As you receive this magazine, your fellow Legates are gathering in Dana Point, Calif., for the Annual Legatus Summit.

There’s something unique about babies born in 2007. The government recently reported that those children can expect to live nearly 78 years. That puts the record for average American life expectancy at an all-time high — a record I’m sure will only last until the government releases data for babies born in 2008.

Ethical debate about providing patients with artificial nutrition and hydration has intensified over the past five years since the case of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the brain damaged Florida woman whose husband successfully fought to have her feeding tube removed. Deprived of nutrition and hydration, she died on March 31, 2005 — 13 days after judges ordered the tube removed.

It’s been more than a year now since the 2008 financial crisis spread havoc throughout the global economy. Dozens of books have attempted to explain what went wrong. They identify culprits ranging from Wall Street financiers to ACORN and politicians.

It could turn out to be the Roe v Wade of marriage. Perry v Schwarzenegger opened in a federal district court in San Francisco on Jan. 11, with expectations that the case will eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court. If it does, the high court could decide on the constitutionality nationwide of same-sex “marriage.”

The word “knight” usually conjures up images of fierce battles, shining armor and damsels in distress. Countless knights traveled to the Holy Land during the Crusades to safeguard the holy city of Jerusalem between the 11th and 13th centuries.

When Legate Chuck Ormsby Jr. and his wife Linda started praying about where their parish youth group might expand its outreach to the poor, they agreed to be open to wherever God led them.

Not necessarily. Only God can condemn anyone to hell. It’s not within the Church’s power to do so. The Church’s role is to help people to heaven by teaching and sanctifying. Of course, people can ignore the teaching and reject the grace. If they do and end up in hell, they go there by their own choice.

Born in Poitou, a province in west-central France, Amand became a monk against his family’s wishes at the age of 20. He lived in complete solitude in a cell for the first 15 years of religious life, consuming only bread and water.

One of the things that struck me about the aftermath of 9/11 was how quickly Americans came together. Black and white, young and old, religious and atheist — even conservatives and liberals — all worked together. We left politics aside to mourn and rebuild.