I recently visited a Catholic grade school and met with the students. Since it was October, I asked the students what the month of October is dedicated to. A student immediately responded, “it’s anti-bullying month.”

Now I join all of those who condemn bullying whether it takes place in grade school, high school, or through comments against faithful Catholics witnessing to their faith in the public arena. But October is also known for another theme that simply cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed.

This October is the 41st Respect Life Month. For us as Catholics, each October is a reminder that our Catholic voice is one of the most prominent in our society in calling for protection of innocent human life.

As Catholics, we stand foursquare in favor of life from conception until natural death because we see the image and likeness of God in all of our brothers and sisters and because it is, well, simply the right thing to do, humanly speaking.

As we approach the November election, we must recall once more, as an act of faith and as an act of human reason, that protection of innocent human life is a non-negotiable element of our moral calculations for whom or for what to vote. We don’t hold that because we are Democrat or Republican, red or blue.

We say it because the most basic foundation of our free and democratic society involves respect for the rights of others, based in the most fundamental right of all, the right to be born and enter the world as part of the human family.

When that right is challenged, ignored, or trampled in order to enforce others’ “right to choose,” the very foundations of the democratic system that we hold dear are undermined in a way that cannot long endure.

In short, either we respect each other’s fundamental rights, or we don’t. We cannot pick and choose which fundamental rights we will support on the basis of the strong over the weak, the powerful over those who do not yet have a voice.

Respect Life Month takes on a particular emphasis for us precisely because the election is approaching.

Life is an issue that must be weighed at all levels where we exercise our contribution to society by voting. It is an Illinois issue as well, not just a national issue.

But on the national level, respect for life is intimately linked to our struggle for religious liberty. We simply cannot forget that the Health and Human Services regulations, on behalf of the current administration, will force Catholic institutions as well as Catholic individuals and their businesses to pay for insurance coverage that includes anti-life elements that are contrary to our Catholic faith.

Nothing could be more contrary to respect for life or respect for the freedom of religion.

Lest we think we are waging a losing battle to support life, the New York Times can come to our rescue. The 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University.

Dr. Yamanaka has pioneered a technique by which stem cells can be derived from adult cells, thus eliminating the need to kill embryos, that is, human life.

According to the New York Times, Dr. Yamanaka was motivated to find this technique because he looked at embryos stored for research and told himself that there was a small difference between them and his own daughters. He concluded, “There must be another way.”

Do you remember, not long ago, when we were told that our support for life that led Catholics (and others) to oppose embryonic stem cell research was to oppose the newest and best scientific advances to help humanity?

Faith and reason, God’s Law and what is good for us are never opposed to each other. Let’s be confident about respecting life, in October as well as the other 11 months of the year.