By now your pastor should have received the USCCB Respect Life Program packet for your parish. If you haven't already, I encourage you to make an appointment with your pastor to walk through the packet and determine what resources would best suit your parish. USCCB resources for Respect Life Month may also be found
online here
and linked at the left sidebar.
This month includes a multitude of opportunities for your parish community to witness to the 2018 Respect Life theme
"EVERY LIFE: CHERISHED, CHOSEN, SENT."
The first such opportunity is the
Fall 40 Days for Life campaign
that started lat week.
Dallas' 6:00 am to 6:00 pm prayer vigil outside the
South Dallas Planned Parenthood abortion facility
is a perfect place to witness as a parish family! Thank you to all who have adopted a time of prayer during the campaign. If your church has not yet adopted a time of prayer, we are in
critical need of your help.
The following days remain uncovered in prayer: Oct. 2, 3, 9, 12, 16, 25, 29, 30, Nov. 1. To sign up your parish, please contact
40days@prolifedallas.org
or call 214-392-7545 Promotional and instructional items for your parish participation are
available here
.
I hope you and your fellow parishioners can also join us this weekend for two special events celebrating Respect Life Month:
On
October 16 at 7 p.m. at
St. Paul Parish Center in Richardson, we will host another important opportunity to
dialogue about the recent changes to the Catechism concerning the death penalty. Please
spread the word about this chance to learn more about Church teaching, hear a first-person account from a family experiencing death row, and a chance to get your questions answered!
Below are some additional opportunities to mark Respect Life Month:
Also this Fall, on Nov. 17, is one of our most popular events -- the annual
Christ Child Christmas Gift Market & Luncheon
benefiting the CPLC
, Bella House and Mater Filius. This year will be bigger and better at a new location -- Renaissance Addison -- with more vendors, plus live Christmas choirs! As always, you may shop the market for free, without attending the luncheon.
Reservations for our luncheon, featuring a special presentation by Fr. Baynham from St. Joseph parish on How to make Advent Special for Your Family, are now open here!
Finally, please mark your calendars for the next Parish Pro-Life Coordinators Meeting, Nov. 10 (location to be announced). If you can't attend, please send a representative to receive important information, including promotional materials for the 2018 Roe Memorial Events.
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On October 28, we celebrate St. John Paul II.
"Open wide the doors to Christ," urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978.
Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla had lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an "underground" seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology.
Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong!
Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.
Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations.
John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome's main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria.
The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul II's ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy.
"Christ is the center of the universe and of human history" was the opening line of Pope John Paul II's 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as "a witness to hope."
One of the most well-remembered photos of St. John Paul II's pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier.
In his 27 years of papal ministry, Pope John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people. In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities.
Pope Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014
.
Let us imitate St. John Paul II and his quiet but determined demeanor as we continue to promote the Culture of Life.
Dear Parish Pro-Life Coordinator,