Respect Life Month

Written by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo

October 18, 2012

Each year, the first Sunday in October is observed as Pro-Life Sunday and the entrance into a whole month of reflections on the Gospel of Life. It has been a treasured observance in the Catholic Church in the United States for many years. The materials and resources sent out in advance each year by the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Bishops and its Pro-Life Committee, which I am honored to chair, are always thought provoking, clear and excellent aids to catechesis and evangelization on this central issue of our Catholic faith and a major concern for our own country.

In 2013, our country will observe a sad and shameful anniversary marking 40 years of an essential disregard for the gift of life that began when the United States Supreme Court, in its decision on the case, Roe v. Wade (Jan. 22, 1973), struck down all state laws restricting abortion. With that decision and the “legality” of abortion, over 53 million children have lost their lives and their parents, family and friends have been deeply marked and changed for the worse. The past 40 years have seen a decline in the respect for human life across the spectrum, an erosion in the understanding of appreciating human personal life as a gift and a growing toleration, even acceptance, of “death” as a solution to problems faced both by individuals and by our society at large.