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.
‘It was always giving back, not giving’
‘It was always giving back, not giving’CHARLOTTE — When they died, longtime St. Vincent de Paul parishioners Chuck and Terry Davis left more than $338,000 to their parish in the form of an endowment.
The Terry and Chuck Davis Endowment was the last in a long line of efforts the Davises made to support their parish since they first joined in 1999.
For 17 years they lived at The Cypress, a continuing care retirement community near the church, before Terry passed away in 2015. Even though Chuck moved to California to live near family after his wife’s death, he did not forget St. Vincent de Paul Church and his faith community. When he died in March, he made arrangements to be interred next to his beloved wife in the parish’s columbarium – which he also helped to design.
Father Mark Lawlor served as the Davis’ pastor at the time. He was a close family friend and offered both funeral Masses.
“Shortly after I was assigned to the parish in 2003, a resident of The Cypress requested that I consider celebrating a First Friday Mass in their Health Center. I celebrated the First Friday Mass for the next 13 years.”
In that time, he recalled, he came to know many of the residents who were parishioners and who participated in the Mass. “Chuck and Terry always helped to coordinate the Mass by checking with the administration for the room and Chuck often served as the lector,” he said.
He was invited to lunch at the Club House following the Mass and through these lunches he came to know the Davises very well.
“They were very devout in their Catholic faith and generous in all aspects of stewardship,” Father Lawlor said. “They were part of our columbarium committee and were instrumental in forming the policy and the design of the columbarium.
“When we began our capital campaign for the Ministry Center and Chapel, we had our first information session at The Cypress and Chuck spoke in favor of the initiative. The Davises were supportive of the project from the beginning and bought the monstrance for the Chapel of the Holy Family,” he said.
Another generous gift the couple made was in gratitude for their marriage of 67 years. They made the memorial donation for the stained glass window in the chapel depicting the Betrothal of St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary. “It was very sad when Terry died in her home in 2015,” Father Lawlor recalled. “Following her death, the family donated many household items to the Homeless Relief Ministry of St. Vincent de Paul.” He was blessed to receive some of their wedding china to remember them by.
The couple’s son, Bob Davis, served as executor upon his father’s passing.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in my life who was more dedicated and more supportive of the Church and more true to their faith than my mom and dad,” he said. He recalled that his mother’s family was very devout and his father, who grew up as a Southern Baptist, converted to Catholicism in college before marrying his mother.
Davis shared that his parents never missed Sunday Mass and they volunteered at many parish events over the years. “Every part of their lives was centered around the Church.”
“They lived modestly on a fixed income,” he explained. “They wouldn’t subscribe to cable TV because they didn’t want the monthly expense. They were so conservative with their spending and yet would think nothing of donating thousands of dollars to the Church,” he said.
Davis believes his parents were invested in the people of St. Vincent de Paul Parish and wanted to make a difference in their lives. In their humility, he said, the last thing they would want is for people to know all that they did for the parish.
“Their motivation was pure. They never did it for publicity. It was always giving back, not giving.”
The Terry and Chuck Davis Endowment will be used specifically for maintenance of the church and buildings on the church property.
“Chuck and Terry passed from this life, but they are fondly remembered,” Father Lawlor said. “Their gracious donation and the establishment of this endowment will provide for the positive ministry of the Church for many generations to come.”
The endowment is being administered by the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation. Founded in 1994, the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation now totals 261 endowments totaling more than $50 million in assets.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
Learn more
Individuals can establish an endowment in the diocesan foundation by leaving a bequest in their will, a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan, a gift of real estate, a gift of life insurance, cash or securities sufficient to set up an endowment, or a life income arrangement such as a trust or annuity. For information about setting up an endowment to benefit the Church in western North Carolina, contact Gina Rhodes at 704-370-3364 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..