The 50th Anniversary Dinner of the Human Life Review was held on November 13th at the Union League Club in New York City. I was privileged to be present. It was a wonderful gathering of friends who all agree that there is nothing more important in life than to do what is right in the sight of God. In our particularly troubled times doing what is right means, first of all, identifying and opposing what is wrong.

Jim and Faith McFadden and their intrepid colleagues entered the fray in 1974 by starting a serious quarterly journal which for five decades has proclaimed this simple truth: It is wrong to kill innocent human beings. It does not matter that a majority of Supreme Court justices  disagreed with this in their 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. We all stand under the judgment of God, and his law forbids us to assert that anyone has a right to kill children in the womb. A nation’s legal system either protects the inviolable right to life of innocent people or it ceases to be a system upholding justice.

It was my honor to offer the dinner invocation. I spoke of the gratitude that we owe to God for the courageous and persistent dedication to the defense of human life evinced by the people who write for the Human Life Review. Being grateful for blessings is a duty incumbent upon us all. We cannot take for granted the fact that some people devote their time and energy to fighting for what is right so that our nation will not perish in the self-destructive violence, hatred, and falsehoods that abortion and euthanasia perpetrate.

The Human Life Review upholds the Culture of Life advocated by St. John Paul II. I am grateful for this. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. The witness to truth offered by the many people who have taken up the pen to write for this journal is a precious gift. They deserve recognition for shedding the light of truth in the encroaching darkness of Western society.

Influencers are all the rage in our social media world. They are usually selling products or prompting people to imitate their behavior. Jim and Faith McFadden used every ounce of their God-given talents to do something infinitely more important. They sought to influence people to love their neighbor. They called upon their fellow citizens to oppose the forces in society that claim freedom means we get to pick those neighbors we will love, and those we will not. No, we must love everyone.

The history of the anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia movement in America includes many brave and courageous figures who deserve our praise and gratitude. I was blessed to know Jim and Faith McFadden, and I am grateful for what they did to teach our nation the true meaning of justice and love for our fellow man.