Bishop: Pro-life advocacy must be done with love, forgiveness

MADISON  Roll up your sleeves, pro-lifers; there is still so much more work to be done, a Respect Life official of the Metuchen Diocese told a gathering of pro-life advocates and supporters in the Paterson Diocese on Oct. 29.

On June 24, Respect Life advocates around the country notched a major victory they thought they would never see in their lifetime: the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the constitutional right to abortion. Now Catholics have to transform our culture, which largely does not value life, into a “culture of life.” So said Jennifer Ruggiero, director of the Metuchen’s Office of Human Life and Dignity, at a Respect Life Convocation last Saturday at the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls here.

Ruggiero was the keynote speaker of the convocation under the theme “Cultivating the Culture of Life.” Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney invited local Catholics —clergy, religious, and laity — to gather with him to highlight the Church’s advocacy for Respect for Life and for women in need and God’s forgiveness for all those affected by abortion. It also equipped the laity with tools to help cultivate the “culture of life” in light of the new U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which previously guaranteed a federal right to abortion.

“We are all called to see as God sees and love as God loves. We are here to remind others of what they are: unique and unrepeatable reflections of God’s glory. We also need to remind them that nothing is beyond the mercy of Jesus Christ,” said Ruggiero, a married mother of four and grandmother of five, who also serves as the secretary for Metuchen’s Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life. In a fully realized “culture of life,” the population would reject abortion and euthanasia and work to protect all human life, she said.

The four-hour-long convocation started with an opening prayer and invocation by Bishop Sweeney. Participants attended two workshop sessions, chosen from five options on topics about pro-life issues about gaining the tools for advocacy. The bishop closed the event with a Mass. The convocation was guided by a line from Psalm 16: “You will show us the path of life.”

In his homily at the Mass, celebrated in honor of Our Lady of Mercy, Bishop Sweeney told the advocates, “What we do and say has to be with love.

“We want to help our world because it doesn’t see what is of value: life,” said Bishop Sweeney, who previously had been involved in pro-life work in his native Brooklyn Diocese. He urged Catholics to pray for the baby and the mother experiencing a crisis pregnancy “who is confused and struggling to say ‘yes’ to the gift of life. We must show the merciful, gentle and forgiving Christ with the truth,” he said.

One workshop, “Building a Culture of Life in Your Church,” examined the effectiveness of parish pro-life committees and the activities they could undertake to promote Respect Life values. The presenters were Christine Flaherty, executive director of LIFENET, and Kim Arminio of the Respect Life Committee at St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany.

A married mother of three, Arminio, suggested using adoration and prayer as powerful pro-life tools. At St. Peter’s, the ministry includes Respect Life materials in a regular column in the bulletin and places handouts at the back of the church for Respect Life Weekend. Priests and deacons of the parish have spoken about the topic at Masses. Also, parishioners have lighted votive candles for the unborn in church, she said.

In the workshop, “Reaching Out with Compassion to Those Who Have Been Touched by Abortion,” Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Mariusz Koch said that post-abortion ministries could help heal people broken by abortion. One of the presenters, he serves as spiritual director at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange.

“Leading people to the cross is when we encounter the truth — the truth of what abortion is, the death of an unborn child, but also the truth of God’s mercy,” said Father Mariusz, who has been involved in various aspects of pro-life ministry. “Christ came to forgive,” the priest said.