Pro Life at the Parish Level

[KatyCatholic]

Last week or so, Dr. Delgado was a guest on CA Live. Anyone else love Dr. D? A couple of the callers had made statements that they had not seen pro life activities at their Parish and that their Pastor would never talk about anything pro life.

Just to see how the rest of our CA Forum community experiences Pro Life at their Parish … how much do you have at your church?

I’m in Katy Texas, our Pastor is very open pro-life. We get involved at a parish level by having a “protest” style affirmation … a huge group of us get together and hold up pro-life signs on a very busy street for 8 hours on a Saturday during Pro-Life-Awareness-Month (October).

We also have weekly groups that meet early in the morning, drive as a group to the local planned parenthood, and join in silent rosaries.

My pastor and vicar both have no problem talking about pro-life issues, they do it with consideration, charity, and virtuous conviction.

And, of course, as a Parish, we have an outreach program for all mothers that need help in any way.

I’m excited to find out, I’m guessing there is a lot more pro-life activity at the Parish level than we might perceive.

Blessings!

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

That is not what I look for in a Pro-life parish.

• I look for able bodied members helping the elderly with any need they have
• I look not for big families, but welcomed families with any number of crying babies, squirmy toddlers, demanding preschoolers, bouncy gradeschoolers and bored teens.
• I look for people with special needs, the autistic person humming, the down syndrome man’s contagous smile, the wheelchair bound girl being treated with respect and not as a toy.

I look for all of these people being welcomed, loved and wanted.

One of the most “pro-life” parishes around my area kicked out an autistic girl during a pro-life adoration because “she was making it too hard to focus”. She really wasn’t that bad at all–a bit of flapping and a few happy chirps. My parish, which does less prolife work on the surface, welcomed her.

That is where I see the Catholic need to improve–within it’s own walls.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

I so agree. Pro life is so much more than being anti abortion.

 

[MaryT777]

I assume you are asking about pro life activities as it relates to abortion specifically. My parish prayed the Divine Chaplet quietly outside an abortion clinic weekly after daily Mass on Friday. One of our two priests led the Chaplet.

We had both priests transfer and our new priest discontinued the practice.

 

[TheLittleLady]

The parish follows the heart of the pastor.

We’ve had some who wanted a distinct anti-abortion prayer to open every event, class, meeting.

We’ve had some who specifically “banned” the word “abortion” from the universal prayers.

We’ve had everything in between.

I so agree that pro-life is more than anti-abortion. Welcome the stranger and the loud and the ugly and the smelly and the sorta odd… that tells me that the parish has the heart of Christ.