Respect Life Month

Dear Parishioners,

October is traditionally the month of the Holy Rosary.

It is also Respect Life month.

The two seem to go together so perfectly as I encourage you to pray the rosary each day for an increase of the awareness in our society of the sanctity of all human life—from the moment of conception until natural death.  We pray to end abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. 

  

Pope John Paul II also reminded us of the following regarding capital punishment:  “I also hope, more generally, that we will reach the point of giving up recourse to capital punishment, since today the State has other means available to suppress crime effectively, without definitively depriving the offender of the possibility of redeeming himself.” (General Audience, Wednesday, September 13, 2000)

We need to pray continually that all human life may never be seen as cheap and expendable but as a gift from God which is to be respected and preserved.

Do not be deceived by people who claim things like:  “A woman has a right to choose.”  First of all, without denying our God-given free will, the conceived baby is a separate human person who had no “choice” in the matter of his/her conception.  Since we may never “choose” that which is intrinsically evil, no one can make the “choice” to take an innocent human life.

With regard to embryonic stem cell research, the same results can be achieved by using stem cells taken by other means.  I quote the Document of the Holy See on Human Cloning:

“There are two potential sources of stem cells for human research, firstly "adult" stem cells, which are derived from the umbilical cord blood, the bone marrow and other tissues and secondly "embryonic" stem cells, which are obtained by the disaggregation of human embryos.  The Holy See opposes the cloning of human embryos for the purpose of destroying them in order to harvest their stem cells, even for a noble purpose, because it is inconsistent with the ground and motive of human biomedical research, that is, respect for the dignity of human beings.  However, the Holy See applauds and encourages research using adult stem cells, because it is completely compatible with respect for the dignity of human beings.”

Euthanasia, sometimes called “mercy killing” is usually presented as a humane solution to a life of suffering.  However, “playing God” and actively putting a person to death by some direct means is morally wrong.  (A person may choose, however, to take no extraordinary means to keep himself/herself alive.)

Human life needs to be respected and honored as sacred.  After all, Jesus Christ chose to become one of us—a human being—in all things but sin.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor