RESPECT LIFE MINISTRY

Fetus at 8 weeks   Fetus at 20 weeks
Images © Life Issues Institute

"The

Human

Person is

Central,

the

Clearest

Reflection

of God

Among

Us."

U.S. Catholic Bishops A Century of Social Teaching

If, as it is said, cartoons mirror social attitudes, a recent cartoon provides a jarring reflection. A family, seated before a television set, is deciding what show to watch. The father rattles off their choices - "a live execution on public TV, a mercy killing on Channel Two, an abortion on Channel Seven." Or, he suggests, they can "spend the evening playing Nazi Death Camp Nintendo!"
Violence and death. They seem to confront us at every turn. Murder, rape, and robbery threaten the fabric of our communitites.
Other violence has become so ingrained and pervasive that we don't see the brutality that victimizes people and nations - social and economic deprivation, hunger, discrimination, and greed. We broadcast tantalizing images of violent entertainment around the globe via satellite. We watch a televised war and risk being blinded to the violence, death, and destruction of modern armed conflict.
Acceptance of false values and violence numbs our sensitivity to the dignity of human life and ultimately causes human life itself to be devalued.

Abortion

Abortion receives sympathetic media attention. Yet abortion is the deliberate and violent destruction of a living human being by suction, dismemberment, or lethal chemical. Abortion does violence to women who undergo it and to the morale of medical staffs; most doctors dislike performing abortions. But we don't see the violence, and those who speak the truth about it are often dismissed as fanatics.
We talk about the "issue" of abortion, but what passes for public discussion is filled with evasions and euphemisms - "reproductive rights," "freedom to choose."
The words of the debate are deceptive. Abortion is demanded as a right - but no one has a right to kill another. The problems that lead many women to have abortions challenge us as a society to demand solutions that are humane, merciful, and loving. To destroy an unborn child is not humane. It is not merciful. It is not loving.

Assisted Suicide

When it is our time to die, we want to do so free of pain, surrounded by those who love us. We do not want to burden others or endure the indignities that even beneficial medical technologies can cause. We are confused by the rapid advances in medical technology and even ambivalent about their use.
Right-to-die organizations have capitalized on people's confusion and fears, and the agenda they advance increasingly receives sympathetic coverage in professional journals and the media.
However, we must not let our confusion and ambivalence lead us to accept assisted suicide as legitimate. Assisted suicide means administering lethal overdoses or otherwise causing to die those whose lives are judged "useless" or lacking in "quality". To cause another person to die intentionally is not an act of mercy as some insist. For more information on this, go to www.pccef.org.

Faith in Practice

As Christians, we are called to defend human life and to work for peace based on justice for all - born and unborn, young and old, sick and well. Our faith also calls us to bring our values to the public life of the nation, to use "our everyday opportunities and responsibilities, our voices and votes to defend human life, human dignity, and human rights" (U.S. Catholic Bishops, A Century of Social Teaching, 1990).
God created the world and all who live in it. God found all of creation good and did not will its violent destruction. We affirm the goodness of God's creation when we value the unborn, provide for the economically disadvantaged, root out the causes of war, and protect the elderly and infirm.
We are called to nurture the world God made, to live in peace with all who dwell in it, and to praise God, the author of life.

What Can We Do?

• Treat all people with reverence for their value and dignity. We can make sure that we fully understand the Church's teaching about the sacredness of every human life.
• Nurture and care for those who are sick, dying, or afflicted by poverty or spiritual despair.
• Work for laws and policies to relieve the economic burdens that pressure some women to obtain abortions.
• Help to change attitudes that accept abortion as a solution to individual and social problems.
• Pray that our nation will avoid deadly violence and promote solutions to human problems that respect human life and dignity.
• Join the Respect Life Committee in your parish. With others in the group, teach about the sanctity of human life, help those in need, and advocate laws and policies that affirm human life. Respect Life Program, National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• Look on our "sexuality" page for more web-site links to help in these areas.

John Paul II urges each of us to adopt a new scale of values - to give primacy to being rather than having, to persons rather than things. "This renewed life-style," he tells us, "involves a passing from indifference to concern for others, from rejection to acceptance of them"(no.98). Together, says the Holy Father,"we sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence ,and to serve it" through "programs and structures which support and promote life"(no.79). As Christians, we are a people of life. Now more than ever, we are called to act accordingly. United States Catholic Conference.

For more information, call the Marriage, Family and Respect Life Ministry Office @ 1-800-788-4616 or 307-237-2723 or e-mail pat@dioceseofcheyenne.org

A Powerful New Tool in the Fight to End Abortion: The National Committeee for a Human Life Amendmentm, in conjunction with the Bishops' Secretaruat for Pro-Life Activities, has launched a new website, EndRoe.org. This easy-to-use site enables pro-life constituents to send e-mails to their two U.S. Senators with the message: Support for Roe v. Wade should not be a condition for serving as a U.S. judge.. We urge you to do what you can to encourage people to use EndRoe.org. to help advance the pro-life message. There are bulletin announcements, inserts and fliers available on this site for use in this cause.