Dear Parishioners:
In October, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month. The month focuses on cherishing, defending, and protecting human life from conception to natural death, at every stage in between.
Last Saturday, OLM parishioner, school alumnus, and Bishop Hendricken student Joseph Ferris received the Human Life Guild Youth Recognition Award at the Human Life Guild Day Mass. We congratulate him and commend him on his efforts to collect much-needed baby items last January for St. Gabriel’s Call.
We continue to collect much-needed baby items, such as diapers, for the Diocese's outreach to pregnant and young mothers. Please leave them in the Cry Room; we deliver them to St. Gabriel’s Call in Providence once a month. Thank you to the donors for supporting this Respect Life initiative.
In the Cry Room, you will also notice two new rocking chairs. These rockers are meant to be used by the many young parents with infants and toddlers who may need to be rocked during Mass. Please reserve them for parents with children. Both beautiful rockers are available for memorialization. If you are interested, please contact me.
While these Respect Life efforts show the many good works being done to build a culture of life, unfortunately there is much more work to be done. Just a few months ago, in Massachusetts, the Governor signed a bill into law, the so-called Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act. It permits abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason up until the day before birth, and it allows these grisly procedures, which are dangerous to mothers and cruel to their unborn children, to be performed in non-hospital settings. The Massachusetts Bishops rightly condemned this tragic law.
In June, during his Apostolic Visit to Spain, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV appealed for the defense of human dignity and the protection of life from conception to its natural end. He stated: “Every legislative task ultimately confronts a decisive question: what conception of the human person inspires laws, and what kind of society do those laws build?”
Sadly, Rhode Island already has a similar law. However, some candidates for office continue to advocate to extend an already immoral law to include late-term abortions. Our work of prayer and advocacy on behalf of the unborn must continue, and we must persevere in rejecting the expansion of the culture of death.
The culture of death recently found allies in the Governors of New York and Illinois. Both signed into law so-called “Medical Aid in Dying” bills. It is a euphemism for assisted suicide by medical personnel that puts to death the sick and terminally ill. The New York State Bishops stated: “We must clearly reiterate that it is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life from conception until natural death and is a grave moral evil on par with other direct attacks on human life.”
A similar bill will likely move in the next session of the RI General Assembly. These laws not only attack the sanctity of human life but also assault conscience rights. They do not protect religious objectors who do not want to participate in the killing of medical patients, including doctors, pharmacists, and religious sisters. The Catholic Church in Illinois and New York has filed suit over this issue in hopes of having Catholic medical personnel and healthcare facilities protected from being forced to kill the sick and suffering.
Pope Leo stated last week that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” In light of the botched attempt at execution in Tennessee and the barbaric decision to televise a public execution by the Trump Administration, his words merit attention, prayer, and serious reflection.
The culture of death must consistently and constantly be opposed with prayer and advocacy. Begin by joining us on Mondays as we pray the Rosary for Respect Life. There is much work to be done in building a culture of life.
Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats!!