Happy Birthday, President Reagan!

Happy Birthday, President Reagan!

Yes, the late, and great, President Ronald Reagan, born this day, February 6, in 1911: Defender of Preborn Babies, Liberator of the Captive Nations, Returner of the Name of God to American Public Discourse, Restorer of Americans' Love of Country and Eloquent Articulator of Our American Republic's Founding Principles of Individual Liberty and Limited Government.

No one had better criticize President Reagan around Ole Quintero. He saved the lives of millions of babies here and abroad with his pro-life policies and appointments, his Mexico City Policy and the encouragement and inspiration he gave to a generation of pro-life activists.

President Reagan brought down the Evil Empire -- by taking the unprecedented step of calling the USSR evil; by liberating Grenada and thus becoming the first U.S. President to take back territory from Reds; by showing the Soviet rulers he would never, ever back down; by giving pro-liberty speeches and issuing pro-liberty messages and proclamations, many of which made their way into the Captive Nations and gave consolation and hope to the oppressed, even to prisoners of conscience inside the Gulag slave labor camps; by explaining how liberty works, even to an audience of top Soviet students in Moscow; by traveling to the very doorstep of Soviet tyranny in Berlin and challenging Gorbachev to "open this gate" and to "tear down this wall;" and by observing 1988 as the thousandth anniversary of Christianity in what are today Russia and Ukraine with statements of faith and freedom that reached behind the Iron Curtain.

With these steps and others, President Reagan set in motion the crumbling of the Evil Empire and the freeing of hundreds of millions of oppressed people -- including millions of our persecuted fellow Catholics, who became free to restore their priesthood, to open their churches and to attend Mass in public for the first time in their lifetimes.

Okay, you can see I'm a fan of President Reagan and I've closely studied his words and deeds.

President Reagan and Pope John Paul II were soul-mates in their love of God, faith and freedom.

President Reagan brought back mention of God in American political discourse, and it was no act; for example, his dignified closings of speeches and statements with "God bless you, and God bless America" gave encouragement to liberty-lovers and consternation to atheistic secularists.

President Reagan also loved America, and the God-given rights and individual liberty that are at her heart, and her defenders, the heroic U.S. military and the Americans he called "quiet heroes," those who live their lives by doing their duty to God, faith, family and freedom.

Yes, Happy Birthday, President Reagan! May we never forget you, and may your spirit forever animate America's young people with the love of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

God bless you, and God bless America.