Action Alert
These 10 States Urgently Need Your Attention
This November, 10 states will feature ballot measures that seek to enshrine abortion into their state constitution.
ALL has developed FREE materials with detailed and thoroughly researched information on WHAT each state’s ballot measure says and WHY Catholics have the obligation to vote against them.
Week in Review
ALL Executive Vice President Hugh Brown Combines Pro-Life Work with Football
“Football is the vehicle, Christ is the destination” at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia. According to Warriors head coach Hugh Brown, whose day job is executive vice president at American Life League, it’s a way of life that transforms lives. Along the way, he has stopped a dispirited youth from dropping out of school, helped a trio of brothers make their late mother’s wish a reality, and long ago, he unknowingly saved a gifted football player from being aborted by his teenage mom.
American Life League is known for an uncompromising view of the sanctity of life. Hugh Brown applies that philosophy to his coaching style. As the son of American Life League cofounder Judie Brown, Hugh holds a pro-life worldview that informs everything he does. Brown’s goal is to help mentor good men and turn them into faithful Catholic and Christian husbands and fathers.
Brown, who helped launch the Catholic high school, founded St. Michael’s football program in 2017 and assumed the reins as head coach in the spring of 2018. It was not long after that, Brown recalled, that he received a phone call. The call came from the grandparents of a successful and accomplished football player at a Division I university. What they told him stopped Brown in his tracks.
Flashback 35 years. Brown, a young high school underclassman, was assigned to present a persuasive speech. So the son of Judie Brown gave a pro-life talk, exposing the truth about abortion—with photographs. At the time, Brown was not aware that his words were heard by a pregnant teenager—a girl whose parents had decided that she should get an abortion. Armed with Hugh Brown’s information, that young lady went to her parents and fought for the life of her child.
That child grew up to be a stellar football player at a Division I university and the light of his grandparents’ lives.
Brown hopes that one day he will be able to meet the young man who shares his passion for football and whose preborn life he helped save.
Brown seeks to instill the kind of faith that equips players to withstand life’s storms. The team begins or ends each workout, practice, and game with prayer. Team life includes Masses, character classes, a team chaplain, and a Christian “life coach.” Coaches and players participate in community service and are held to a high standard of Christian witness and accountability, both on and off the field.
St. Michael’s football team is composed of 28 players—43 percent of the small Catholic high school. The Warriors could easily be dubbed “the little team that could.”
In 2018, the Warriors took the conference championship, and they have been state champs in their division twice. In 2021 Coach Brown and Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic High School were inducted into the Sports Faith International Hall of Fame after being nominated by the McCaskey family, owners of the NFL’s Chicago Bears.
Brown has a 100 percent graduation rate among his players, and St. Michael’s football athletes carry an average team GPA of 3.1.
As Brown spends much of his day heading up the national pro-life education operations at American Life League, he is conscious of the opportunity he has to model those values to the boys he coaches.
“Being pro-life comes from understanding and living your faith,” shared Brown. He offered the example of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who has received national attention for his staunch proclamation of Catholic faith and pro-life values. “Butker is a positive role model I can hold up to my players,” he said.
Brown spoke about one of his team members, with a challenging home life, whose has suffered some serious injuries.
“As an 18-year-old football player, he thinks life is not fair,” explained Brown. “And he’s right, life isn’t fair, but as a result of all this, his faith can grow stronger. God is building him up. He took a full year to recover from his last injury. He was going to drop out of high school and hang out on the street with friends, but he’s actually learned a lesson in facing adversity. He’s overcoming it. He’s a work in progress. Like other team members who have faced some tough stuff, he’s learning day by day to value life.”
The Warriors also carried one another through tragedy when the “team mom”—the mother of two players on the team and one former Warrior—was tragically killed in an accident four days before the championship game. Sorrow overwhelmed the team. The woman who died had told Brown the previous year that her dream was to “see my three boys on the same field at the same time,” even though she realized that their age separation made that impossible. Brown took the unusual proposal to the league founder, who agreed to allow the older, alumni son to take the field with his brothers in honor of their mother. Brown shared this news in person with the family, and he stated that the joy that arose in that moment “was like literally watching the shadow of death depart their home.” Against a team that had earlier that season defeated the Warriors by 30 points, the Warriors stood strong and won the championship game in memory of the dearly departed mother.
Brown is still deeply moved when he relates the story. He knows that it is part of what makes his football team different, like family. After all, Christ is the destination, Brown is just the coach.
Diocese of Cincinnati Cuts Ties with Girl Scouts USA
For decades, many pro-life organizations, including American Life League, have investigated Girl Scouts USA, only to find increasing evidence as to why the organization is not worthy of support from pro-lifers. With continuous ties to Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, its promotion of perverted sex education among young teenagers, and its acceptance of transgender ideology for children, Girl Scouts USA does not represent the values of pro-life Christians.
Articulating this point, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati released a letter on Monday, October 28, 2024, ordering the end to all partnerships between the archdiocese and the Girl Scouts USA and its local chapters. Archbishop Schnurr highlighted the main reason for this decision, writing:
Unfortunately, in recent years, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) has embraced and promoted an impoverished worldview regarding gender and sexuality. Through some of their activities, resources, badges and awards, Girl Scouts – including the local chapter, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio – has contributed to normalizing a sexual and gender ideology contrary to the Catholic understanding of the human person made male and female in the image and likeness of God. Our greatest responsibility as the Catholic Church is fidelity to the Gospel and sharing the saving mission of Christ. It is therefore essential that all youth programs at our parishes and schools affirm virtues and values consistent with the teaching of Jesus Christ. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati cannot partner with an organization that, from its highest level, advocates ideas which the Church considers false and harmful. (emphasis added)
Archbishop Schnurr goes on to list his specific orders for all diocesan campuses in Cincinnati going forward, which include: “(1) convert to an American Heritage Girls troop; (2) find another location at which to meet; or (3) disband. In the meantime, no new Girl Scout troops may be established, and Girl Scouts may not be featured or promoted as an official ministry or extracurricular activity of any Catholic parish or school in the archdiocese.”
We commend Archbishop Schnurr for his courage and commitment to the truth in making this decision, and we hope this serves as an example to other dioceses to investigate their own partnerships with the Girl Scouts.
To read an updated report on the Girl Scouts and to learn more about American Heritage Girls, please visit and share ALL’s Charity Watchlist and statement on these organizations.
ALL in the News
ALL’s Hugh Brown was featured in a LifeSiteNews story about his work in the pro-life movement and how he connects it with his role as a high school football coach.
ALL’s Charity Watchlist sounded the alarm on red-listed charities that support breast cancer. Katie Brown was a guest on Driving Home the Faith to discuss the charities and what donors should look out for. Listen to the show here.
Susan Ciancio, editor of Celebrate Life Magazine and director of the Culture of Life Studies Program—ALL’s pre-K-12 pro-life education program—wrote an article about joyful suffering. It was featured in Catholic World Report. She also wrote an article about CLSP’s newest lesson Living the Golden Rule.
Twice a week, Judie’s commentaries are distributed to an expansive media list. The list contains over 100 media outlets such as Fox News, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Caller, among others. Judie’s commentaries are each featured on the front page of ALL.org.
Pro-Life Education
Culture of Life Studies Program
Living the Golden Rule: In this lesson, first and second grade students will learn about Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the Golden Rule, where Jesus instructs us to “do to others as you would have them do to you.” This one-class lesson helps children see the importance of treating people with respect, of speaking kindly, and of doing acts of kindness for others. Living the Golden Rule reminds students that all people are created in the image and likeness of God and that all deserve respect and love. ORDER HERE
ALL’s Education Materials
You can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion. This bumper sticker says it all. Though some politicians try to teach otherwise, we know that the tenets of our faith tell us that we “shall not kill.” Abortion kills. You can proclaim this truth with this sticker that’s bound to turn heads and open eyes. Buy in bulk and share! SHOP NOW
Pro-Life Social Media
PRIEST’S HOMILY: You Cannot Be Catholic and Divorce Your Faith from Your Political Views
“He should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” – James 5:20
This instruction from the letter of St. James ought to motivate priests and bishops into winning souls for Christ. Sadly, it often feels like clergy aren’t willing to win souls so much as to win favors from their flock. They don’t want to upset some people, they fear.
Fr. Joseph Morgan is not one of those priests. Fr. Morgan is a priest of the Fathers of Mercy, and his October 13 homily instructs his listeners on the evils inherent to specific parties and association, namely, the Democratic party. The below excerpt taken from his 17-minute homily explains the errors of modern Catholic thinking regarding the intersection of faith and politics.
"You CANNOT be a practicing Catholic and be part of the current democratic party"
— 👑💥 Serenity 💥👑 (@polishprincessh) October 28, 2024
Pastors, now is not the time to be neutral. When you say, “I don’t want to get political,” it’s like saying “I don’t want to take a stand for righteousness.” pic.twitter.com/Rn742Un3u6
Exactly right.
— MermaidMoose (@ann_wileyfamily) October 29, 2024
If we do not stand against evil, we are standing aside for it.
Finally a priest talking about it
— Cynthia Nielsen (@nie50974) October 29, 2024
This type of frank, moral honesty from the pulpit is refreshing. Well said, Father Joe.
— Anquiro (@Anquiroveritas) October 30, 2024
I wish more Catholic Priests would be this clear about the faith and morality
— Kitten (@kit3588) October 29, 2024
We need more brave priests.
— Tosca Austen (@ToscaAusten) October 30, 2024
