October is Respect Life Month.  During this time, the Universal Catholic Church prays for an increased awareness of the sacredness of every human being, from conception to natural death.  The month of October is set apart as a special time to increase prayer for all whose human dignity is threatened: the unborn; children living in poverty, victims of abuse and neglect, the elderly, the terminally ill, the developmentally disabled; prisoners on death row, and the poor among us. 

  In Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life), the late Pope John Paul II instructed: “Through the words, the actions and the very person of Jesus, man is given the possibility of "knowing" the complete truth concerning the value of human life. From this "source" he receives, in particular, the capacity to "accomplish" this truth perfectly (cf. Jn 3:21), that is, to accept and fulfil completely the responsibility of loving and serving, of defending and promoting human life.”

As Pope Benedict XVI said in the homily of his inaugural Mass on April 24, 2005, "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”

 

May we all pray and work toward a renewed appreciation of the dignity and sacredness of human life in all its forms.