Respect Life

The Respect Life Program sponsored by the USCCB begins anew each year on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October. The program is highlighted in liturgies and marked by special events. The USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities publishes a program packet each year to call attention to numerous human life issues,  Our office has sent a package to every parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn. These materials are especially helpful for priests, parish groups and other organizations.

This year's Respect Life Program takes us back to the basics. Eight pamphlets discuss the main attacks on human life and dignity.  For further information on the 2011-2012 Respect Life Program, please the USCCB's website at www.usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/respect-life-program/

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UPCOMING EVENTS:

CATHOLIC SPEAKERS SERIES—"The Call of Our Times:  To Uphold and Defend Life and Family Traditional Principles"    RL Catholic Speakers Series 

 Sunday, September 18, 2011From the Lay Leaders' Prespective:  RL Lecture- Sept 18, 2011 

 Sunday, October 30, 2011. From the Religious Leaders' Perspective

Sunday November 27, 2011. From the Political Leaders' Perspective

Sunday, October 2, 2011- RESPECT LIFE SUNDAY.

The resources needed for the celebrations are below:

 RL Liturgy Guide English          RL Liturgy Guide-Spanish 
 RL flyer-English                        RL flyer-Spanish 
 RL poster.English                      RL poster.Spanish 

Monday, January 23, 2012 -March for Life in Washington, DC,
please save the date March for Life 2012 

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 All should feel free to contact us at any time for more information and resources.

 Hablamos Español  -The Office of Faith Formation -  718-281-9540

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 http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0141/_INDEX.HTM

 http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ESL0080/_INDEX.HTM

 http://www.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/priority.shtml

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"I do not hesitate to proclaim before you and before the world that all human life—from the moment of conception and through all subsequent stages—is sacred, because human life is created in the image and likeness of God."- Pope John Paul II 

What does it mean to Respect Life?
“I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10)

 Very often, when people think of the term “Respect Life”, or the Right to Life Movement, they automatically think of the issue of Abortion. Surely, abortion is one very important part of the Respect Life movement. However, Church teaching is very clear that to Respect Life means much more than this.

 As Catholic Christians, we believe that each human person is created in the image and likeness of God. This means that each human being who exists is created by God and for God.  God Himself became one of us out of love for you. Christ walked the Earth and suffered for Love of each of us, not as a general group of humanity but as individual children of God who are Loved by their Almighty Father. Within the “heart” of every man and woman, even if they do not know Christ, is an inherent understanding that all life is sacred.

 Respecting life, then, includes Abortion but it goes much further. Respecting life is a positive stance by which we affirm all human beings, their dignity and their rights. To respect life means to be pro-life in every sense. We support the dignity of the living human person who is growing in his or her mother’s womb, as well as the person who has been born. We love and respect the person who is sick or suffering in any way. We love all those human persons who are part of God’s family, regardless of their age, condition, gender or race. This means that to truly Respect Life we see each and every human person on Earth as our brother or sister in the Lord, and we work to bring that person to the joy of knowing Christ.

 As Catholics, we must be known as people of Life who work to bring a culture of Life into existence. In many ways, the world in which we live today can be seen as promoting a culture of death. From the widespread acceptance of Abortion, to a growing acceptance for Euthanasia, economic injustices, arbitrary use of the death penalty as a means of revenge, racism and the glorification of violence, our world is often hostile to the dignity of human life. We are called to be “signs of contradiction” in such a climate, proclaiming the dignity of humanity in every way we can, especially by our personal example and our prayer.  Only by being people of Life can we build a culture of Life and a civilization of Love.