The artwork for 2018-2019 features a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Juan Diego, and a depiction of flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill.
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. Sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and carried out by local leaders, these efforts are renewed each October (Respect Life Month) and continue through the following September. To assist in these efforts, the U.S. bishops produce resources that aid local leaders throughout the Church to build a culture of life.
Fostering a culture that cherishes human life by responding to our call as missionary disciples "For you created my inmost being: You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully & wonderfully made." ~ Psalm 139:13-14 ~
My dear friends in Christ:
The month of October is annually observed by the Catholic Church in the United States as Respect Life Month. We are called to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between.
Yet this year, as we approach Respect Life Sunday on October 7, 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. As USCCB President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo expressed, “the Body of Christ is lacerated.”
At such a time as this, we become even more aware of the need for messengers of God’s love and instruments of His healing. We realize again, with renewed urgency, our personal call to help others encounter God’s transforming, life-giving love and to defend the sanctity of every person’s life, at every stage and in every circumstance.
This year’s Respect Life theme is “Every Life: Cherished, Chosen, Sent,” highlighting our call to build a culture of life as missionary disciples. Drawing upon the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego, this theme is briefly unpacked in a short reflection. I humbly invite you to read and reflect on it this Respect Life Month (www.usccb.org/respect-life-reflection). (There are also many other resources at www.usccb.org/respectlifethat are available for use this month and throughout the year.)
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. …If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it” (1 Cor 12:12,26).
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.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Chairman
USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities