Pro-life Mass and awards set for March 24

The diocesan Mass for Life will be celebrated by Bishop McManus on March 24 at 10 a.m. at St. Paul Cathedral.  The annual Mass is celebrated on or near the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25), a feast day with special theological significance for the pro-life cause because it celebrates the moment when God the Son assumed human nature in Mary’s womb.
Catholic school students will be attending. The annual Mother Teresa Pro-Life Award, the Ruth V.K. Pakaluk Pro-Life Youth Award and the Gospel of Life Award, will be given to people who have witnessed to the value of each human life, according to Allison LeDoux, director of the diocesan Respect Life Office and head of the committee that chooses the award recipients.
  
Mother Teresa Pro-Life Award

The Mother Teresa Pro-Life Award will be presented to two couples, Deacon Robert and Irene Connor and Ralph and Claire Weirich.
Deacon Robert and Irene Connor have been involved in pro-life activities for many years.  They have been dedicated to serving women in unexpected pregnancies with work at First Concern Pregnancy Resource Center in Clinton for more than 15 years. The deacon serves as president of the board of directors. Mrs. Connor serves as client resources coordinator.  The center has expanded services to women in crisis during pregnancy and after giving birth. The center provides ultrasounds, goods, counseling, parenting classes and mentoring. A second office was opened in Marlborough. Deacon Connor was instrumental in bringing the Choose Life license plates to Massachusetts. With the help of others and the Knights of Columbus, these efforts which support pregnancy and adoption services are visible witnesses to life and are seen daily on vehicles in the state. The Connors have attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., for many years and are members of St. Cecilia Parish in Leominster where they are active in pro-life work. Deacon Connor serves as deacon at the parish. They have five children, including 6-year-old James Joseph whom they fostered as an infant and adopted. The Connors provide an example to all of what it means to live the Gospel of Life each day, said Mrs. LeDoux.
 Ralph and Claire Weirich have been strong and faithful pro-lifers in the Worcester area for decades, Mrs. LeDoux said. They have been active in efforts to serve women in unexpected pregnancies through offering counseling and support. They have attended the national March for Life many times and are generous supporters of Visitation House, a home for mothers in need in Worcester. They participate in prayer vigils through the 40 Days for Life ministry.  The couple are parishioners of Christ the King Parish in Worcester, where they are involved in a variety of ministries, are long-time attendees at the parish’s annual Novena to St. Joseph for the Sick and Dying which was inspired 12 years ago to oppose physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. They have served as chair couple for the parish’s Respect Life Ministry. The Weirich’s have been married for 54 years and are the parents of four children and have ten grandchildren. Their Catholic faith is lived daily as faithful witnesses that all human life is sacred.
 
Pro-Life Youth Award

The recipient of the Ruth V.K. Pakaluk Pro-Life Youth Award is Timothy Cody.
Timothy Cody is a graduate student at Assumption University where he serves as a graduate assistant in the Campus Ministry office. He will graduate with a master’s degree in clinical psychology in May. Mr. Cody has been involved in various groups and programs sponsored by Campus Ministry since freshman year. He made a commitment to the university’s Advocates for Life group, as a member during his undergraduate years. He served as the group’s student leader in his junior year. Mr. Cody has served as the Campus Ministry’s adviser to the Advocates for Life where he has been a leader, mentoring the group, recruiting members, attending diocesan and community pro-life events, participating in prayer vigils outside Worcester’s Planned Parenthood clinic and organizing students going to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cody’s pro-life efforts demonstrate fidelity to the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life, Mrs. LeDoux said.

Gospel of Life

Father Ryszard W. Polek will receive the Gospel of Life Award.  
The Gospel of Life Award, presented annually to a priest of the diocese, was inaugurated in 2006 and named with the English title of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium vitae, which was issued on the feast of the Annunciation in 1995. The Gospel of Life is known as one of the Church’s most definitive works on the dignity of the human person and on the intrinsic value of every human life from conception to natural death.  
Father Ryszard W. Polek was born in Krakow, Poland, and ordained in 1993 in the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Tarnow, Poland.  He served as associate pastor in four parishes in Poland. During his first 10 years of priesthood, he was a high school religion teacher.  This work was very instrumental in changing hearts and minds, Mrs. LeDoux said.  Father Polek taught students about pro-life topics, including abortion. When he showed a film about the tragedy of abortion and shared the testimony of former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson, his students were profoundly moved to understand the evil of abortion.  In the United States, Father Polek served as a formation adviser at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, until 2004. He then came to the Diocese of Worcester, serving as associate pastor of St. Joseph Basilica in Webster until 2009. He was then appointed associate pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester. In 2014 he was named pastor there and still serves the parish. Father Polek was 10 years old when Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow was elected pope. St. John Paul II had a tremendous influence on Father Polek’s life and his priesthood, he has said.