This Week’s Word of Life
“There are international campaigns afoot to reduce birth-rates, sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have; graver still, these methods often fail to respect even the right to life. The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings.”
~ Pope Benedict XVI, “Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace,” Jan. 1, 2009
This Week’s Word of Life
“Abortion – the direct, intentional killing of an unborn girl or boy – is not health care. Abortion robs an innocent child of his or her life, and robs mothers of their peace and happiness. For 25 years, the Project Rachel post-abortion ministry of the Catholic Church has helped women move beyond their grief and remorse after abortion, helping them find peace by accepting God’s forgiveness and by forgiving themselves and others involved in the abortion decision. Abortion funding can only increase the number of dead and grieving.”
~ Cardinal Justin Rigali, Respect Life
Sunday, September 27, 2009
This Week’s Word of Life
“Yet how many children are neither loved, nor welcomed nor respected! How many of them suffer violence and every kind of exploitation by the unscrupulous! May children always be accorded the respect and attention that are due to them: they are the future and the hope of humanity!” ~ Pope Benedict XVI, Greeting at Visit to the
“Holy Infant of Prague,” September 26, 2009
November Word of Life The teaching of the Catholic Church on human sexuality is profound and uplifting. Married love is meant to mirror the love within the Trinity – to be faithful, selfless, permanent, and life-giving. And isn’t that what everyone really wants out of marriage? But rather than encouraging this kind of love, contraceptives have helped many people to engage in sexual relationships that are unfaithful, selfish, short-term, and altered to be sterile, not life giving. Such uncommitted relationships can not only damage our ability to love as we’re meant to love, but very often lead to other problems – contributing to the 3 million unintended pregnancies, over one million abortions, and 19 million new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States each year.
Susan Wills, “Contraception: The Fine Print,” Respect Life Program (2009-2010)
November Word of Life
You matter. That’s why Christ came into your life, cleaned your soul [at baptism], and lit the lamp of faith in your heart. If ever the lamp goes out, he is always there to light it again. And while it shines, it should inspire us to roll back the dark lies of the culture of death and spread the light of Christ’s love to everyone we can, because they matter too.”
Rev. John Bartunek, LC,
“Why You Matter,” Respect Life Program
This Week’s Word of Life
“The bishops’ conference views health care as a basic right belong to all human beings, from conception to natural death…Much- needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda or reversing longstanding current policies against federal abortion mandates and funding. In this sense, we urge you to make this legislation ‘abortion neutral’ by preserving longstanding federal policies that prevent government promotion of abortion and respect conscience rights.”
– Justin Cardinal Rigali, Letter to members of House Energy and Commerce Committee, July 29, 2009
This Week’s Word for Life
Concerns about health care costs and general financial uncertainty, along with serious discussions about limiting health care for the elderly, are currently reaching the boiling point. If assisted suicide is added to the cauldron, the final result can be doubly lethal. Making assisted suicide a medical treatment gives it the status of only one among many options for the treatment of certain conditions. In cost-effectiveness assisted suicide differs in a major way from other treatments. It is extremely affordable and can always be covered by health insurance. The force of economic gravity can lead to increased pressure on patients to request, and doctors to prescribe, assisted suicide.”
Rita Marker, “Assisted Suicide: Death by ‘Choice’? Pamphlet from 2009 Respect Life Program
Week’s “Word of Life”
The social question has become a radically anthropological question, in the sense that it concerns not just how life is conceived but also how it is manipulated, as bio-technology places it increasingly under man's control. In vitro fertilization, embryo research, the possibility of manufacturing clones and human hybrids: all this is now emerging and being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture, which believes it has mastered every mystery, because the origin of life is now within our grasp. We must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the “culture of death” has at its disposal.
—Pope Benedict XVI. Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate), June 29, 2009
This Week’s “Word of Life” A particularly crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics. In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question asserts itself force-fully: is man the product of his own labours or does he depend on God? We are presented with a clear either/ or. Yet the rationality of a self-centered use of technology proves to be irrational because it implies a decisive rejection of meaning and value.
—Pope Benedict XVI. Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate), June 29, 2009
