‘Life is a gift, not an accident,” Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput said in a speech in recent days at the University of Notre Dame. “And the point of a life is to become the kind of fully human person who knows and loves God above everything else, and reflects that love to others. ”

He was reflecting on the life of his 32-year-old niece, who had died the week before of cancer. “Allison had a great life,” he said of her. “She loved well, had a lot of joy, and was very deeply loved. And that love will continue to live in the people who knew her.”

His remarks came a few days after his brother, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life office, wouldn’t let linger a lie about life. Catholics for Choice (CFC), a group that’s been around for a while and making noise in support of legal abortion and expansion, is running an ad campaign called Abortion in Good Faith. The idea they’re running with is that anything goes when it comes to unborn human life: They insist on taxpayer funding of abortion, which would entail repealing the Hyde Amendment, as the Catholic running for vice president has advocated. But contrary to what Tim Kaine might say, you can’t claim Catholic credentials and call for such a thing. And so Cardinal Dolan made clear, writing that “the use of the name ‘Catholic’ as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse.” He quoted Pope Francis’s comments this summer in Poland: “Life must always be welcomed and protected . . . from conception to natural death. All of us are called to respect life and care for it.” (This pope tends to be selectively quoted by the Left. When you hear him out, you get a full picture about human life and freedom. One that is, as it happens, Catholic.)

Dolan continued, saying:

CFC’s extreme ads promote abortion as if it were a social good. But abortion kills the most defenseless among us, harms women, and tears at the heart of families. Pushing for public funding would force all taxpaying Americans to be complicit in the violence of abortion and an industry that puts profit above the well-being of women and children.

One could almost hear Mother Teresa, whom we’ve celebrated as an official saint this month, in the background. Hillary Clinton, first lady at the time, was in the audience when Mother Teresa said in Washington, D.C., in 1994: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

Dolan, in his statement, pointed to polling that shows that the majority of Americans are opposed to the taxpayer funding of abortion, including 45 percent of those who describe themselves as pro-choice.

What he says here of the CFC we can also apply, by extension, to the whole miserable abortion industry and its advocates:

The CFC pits the needs of pregnant women against those of their unborn children. This is a false choice. Catholics and all people of good will are called to love them both. Consider supporting local pregnancy help centers, which do incredible work caring for mothers and children alike in a manner consistent with true social justice and mercy.

This is the better part — when we point to the choices for life and love. This is where we get to be the generous people we are called to be.

‘Abortion poisons everything. There can never be anything “progressive” in killing an unborn child, or standing aside tolerantly while others do it.’ — Archbishop Chaput

We’re living at a time when we must make dramatic decisions about what kind of people we want to be. The future is not a given. Reflecting on our terrible presidential-election choices and the broader disaster of the culture, the archbishop emphasized: “We behaved ourselves into this mess by living a collection of lies.” He said: “Abortion poisons everything. There can never be anything ‘progressive’ in killing an unborn child, or standing aside tolerantly while others do it.”

Chaput offered this challenge: “The task of renewing the life of our nation requires a different kind of people. It demands that we be different people.” He quoted Václav Havel on “the power of the powerless,” consisting “not in clever political strategies but in the simple daily discipline of living within the truth and refusing to lie.”

We lie in the name of toleration and love. We lie to ourselves, we lie in the law. And, needless to say, in politics — and often about life and choice and freedom and even health. Time is now here to begin again and see what’s right in front of our eyes. Maybe start with gratitude for life. It’s the seedbed for good stewardship. And selflessness — a call to duty and honor as daily practices of virtue — could eventually even affect our politics.