Religious liberty is "the most fundamental freedom in society" and it is at "the very core of the human condition," attorney and scholar Joseph Weiler told an audience at The Catholic University of America in Washington. He gave a lecture at a ceremony where he was presented an honorary doctorate of theology by the university. In attendance were John Garvey, the university's president, and several members of its academic faculty at the March 19 event hosted by the School of Theology and Religious Studies. In honoring Weiler, the university cited his lifelong contributions to the cause of religious liberty, scholarship on Judeo-Christian morality in European public life, and the continued development of Catholic-Jewish relations in the Western world. Weiler, born in 1951 in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the Joseph Straus professor of law at New York University. He also is the European Union Jean Monnet chaired professor, co-director of the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice, and president of the European University Institute, based in Florence, Italy. He is the author of several works relating to law and the European Union. Though he has received many honorary doctorates in his life, Weiler admitted before the ceremony that this one would be his first in theology.

Catholic advocates are pressing Congress to make the needs of poor and vulnerable people a priority as legislators hammer out a federal spending plan for 2016. The advocates told Catholic News Service they want to prevent trillions of dollars in social services spending from disappearing over the next decade as Congress seeks to balance the federal budget and reduce the nation's growing debt. In meetings with individual members of Congress, they have stressed that the needs of hungry, homeless and unemployed people must be the country's highest priority. "There are millions of people at stake in these decisions," said Brian Corbin, senior vice president for social policy at Catholic Charities USA, which has joined with Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in meetings on Capitol Hill. "They all have a name and a face and based on our principle of human dignity, that name and that face and that family, those really are important to making issues of poverty real." In a letter to each member of Congress Feb. 27, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on International Justice and Peace, reiterated that a budget is a moral document and that the needs of poor people are utmost despite the economic pressures posed by "future unsustainable deficits."

Today as we celebrate the feast day of the great St. Joseph, I hope you are not just worrying about getting your Italian cookies. St. Joseph is such a powerful example to us mainstream Catholics and Christians as well. His obedience to God's requests brought the world Jesus Christ. His protection of the Virgin Mary and Jesus caused such a revolution that we are still contemplating the consequences. St. Joseph was a terrific husband and father and now is a great time to look to him for guidance. Look at his conversation with God's messenger in the Bible. Look at how he stood by his commitment to our Mother Mary when there was immense pressure to walk away. Look how he moved his family quickly to safety every time the leaders of the time changed their minds. Look at his influence on Jesus. Now more than ever, when many men are turning their backs on their own children, Joseph is the perfect example of what a real man does. His devotion and allegiance to Mary and Jesus is really quiet shocking in modern day terms. But that is why God chose Joseph, isn't it? God knew that the world would look at Joseph as a role model and so God chose carefully. So today as you pause to consider your life, ask God to give you the wisdom, patience, loyalty, and grace that Joseph was given.

Creators of the luxury Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana sparked global controversy over the weekend after coming out in defense of marriage, saying that children have the right to a mother and a father. “The family is not a fad,” said co-founder of the fashion empire, Stefano Gabbana, in an interview with the Italian Magazine Panorama. “In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.” Sharing this view with his business and former romantic partner, Domenico Dolce told the magazine: “We didn't invent the family ourselves.” Dolce and Gabbana, who are openly gay, went on to say children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, and condemned the use of artificial means of conception, such as In-vitro fertilization. The Italian-born fashion duo also spoke out against the use of surrogate mothers by gay couples who are seeking to have a child, referring to practice as “wombs for rent.” Dolce referred to those conceived through artificial means as “chemical children: synthetic children. Uterus' for rent, semen chosen from a catalog. And later you go and explain to these children who the mother is.” To procreate should be an “act of love,” Dolce continued, adding that psychologists today are not ready to come face to face with the effects of “these experiments.” “We, a gay couple, say no to gay adoptions. Enough chemical children and wombs for rent. Children should have a mother and a father,” the pair told the magazine. Published Mar. 12, the remarks spurred public outcry from the gay community and it supporters, prompting musician Elton John and other public figures to boycott the fashion designers. In response, Dolce & Gabbana released a statement Sunday saying they meant no offense with their remarks. This is not the first time the pair has expressed their opposition to gay marriage, having made their position known during a 2013 interview with the Telegraph. “I don't believe in gay marriage,” said Dolce, who told the U.K. newspaper he was a practicing Catholic. Dolce and Gabbana are not the first openly gay public figures to express opposition to gay marriage or parenthood. In a 2012 interview with the Sunday Times, British actor Rupert Everett is quoted as saying he “can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads.” It's not unheard of for European men and women living homosexual lifestyles to openly oppose same-sex marriage. Recent legislation in France to legalize gay marriage sparked massive protests throughout the country, with many gay men and women joining the debate to defend traditional marriage.

You have probably heard about their work with charitable organizations and the international councils that they've founded across the globe. You may have benefited from their life insurance program, or know someone who belongs to the fraternal organization. But this year, they have been recognized as one of the world's most ethical companies for the second consecutive year. The Knights of Columbus have been honored by the Ethisphere Institute as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company, acknowledged for their exceptional performance in business transparency, ethics, and sustainability. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Knights of Columbus for this extraordinary achievement," Timothy Erblich, CEO of Ethisphere, stated March 9. Ethisphere is a leading global herald for ethical business practices, known for recognizing organizations that advance ethical conduct and transparency in their work operations. In an effort to recognize businesses of principal, Ethisphere developed a comprehensive program which assesses companies for their performance based on five categories: ethics and compliance, corporate citizenship and responsibility, culture of ethics, governance, and leadership, innovation, and reputation. With these considerations, Ethisphere's high-level advisory panel reviews the vetted businesses and rates their core ethics. Every year, they announce the organizations that meet these standards and recognize them as global leaders in ethical business practices. For the second year in a row, the Knights of Columbus were recognized as a Ethisphere's 2015 World's Most Ethical Company, one of only four companies in the Life Insurance category that were honored. "For more than 130 years, the Knights of Columbus have been protecting the financial future of Catholic families and providing charity to those on the margins of society," stated Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus. According to the Ethisphere Institute, the Knights of Columbus have one of the highest rated life insurance programs in North America, making them one of the top-notch contenders in the world for their provided services. The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal organization, present in 15,000 councils around the world. Because of their charitable work across the globe, the Ethisphere Institute considers this year's recognition as a sign of their commitment to positively impact society, making them one of the leading ethical stakeholders globally. How do they do it? Anderson attributes the Knights of Columbus' success to foundational Catholic values and their commitment to lending a helping hand. "That founding principal of helping those in need is at work in every aspect of our business, guiding our corporate governance, our professional agency force, our investments, and our day-to-day business operations," Anderson stated, noting that Catholic principals are the primary guide to their business model.

Little white crosses scattered before a statue of the Holy Family make up a poignant memorial called the Cemetery for Aborted Children in South Korea. Home to about 15 million Christians, South Korea suffers the highest rate of abortion in the world. During his trip to the country last August, Pope Francis visited the site in part to clear up the media's "misunderstanding of his social agenda," said Vatican journalist and Boston Globe associate editor John L. Allen Jr. Some media outlets had accused the pope of downplaying the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage to gain secular popularity. According to Allen, the pope's agenda is none other than mercy -- a value he hopes will permeate church leadership at every level. In a spirited talk before the National Association of Catholic Chaplains March 9, Allen described the visit as one of many examples of the pope's belief that "mercy" and "service" should define church leadership, not "power" and "authority." Allen added that the pope is a "mastermind" at reminding us that "we must be conscious of those in most need of God's loving mercy." Paraphrasing the pope, Allen said, "We should never get so caught up in pastoral planning that we become blind to the people." He also paraphrased Pope Francis in saying "we need pastors who carry the smell of their sheep" because of how close they are to their flock.

Two-month-old Gabriel Caicedo is one of 78 children who have been saved by a new medical protocol being used to reverse the effects of the RU-486 abortion regimen in its early stages. The baby is "the light of our life," said his father, Chris Caicedo. He and Gabriel's mother, Andrea Minichini, told their story at a Feb. 23 news conference held by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life to call attention to a RU-486 reversal kit available to physicians. The RU-486 medical abortion procedure is a two-day regimen used to terminate early pregnancies by blocking the hormone progesterone needed to sustain a pregnancy. It involves two types of medication -- RU-486 itself, which is mifepristone, and a prostaglandin, known as misoprostol, that stimulates uterine contractions, and taken two days later to expel the fetus. At the news conference, association officials and Father Pavone said the reversal kits work to counteract the "abortion pill" by increasing the levels of progesterone in the mother's body. The RU-486 protocol, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, involves three visits to a physician's office over the course of two weeks and has been known to cause complications ranging from stomach pain and bleeding to death resulting from sepsis. According to the FDA's website, despite the risks associated with it, many women go through with the protocol but end up having a surgical abortion because of medical abortion treatment failures. "It's not a 'quick and easy process,'" said Dr. Mary L. Davenport, a former president of the obstetrician association. Besides the 20 percent risk that a woman will have a serious complication such as blood loss, severe infection or ectopic pregnancy, "the woman also has the guilt of knowing that she terminated her pregnancy," she told reporters. In her comments at the news conference, Minichini, recounted her experience in a Planned Parenthood exam room last summer. Through tears of pain and uncertainty, she told the nurses that she wanted to have an abortion. After being informed of the rate of her unborn son's heartbeat, she said, she couldn't bring herself to swallow the large, white pill in her hand. But she was repeatedly chided by the supervising doctor, she said, and so gave in and took the pill. "I knew immediately after I swallowed the pill that I had made a bad decision," Minichini said. "I even tried throwing up, but nothing happened." At a hospital in New Jersey, she was told that her child would be deformed and disabled if she didn't take the second pill in the RU-486 procedure. "I was just at an end," she said. "I didn't have any hope, so I just started Googling," before finding a hotline number that put her in touch with a physician who could reverse the medical abortion. Gabriel David Caicedo was born Dec. 31, 2014, weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. Despite what his mother was told back in May, Gabriel is an extremely healthy and energetic child.

Don't use peer pressure, greed or laziness as an excuse to chase after false gods and become a wildly successful failure, Pope Francis said. Slow down, reflect and choose the path that takes you closer to God and your loved ones, he said during a recent morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. One mistake in life, he said, is "always seeking one's own success, one's own benefit without thinking about the Lord, without thinking about one's family," he said. Vatican Radio and L'Osservatore Romano released excerpts from his homily, which examined the day's first reading from Deuteronomy, in which Moses sets before the people "life and prosperity, death and doom," and encourages them to choose life by following the Lord. Christians are still faced with the same difficult choice every day, the pope said, "to choose between God and the other gods -- those that have no power to give us anything, just tiny little what-nots that are fleeting." It is not easy to make the right choice because "we always have this habit of following the crowd a little." So our work begins. How does this look in the USA where we have been told that more is always better? I have taken the first step to simplify my life. Any clothes or shoes I haven't worn in six months, I donate to a local St. Vincent de Paul store. I am looking more closely at how I spend my money. I am looking to increase my donations to my church and other Catholic charities. It is the Franciscan model that is most helpful in this habit-changing exercise. I hope your Lenten journey is filled with opportunities for the Holy Spirit to grow in you.