The annual Respect Life Program is a year-round, nationwide effort to help Catholics understand, value, and become engaged with building a culture that cherishes every human life.
Begin in 1972, the program begins anew each October – the month set aside by the U.S. bishops as “Respect Life Month.” This year’s theme is “Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent.”
For the Church, there is no distinction between defending human life and promoting the dignity of the human person. As a gift from God, every human life is sacred from conception to natural death. The life and dignity of every person must be respected and protected at every stage and in every condition. The right to life is the first and most fundamental principle of human rights that leads Catholics to actively work for a world of greater respect for human life and greater commitment to justice and peace.
To understand more fully how to defend and protect human life, we must first consider who we are, at the deepest level. God creates us in His image and likeness, which means we are made to be in loving relationship with Him. The essence of our identity and worth, the source of our dignity, is that we are loved by God.
We are called to divine intimacy, true communion with God, and we can grow in this closeness with Him through daily prayer, reading the Scriptures, and frequent participation in the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist.
Reflection on the 2018-’19 Respect Life theme
In 1531, when the indigenous peoples of Mexico were subjugated and the practice of human sacrifice was still a recent memory, the Mother of God appeared to St. Juan Diego as a pregnant native woman, now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
She sent him with miraculous flowers in his cloak to tell the bishop to build a church where people could receive her Son and her loving, tender care. When St. Juan Diego opened the cloak before the bishop, an image of Our Lady was revealed that remains to this day. The chapel was quickly built, millions embraced Christianity, and the Church increased its protection of the indigenous peoples.
By embracing the mission entrusted to him, St. Juan Diego helped bring Christ’s transforming love to cultures gripped by oppression and death.
Today, we again see the dignity of human life disregarded. Unborn children are destroyed through abortion, and ill people are encouraged and assisted to take their own lives. How do we respond?
The essence of our identity is that we are created in God’s image and likeness and loved by Him.
Nothing can diminish the priceless worth of any human life. Every person is cherished.
God creates every person for eternal union with Himself and continually invites us to embrace a loving relationship with Him. Every person is chosen.
We are called to be messengers of God’s love, treating one another as cherished and chosen by Him.
In doing so, we help build a culture that respects all human life. Every person is sent.
Like St. Juan Diego, let us embrace our daily mission to help others encounter God’s transforming, life-giving love.
Reprinted (excerpted) from Respect Life Program, copyright 2018, USCCB, Washington, D.C.
More online
At www.usccb.org/respectlife: Join Catholics nationwide in celebrating Respect Life Month in October with the message “Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent.”
Download educational resources, intercessory prayers, and information on Church teaching about life issues such as abortion, assisted suicide, conscience protection, contraception, euthanasia, stem cell research, and IVF/reproductive technology.
'Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent' is theme of Respect Life Month
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Each year the U.S. Catholic Church observes October as Respect Life Month, which calls Catholics "to cherish, defend and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between," said the chairman of the bishops' pro-life committee.
For this year's pro-life observance "we become even more aware of the need for messengers of God's love and instruments of his healing" due to the clergy sex abuse crisis and other assaults on human dignity, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said Oct. 3.
As the church approaches Respect Life Sunday, "our hearts are heavy with revelations of how those who should be most trustworthy have not only failed in this regard but have inflicted immense evil," he said.
As Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "The body of Christ is lacerated," added Cardinal Dolan, who heads USCCB Committee on Pro-life Activities.
The theme for this year's Respect Life Month is "Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent," which highlights "our call to build a culture of life as missionary disciples, the cardinal said.
The USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities provides English- and Spanish-language resources for observing the month and to use all year at www.usccb.org/respectlife. Among the resources are: the text of Cardinal Dolan's statement; homily helps; intercessions; "Respect Life" images; parish bulletin inserts; a poster and reflection flyer; and pulpit announcements.
There also are articles on Catholic teaching on several life issues, including abortion, disabilities, assisted suicide, end of life, contraception and abortion healing.
This year's theme draws on the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego. Mary appeared to him as a pregnant indigenous woman. She "sent him with miraculous flowers in his cloak to tell the bishop to build a church where people could receive her Son and her loving, tender care. "
"By embracing the mission entrusted to him, St. Juan Diego helped bring Christ's transforming love to cultures gripped by oppression and death," says the reflection. "Like St. Juan Diego, let us embrace our daily mission to help others encounter God's transforming, life-giving love."
Cardinal Dolan said: "We are called and sent to be messengers of God's love, treating one another as cherished and chosen by Him. In doing so, we help build a culture that respects all human life. The Body of Christ needs you. The world needs you."
— Catholic News Service
Respect Life Sunday draws hundreds out to pray for sanctity of all human life
Hundreds of Catholics across the Diocese of Charlotte took to the streets after Mass Oct. 7 to publicly stand up for life.
Respect Life Sunday, which marks the start of the U.S. bishops' observance of Respect Life Month in October, brought people out to busy thoroughfares in the big cities as well as small towns to form “Life Chains” as a public witness for the dignity of all human life, from conception to natural death.
Pictured are parishioners and clergy from St. Mark in Huntersville, St. Pius X in Greensboro, St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, St. Barnabas Parish in Arden, Sacred Heart Church in Brevard and Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City.
