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Respect Life Committee --Pat Glass 689-9544,  Helen Gordon 683-9001

As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:40).

            “Once truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try to set them free. Truth and freedom either go hand in hand or together they perish in misery.”

                                                                                                        Pope John Paul II

              “In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of absolutely every person…Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction…all these things and others like them are infamies indeed.  They poison human society…” 

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), Second Vatican Council

            “Human life is sacred: from its very inception, the creative action of God is directly operative.”                                           

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magister

              “The Gospel of Life is at the heart of Jesus’ message. Lovingly received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as ‘good news’ to the people of every age and culture.

              “At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of Child which is proclaimed as joyful news…but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfillment of joy at every child born into the world.”  [1]

              “The Church knows that this Gospel of life, which she has received from her Lord, has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every person…because it marvelously fulfills all the heart’s expectations while infinitely surpassing them. Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can…come to recognize in the natural law written in the heart the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the recognition of this right, every human community and the political community itself are founded.  [2]

              “The present Encyclical is…a pressing appeal addressed to each and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!  [6]                                                                           

Pope John Paul II, Introduction to The Gospel of Life