Growing a culture of life throughout the diocese

    WORCESTER – When someone visits the pastoral care page of the Worcester Diocese’s Respect Life Office website, www.worcesterdiocese.org/pastoral-care, the person will likely notice two things. The first is a serene depiction of Christ as the Good Shepherd watching over his sheep. The second is a powerful quote from former Pope Benedict XVI. It reads, “Only the love of God can renew the heart of man, and only if cured at heart can paralyzed humanity once again arise and walk.”
    The Respect Life Office reflects the message of both. The office, which relies on funds from the annual Partners in Charity Appeal, shares the love of God with the Worcester Diocese through pastoral care, prayer, education and public policy advocacy.
The office fulfills its mission to serve “the Church of Worcester by striving to build a culture of life, and upholding and promoting the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death” in various ways. In addition to implementing the U.S. Bishops’ annual Respect Life Program, the Respect Life Office provides many services and resources. Those resources include an e-mail newsletter, information regarding the Church’s teachings on life issues and Project Rachel, a ministry that aims to facilitate healing and reconciliation for people who have been hurt by abortion.
    The office also provides training and presentations about life and death issues – including training and support for parish pro-life ministries. And, each year, it coordinates October Respect Life Month events, Religious Freedom Week (June 22 through June 29) activities, the March for Life bus trip, the pro-life awards and the Mass for Life for Catholic high school students. It has also been working with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment on related state and federal public policy issues.
    This past year has been particularly exciting for the office. In 2019, it embarked on a journey to invigorate parish Respect Life ministries.
“We began with a Pro-Life Morning of Reflection led by Monsignor (James) Moroney, at the Cathedral of St. Paul, in June,” said Allison LeDoux, director of the Respect Life Office. “It was very encouraging to see so many enthusiastic participants, and the event drew both veteran pro-lifers and new people who want to become more involved. We are hoping to make this an annual event.”
The initiative was thoroughly embraced by Bishop  McManus. He helped the office launch it by writing a letter to pastors. In the letter, he noted that the 25th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (The Gospel of Life) in 2020 provides an ideal time to start Respect Life ministries and expand ones that already exist.
    “The Respect Life Office offered training sessions for priests on the U.S. Church’s vision and mission for Respect Life Ministry and provided information on the training and resources our office provides for their volunteers,” Mrs. LeDoux said. “Next, we held a number of training sessions in the fall of 2019 for ministry volunteers and were very pleased with the response.”  
    That positive response has encouraged the office to strive to keep the life-affirming momentum growing. In the spring, it will offer additional training sessions, so that more people can be equipped to serve in parish ministries. The monumental progress the office has made in sharing the love of God with people of all ages – including the most vulnerable – wouldn’t be possible without support from Partners in Charity. Because of that vital funding, enthusiasm continues to grow.
“We are excited to see many volunteers being motivated to get involved in furthering the cause of life and their dedication to being of assistance to their pastors and parishes,” Mrs. LeDoux shared. “We look forward to helping them as their ministries grow and develop, and we look forward to celebrating the anniversary of “Evangelium Vitae” … in a way that will continue to build a culture of life and a civilization of love with renewed energy and commitment in the months ahead.”

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The Office of Marriage and Family and the Respect Life Office are supported
by Partners in Charity. The Respect Life Office received $59,559 from the 2019 appeal.