...the true good of men and women

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Not everyone is able to join the “March for Life” in Washington D.C but but we can all pray prayer and ponder these excerpts from St. JPII’s “Familiaris Consortio” (“The Role of the Family in the Modern World”):

The Church Stands for Life

1. The teaching of the Church in our day is placed in a social and cultural context which renders it more difficult to understand and yet more urgent and irreplaceable for promoting the true good of men and women.

Scientific and technical progress, which contemporary man is continually expanding in his dominion over nature, not only offers the hope of creating a new and better humanity, but also causes ever greater anxiety regarding the future. Some ask themselves if it is a good thing to be alive or if it would be better never to have been born; they doubt therefore if it is right to bring others into life when perhaps they will curse their existence in a cruel world with unforeseeable terrors. Others consider themselves to be the only ones for whom the advantages of technology are intended and they exclude others by imposing on them contraceptives or even worse means. Still others, imprisoned in a consumer mentality and whose sole concern is to bring about a continual growth of material goods, finish by ceasing to understand, and thus by refusing, the spiritual riches of a new human life. The ultimate reason for these mentalities is the absence in people’s hearts of God, whose love alone is stronger than all the world’s fears and can conquer them.

Thus an anti-life mentality is born, as can be seen in many current issues: one thinks, for example, of a certain panic deriving from the studies of ecologists and futurologists on population growth, which sometimes exaggerate the danger of demographic increase to the quality of life.

But the Church firmly believes that human life, even if weak and suffering, is always a splendid gift of God’s goodness. Against the pessimism and selfishness which cast a shadow over the world, the Church stands for life: in each human life she sees the splendor of that “Yes,” that “Amen,” who is Christ Himself. To the “No” which assails and afflicts the world, she replies with this living “Yes,” thus defending the human person and the world from all who plot against and harm life.

The Church is called upon to manifest anew to everyone, with clear and stronger conviction, her will to promote human life by every means and to defend it against all attacks, in whatever condition or state of development it is found.

Thus the Church condemns as a grave offense against human dignity and justice all those activities of governments or other public authorities which attempt to limit in any way the freedom of couples in deciding about children. Consequently, any violence applied by such authorities in favor of contraception or, still worse, of sterilization and procured abortion, must be altogether condemned and forcefully rejected. Likewise to be denounced as gravely unjust are cases where, in international relations, economic help given for the advancement of peoples is made conditional on programs of contraception, sterilization and procured abortion.

**That God’s Design May Be Ever More Completely Fulfilled
**
31. The Church is certainly aware of the many complex problems which couples in many countries face today… She also recognizes the serious problem of population growth in the form it has taken in many parts of the world and its moral implications.

However, she holds that consideration in depth of all the aspects of these problems offers a new and stronger confirmation of the importance of the authentic teaching on birth regulation reproposed in the Second Vatican Council and in the Encyclical Humanae vitae.

For this reason, together with the Synod Fathers I feel it is my duty to extend a pressing invitation to theologians, asking them to unite their efforts in order to collaborate with the hierarchical Magisterium and to commit themselves to the task of illustrating ever more clearly the biblical foundations, the ethical grounds and the personalistic reasons behind this doctrine…

A united effort by theologians in this regard, inspired by a convinced adherence to the Magisterium, which is the one authentic guide for the People of God, is particularly urgent for reasons that include the close link between Catholic teaching on this matter and the view of the human person that the Church proposes: doubt or error in the field of marriage or the family involves obscuring to a serious extent the integral truth about the human person, in a cultural situation that is already so often confused and contradictory. In fulfillment of their specific role, theologians are called upon to provide … a deeper understanding, and their contribution is of incomparable value … to the family and humanity. ªunderlining is mine)

Let us cooperate with the Holy Spirit in listening to the Truth given us in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. Prayer is essential and time given to prayer seems to be growing less and less among most families in the world today.

 

[tawny]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Not everyone is able to join the “March for Life” in Washington D.C but but we can all pray prayer and ponder these excerpts from St. JPII’s “Familiaris Consortio” (“The Role of the Family in the Modern World”):

Let us cooperate with the Holy Spirit in listening to the Truth given us in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. Prayer is essential and time given to prayer seems to be growing less and less among most families in the world today.

 

[Richard_White]

Thank you MariaChristi for sharing this beautiful passage with us! I will be blessed this year by being able to attend the March for Life with my college Respect for Life Club! This is the first time I will be going, and I am very excited!

May God bless you and the pro-life movement!

 

[MariaChristi]

Thank you MariaChristi for sharing this beautiful passage with us! I will be blessed this year by being able to attend the March for Life with my college Respect for Life Club! This is the first time I will be going, and I am very excited!

May God bless you and the pro-life movement!

Dear Richard and tawny, thanks for your replies.

Tawny, your “Amen” is a blessing, and I ask for your continued prayers for all who will be marching as well as those “marching in Spirit and in prayer!”

Richard, how wonderful that your college has a “Respect for Life Club” and that you will be marching with many, many others. My husband’s Alma Mater sent 8 buses last year and as we watched parts of the March covered on EWTN, I saw my own Alma Mater as well. College is a critical time in the lives of young and not so young.

One of the beautiful aspects of the March for Life in Washington (as it was also in our State Rally) was the presence of marchers of every age, and color, and apparent ethnic descent. It was in fact a sign of the Universality of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church we profess in the Creed.

The Catholic Church has been in the forefront of this March and in the Pro-Life movement for many years, and we need to persevere in our Faith. Jesus has sent His Church to carry His Light into the world from within our hearts, even as Mary carried Him.

God be with you and all who march with their feet and/or their hearts filled with His Spirit!