Proclaim the dignity and worth of every life

Sept. 20, 2007

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Since I will be traveling outside the Diocese in the next two weeks, I will not be able to write a regular letter to you until October 11th. Next week, after the Diocesan Ministries Conference in Spencer, I will travel to New Mallory Monastary in Peosta, Iowa for the annual meeting of the Bishops of the Iowa and the Superiors of the Religious Orders who serve the Church in our state.

On September 29, I will travel with a group from Sioux City to Rome. I have the privilege of attending the diaconate ordination of one of our seminarians, Shane Deman. He is the son of Greg and Francine Deman and a graduate of Bishop Heelan High School. He will be ordained a deacon on October 4th, the Feast of Saint Francis in the Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican. Archbishop John Foley, an American serving at the Vatican, will ordain Shane and his classmates. Please keep them in your prayers.

THE EUCHARIST: THE COMMUNITY AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

I hope many of you are planning to join me and the priests of the diocese in Spencer on Sunday and Monday, September 23rd and 24th, for our Diocesan Ministries Conference. Hundreds of people have already registered for the event to be held at the Clay County Regional Convention Center. We are privileged to have two wonderful presenters, Father Godfrey Mullen, OSB and Father Denis Robinson, OSB, monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. The same presentation will be given on Sunday and Monday, so you may attend either day. There is no cost for the event. As a Diocese, we wanted to provide all our people with an opportunity to grow in your knowledge and understanding of the central belief of our Catholic faith, the Eucharist.

People of all ages are welcome (although the presentations will be geared to those in High School and older). This conference is for all those who minister in the Church in anyway: volunteering, staff, teachers, liturgical ministers and all of the faithful in our Diocese and beyond. We hope this conference provides you with a deeper appreciation of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith.

In recent years, many documents on the Eucharist have been issued by our popes and the Vatican. Many prominent Catholic authors have written about the Eucharist as well. Now you will have a chance to learn more about this great gift of our Lord to the Church. Walk-ins are welcome on either day, but if you can, please let us know you are planning to attend by email: dmc07@scdiocese.org. I look forward to seeing you there. I want to personally thank all our Chancery Staff who have worked so hard to prepare for this event. I am sure it will be of great benefit for many.

THE INFANT IN MY WOMB LEAPED FOR JOY

For many years, the Church in the United States has set aside the month of October as "Respect Life" month. This year, the theme is taken from the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her kinswoman, Elizabeth. As a Church totally committed to the value and dignity of all life from natural conception to natural death, we can never grow tired or weaken our efforts to protect life, to end abortion and to be witnesses to the truth that all life is sacred. Respect Life Sunday is October 7, 2007. In anticipation of this special month of prayer, I encourage all of us to renew our prayer and fasting for the protection of life.

Please take a moment to prayerfully consider these words of the Bishop's Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities:

"To be sure, most parents love their children generously and even unconditionally. But today the inherent, priceless value of every child - as a unique individual created and loved by God - is no longer universally accepted. Before birth at least, a child's worth seems to depend on his parents' attitude toward him. A Planned Parenthood ad illustrates this point well: "Babies are loud, smelly, and expensive, unless you want one."

Unborn children are routinely dehumanized by the abortion industry. The author of a widely-used textbook on abortion techniques describes pregnancy as a "parasitic illness." A well-known columnist writes: "A goldfish resembles a human being more than an embryo does." One author has described the unborn human being as "protoplasmic rubbish," a "gobbet of meat."

A Princeton professor has followed this thinking to its logical conclusion, to demean the newborn child: "Human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons." Therefore "the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee."

Such attitudes have crept into people's behavior. Many of us seem to spend much of our adult lives trying to avoid the inconvenience of having children, and we don't like surprises in the children we do have.

Consider:

Despite their many risks and harmful side effects, hormonal contraceptives exceed $24 billion in annual sales worldwide.

The abortion industry claims that half the children conceived in the United States are "unwanted," and half the "unwanted" children are aborted - over 1.3 million annually. The most common reason given for abortion is that raising a child could interfere with one's education or career.

We are often told how costly it is to raise a child. The scarcity of large families among wealthy and middle-income couples suggests that many who could afford more children value other things more than bringing a new life into the world.

INVITRO FERTILIATION

Conversely, some couples who have difficulty conceiving will pay tens of thousands of dollars to have a fertility clinic create a son or daughter for them. How many parents realize that for every IVF-created child who survives to birth, many others die in the process? And if that custom-made embryo is found in the lab to have a "defect," the clinic will readily recommend scrapping the "faulty" child and ordering up another.

Tragically, many scientists and politicians now think of living human embryos created in fertility clinics - but no longer desired by their biological parents as raw material which can be destroyed for stem cell research. Is it any wonder that some scientists now want to create human embryos in the lab, by fertilization or cloning, solely to kill them for their stem cells? Or that such misguided efforts continue despite the existence of morally acceptable alternatives, such as stem cells from umbilical cords and other "adult" sources that are already helping patients with 72 conditions and diseases?

In all these ways we are being urged to stop seeing human life as God sees it. From the moment of our conception, God does not see us superficially as a microscopic, unformed cell. In every child, born or unborn, God sees the individual he created to love, and be loved by, for all eternity.

END OF LIFE

At the other end of life, as well, the bonds of love between generations are being stretched thin. Some doctors and ethicists claim that patients with dementia or in a so-called "persistent vegetative state" are no longer really persons, and that families should deny them even the most basic forms of nourishment and care. And yet, however weak and vulnerable such patients may appear, they have the awesome power to inspire heroic, sacrificial love from their family members and caregivers - a power that can lead to the sanctification of those who care for them.

It matters not to God whether we are now, or ever, conscious of our existence or capable of "higher thought." The value of a human life does not depend on exercising one's intellect; it comes from God's fatherly love for each human, created in his image. His love is present long before our brain waves can be measured at six weeks' gestation, and long after our brains no longer function so well. His love is present long before our heart begins to beat at 22 days after conception, and long after our heart begins to fail. His love is present at every step and misstep of our lives.

And to some of us who are humble and lowly, God grants the privilege to be his instrument in bringing forth holiness from others. God loves, and wants us to love, the grandfather lying unconscious in a hospital bed, the child with severe physical and mental impairments, the frightened teenaged mother, and the unplanned embryo nesting in her womb. Each of these vulnerable persons is given to us so we may learn to love as God loves - generously, sacrificially, unconditionally.

May we never tire of proclaiming the dignity and worth of every human life. May we never tire of serving the vulnerable and their caregivers with generous hearts. And may we never cease to pray for the day when all people, and all societies, will defend the life of every human from conception to natural death."

May God continue to bless all our local efforts here in the Diocese of Sioux City to protect and promote life. I personally want to thank all those who strive everyday to live lives of hope in a world that needs the witness of hope so much.

The miracle Broncos are still moving on, but they do need the support of loyal fans. If you are one, great, if not, there are indeed more important things in life than football!

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City