The Christmas month began with a victory for life. On December 4, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the US Senate fell short of the two-thirds majority vote needed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The UN treaty calls upon nations to provide free or affordable reproductive health care, including abortion, to disabled persons. The article quotes Josh Craddock of Personhood USA, who observes: “The irony of including abortion in this treaty is that abortion especially targets the disabled in the womb. Persons with disabilities should not be exposed to violence and discrimination, either before or after birth.”
Later in the month, Pope Benedict XVI addressed abortion in his Message for World Day of Peace 2013. An article in LifeSiteNews.com on December 14, offers the following excerpt from the Holy Father’s address:
“Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offense against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.”
Here in Sacramento on December 28, Bishop Jaime Soto led a candlelight Rosary procession for the sanctity of life to commemorate the feast of the Holy Innocents. Beginning at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the procession ended at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where Bishop Soto presided at Mass. On January 22, Bishop Soto will lead a six-mile “Pilgrimage of Churches in Reparation for Abortion and other Sins Against Human Dignity.” The Bishop has designated January 22 as a Diocesan Day of Reparation on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which the faithful are asked to observe by fasting, prayer, penance and works of charity. For more details, please see the diocesan website at http://www.diocese-sacramento.org/.
The 9th annual Walk for Life will be held on Saturday, January 26, 2013. The Info Faire at Civic Center Plaza will open at 11 am, followed by the main speaking event at 12:30pm, and the Walk at 1:30pm. The Walk will end at the Justin Herman Plaza. Please consider witnessing to the sanctity of life by participating in the Walk. For a bus ride, please contact Gary Hickman at (916) 806-6736. For more information about the Walk, please visit: www.walkforlifewc.com.
Fraternally in Christ,
William (Bill) James
Culture of Life Director
Knights of Columbus
Council 953