Catholic Church alone (and particularly its bishops and popes) stood up strongly for life.

The Catholic Church’s witness for life included its outreach to Christians of other denominations, to Jews, and to all others to join the pro-life movement. Ask yourself: If not for the Catholic Church in the United States standing up for life from 1973 to the present, where would America’s pro-life cause be today? Probably nowhere.

So, this Thanksgiving Day, and during the days that follow, thank God for many things. But remember to include thanks for our nation’s founding and for the Catholic Church—both of which have encouraged Americans to rise up and stand with the most vulnerable people in our time and place; to lean in and protect them from threats that would destroy them.

America’s founding principles and Catholic teachings do not just inform us. They also form us. And motivate us to resist contemporary threats to innocent lives, beginning with children in the womb.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Give more thanks than one day can contain.