All Souls Day immediately follows All Saints Day in the Church calendar for good reason: Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, reaffirms our ancient faith as Catholics “in the living communion which exists between us and our brothers and sisters who are in the glory of heaven or are yet being purified after their death” (LG 51).  

Every month should be, in a sense, Respect Life Month. There is no time or circumstance in which respect for life is not demanded of Christians. During October, however, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) asks us to give special attention to the sanctity, dignity and rights of every human person made in the image and likeness of God.