I mentioned in a column two weeks ago that Pope Francis highlighted in his Jan. 1 Message for the World Day of Peace his lament against offences throughout the world against fundamental human rights, including the right to life.

This week, we marked the 41st anniversary of the national tragedy and shame when the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it found in our founding documents the right to take the life of unborn children. It is a good moment for us to examine how Pope Francis is guiding our Catholic response to abortion.

Right from the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis has highlighted his concern for the unborn and for the elderly, that is, for respect for life at its earliest stages and at its final stages.

Speaking to Catholic Medical Associations, the pope said, “Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection. … And every elderly person, even if he is ill or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the ‘culture of waste’ suggests! They cannot be thrown away!”

“A culture of waste,” a culture that discards what is not new or perfect. That seems to sum up one of the Holy Father’s concerns about modern society. And we know it is true.

How often today are items made, especially those related to technology, that are meant to last only a short time. It often costs more to repair than to get a new one. Items then simply become possessions whose usefulness and life span we control.

Fair enough I suppose. It’s the 21st century, after all.

But human life, and especially life in the womb, is not a possession. It is a gift from God, bearing the face of His son, as Pope Francis reminds us.

We know that since 1973, our country has been ripped apart by the abortion debate. Countless politicians, even Catholics who first gained office by supporting this most basic human right, have subsequently “pivoted” to accommodate the pro-abortion argument, often piously asserting their personal conviction for life, but voting to the contrary. Arguments have been acrimonious and unending. And 55 million of us have died before birth as a result.

But Pope Francis, in his Message for the World Day of Peace, has once again chosen not to argue but to remind us of our better selves, called forth by Christ.

His whole message was on the theme of “fraternity,” analyzing what builds up human solidarity, and what tears it down. Respect for the life of each of our brothers and sisters, not insisting upon their physical perfection or upon their timeliness of arrival or whether they are “wanted” is a pillar of love and human solidarity.

To assert, and even worse, to act upon a created right to destroy the most vulnerable cannot be justified either by faith or by reason.

This week, hundreds of thousands of people, many of them our nation’s youth, marched once more in Washington, D.C.,  to support the right to life.

Each year, that march is marked not by angry, in-your-face, slogans, but by happy, smiling, positive young people, many of whom went to Mass the night before, or that very morning. Those young people are a call and a reminder about how to live faith as Pope Francis is urging us to do.

Make January your own “Right to Life Month.” Renew your commitment to respecting human life at all its stages in your heart and in your prayer.

Don’t be shy about talking about it. Heck, even put a bumper sticker on your car. And why not contribute money or time to the pro-life movement? There are so many opportunities.

So many have died. Many mothers and fathers quietly grieve over a decision that they would take back if they could. Others are wondering where to turn for support in their time of crisis. They need to see in us the love and joy and forgiveness of Jesus.

This month reminds us that as Catholics we are pro-life and proudly so.