Reflection, celebration of action for life

Posted Oct. 3, 2002

Dear Friends in Christ,

Sunday, Oct. 6th is Respect Life Sunday and inaugurates for the Catholic Church throughout the United States our month of reflection, celebration and action in behalf of all human life. The fundamental principle of our faith, rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, is the dignity and worth of each human person. What are we called to do? "What is urgently called for is a ...united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of Life." (Pope John Paul II, "The Gospel of Life," no. 95)

Human life is our first gift from God our Creator. This gift is also a challenge and demands a response. We are called to protect human life and defend it. The extent of this care is shown in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The original questioner asks Jesus: "Who is my neighbor?" At the end of the parable, Jesus poses another, much more profound question. "Who was neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?" Our Lord thus invites all his disciples to understand his parable. There is no limit or ceiling on who is our neighbor.

All human life is sacred, from the instant of conception until natural death. We are brothers and sisters, in a perpetual state of advocacy for all human life.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, our world has become more disquieting for us, a home that has many more marks of danger. We have had to admit that some among us see no intrinsic worth in human life. Some are dispensable because of some political or ideological commitment. Terrorism is built upon contempt for human life.

Contempt for human life, however, is not limited to terrorists. Even in our own society, there has been a growing temptation to see human life in highly utilitarian ways. Some assertions of individual freedom and technical scientific progress have denigrated the inestimable worth of each human person, born and unborn. These attitudes, frequently posed in terms of freedom, actually undermine freedom by diminishing the most vulnerable among us. Such "freedom" actually ends up in coercion.

In this light I particularly bring to your attention the evil of abortion in our society. There are many other urgent issues as well that threaten human life from poverty and violence to oppression, lack of health care and unemployment.

I pray that Catholics will be advocates for the weak, the fragile and the marginalized in all these issues. But advocacy in behalf of others in these situations NEVER EXCUSES WRONG CHOICES AND ATTITUDES REGARDING DIRECT ATTACKS ON INNOCENT HUMAN LIFE.

The failure to protect and defend human life in its most vulnerable stages at life's beginning and its natural end makes suspect any claims to the "rightness" of positions of other matters affecting the poor and powerless of the human family. One does not play with "percentages" here. A committed and convinced Catholic is always pro-life on the issue of abortion and euthanasia; that includes the voting booth.

I want to repeat. There are some actions and behaviors that are always wrong; they are incompatible with our love of God and the dignity of each human person. Abortion, the direct taking of innocent human life prior to birth, is always morally wrong, as is the deliberate destruction of human embryos for any reason. Assisted suicide and euthanasia are not acts of mercy but morally wrong actions. Direct attacks on civilians and terrorist acts are always to be condemned.

It is to be noted that issues involving human life are interdependent, are inter-connected. If a society makes abortion legal, it inevitably begins to erode the respect for life in other areas.

I ask that our priests, deacons religious and faithful will come together this month in celebration, in Word and Sacrament, in prayer and meditation, in study and teaching, particularly with our children, youth and young adults, and all will proclaim the extraordinary richness of the gift of human life. May such activity lead to a more complete dedication to the cause of human life in our daily interactions, in our personal growth in holiness, and in our dealings with the society at large.

"May the "people of life" constantly grow in number and may a new culture of love and solidarity develop for the true good of the whole of human society." (Pope John Paul II, "The Gospel of Life," no. 101)

Sincerely yours in Christ,

†Most Rev. Daniel N. DiNardo
Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City