August 22-23, 2026
Dear parishioners,
In addition to his regular responsibilities pertaining to teaching, governance, and sanctification within our diocese, Bishop Thomas has also been working diligently in his role as the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Indeed, in 2026 alone, his attention to congressional issues has been a reminder of the current events we should be keeping in our prayers. As we know, there is always something more for us to pray for when it comes to the legal protection of life in all its stages!
In January of this year, Bishop Thomas and Bishop David O’Connell wrote to Congress on behalf of the USCCB, expressing the Conference’s support of the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act (H.R.6359). This act was introduced in the House of Representatives in December and its stated purpose is that it “requires each institution of higher education (IHE) that participates in federal student aid programs to provide certain information to prospective and enrolled students on the rights and resources for pregnant students to carry a baby to term or students who may become pregnant while enrolled at the IHE to carry a baby to term.” In their letter, the bishops noted that, “No woman should ever feel pressured to end the life of her unborn child because she feels abandoned and unsupported. This modest but hopeful legislation will help students to know that they have support and real options available to them.” The bill passed in the House, and is still making its way through the Senate. Please pray for its eventual passage!
In April of this year, Bishop Thomas again wrote to Congress. This time, he was writing in support of the proposed Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act (S. 4066/H.R. 7902). The background: immediately after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enabled the establishment of a nationwide mail-order abortion industry, which mails abortion pills to those seeking them. The proposed SWCA Act would withdraw the FDA’s approval of mifepristone pills for abortions and make labeling the drug for that purpose unlawful. It would also provide a legal remedy for those injured by the drug to pursue claims against its manufacturers. Once again, please offer prayers that this bill will be approved and signed into law!
Also in April, Bishop Thomas, along with two other bishops, wrote to Congress to express the US bishops’ opposition to the HOPE With Fertility Services Act (H.R. 8119). This proposed legislation would impose a new federal insurance mandate to cover such life-ending technologies and procedures such as in vitro fertilization. As the bishops state in their letter, “The profound desire of couples to have children is both good and natural. When this is frustrated by an experience of infertility, holistic and individualized restorative approaches to fertility care exist that can often help identify and successfully address the root causes… IVF in contrast, especially as practiced in the United States, represents a relatively unregulated industry that creates hundreds of thousands or even millions of preborn children who will be interminably frozen, expended in attempts to place them within a mother, or discarded and killed (often in a selective, eugenic manner).” While more could be said about IVF and about the healthy and holistic alternative approaches to treating infertility, please pray that this bill does not pass!
In May, Bishop Thomas once again wrote to Congress to express the U.S. Bishops’ support for the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (S.4329/H.R. 343). This legislation would amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) from providing federal family planning grants to entities that perform abortions, or that provide funds to other entities that perform abortions. This legislation would therefore stop major abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funding. I do not think this one needs any more explanation. Of course, I am going to repeat what I have said above: please pray for the passing of this legislation!
Blessings,
Fr. Ammanniti
