Respect Life Month

Although not on the liturgical calendar, October is Respect Life Month in the US Catholic Church.

If you hop over to the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, you'll find links to a range of life issues deserving of our study, prayer and action:

• Abortion
• Assisted Suicide
• Capital Punishment
• Human Cloning
• Contraception
• Disabilities
• Embryo / Fetal Research
• End of Life Issues / Euthanasia
• IVF / Reproductive Technology
• International Issues
• Morning After Pill
• Natural Family Planning
• Partial-Birth Abortion
• Post Abortion Healing
• Roe v. Wade
• RU-486
• Stem Cell Research
• Unborn Victims of Violence Act
• Women and the Culture of Life
In a statement to mark Respect Life Sunday, October 4, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Chair of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called attention to those who are most vulnerable in recent debates on health care reform – the unborn, the poor, the elderly and the immigrant – and called upon Catholics to “examine how well we, as a nation and individually, are living up to our obligation to protect the rights of those who, due to age, dependency, poverty or other circumstances, are at risk of their very lives." (USCCB press release and link to Cardinal Rigali's statement here)

As I write this post, I think of two intercessions we pray in my parish at our Saturday and Sunday Masses, not just in October but on every weekend of the year:

- For respect and reverence for life
in all its shapes and forms,
and for the wisdom and will
to conserve the gifts of creation,
let us pray to the Lord...

- For children waiting to be born
and for the mothers who carry them
and for children waiting to be adopted
and for the families who will receive them,
let us pray to the Lord...

Image from Respect Life Apostolate

-ConcordPastor