LIFE PRINCIPLESLIFE PRINCIPLES

These Life Principles express the ideals motivating pro-life Americans and indicate the purpose of the MARCH FOR LIFE:

• We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all human beings are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which is the right to life, and

• The right to life of each human being shall be presented and protected by every human being in the society and by the society as a whole, and

• The life of each human being shall be preserved and protected from that human being's biological beginning when the Father's sperm fertilizes the Mother's ovum, and

• The life of each human being shall be preserved and protected from the biological beginning throughout the natural continuum of the human being's life by all available ordinary means and reasonable efforts, and

• The life of each human being shall be preserved and protected at each stage of the life continuum to the same extent as at each and every other stage regardless of state of health or condition of dependency, and

• The life of each human being shall be preserved and protected to the same extent as the life of each and every other human being regardless of state of health or condition of dependency, and

• When there is any doubt that there exists a human being's life to preserve and protect, such doubt shall be resolved In favor of the existence of a human being, and

• When two or more human beings are in a situation in which their lives are mutually endangered, all available ordinary means and reasonable efforts shall be used to preserve and to protect the life of each and every human being so endangered.

• WHEREFORE, Pursuant To These Principles, we recommend and urge the adoption of a Mandatory HUMAN LIFE AMENDMENT to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Please refer to the National March for Life web site for further information on this cause.

MARCH FOR LIFE

2011 Respect Life March

This year's March for Life in Olympia was bigger than ever! It is quite obvious that more and more people are becoming pro-life! All the groups involved: The St. Francis Respect Life group, students from Kennedy Catholic High School, the Catholics attending the mass at St. Michael's, and the entire crowd on the steps of the capitol building - all saw significant increases in participation.

2010 January 20th

This year's March for Life in Olympia was bigger than ever! It is quite obvious that more and more people are becoming pro-life! All the groups involved: The St. Francis Respect Life group, students from Kennedy Catholic High School, the Catholics attending the mass at St. Michael's, and the entire crowd on the steps of the capitol building - all saw significant increases in participation.

Click on the photo on the right for more photos of the event -->

There were at least 18 people from St. Francis that attended, and so many students from Kennedy (40 +) signed up to go that they had to bring two buses this year. The events in Olympia begin with mass at St. Michael's church. It is not unusual for the crowd to overflow the church into the gathering area, but this year the gathering area was packed with people too. The pictures show the streets lined with marchers as we walked the few blocks to the state capitol. Once again, the crowd not only overflowed the steps, but poured out over the grassy island in the middle of the two buildings.

We listened to short speeches by legislators who encouraged us and warned us of anti-life legislation coming up in the next session, then we were dismissed to go home or stop in and see our local representatives, and express to them our interest in pro-life causes. Back at St. Michael's, a complimentary lunch provided by the Knights of Columbus topped off the afternoon.

MARCH FOR LIFE

2009: January 22nd: marks the anniversary of the infamous decision on the Roe v. Wade case by the U.S. Supreme Court.  According to the Roe decision, most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings.

Respect Life Ministries throughout the United States coordinate organized marches on their respective State Capitols.  The ministry at St. Francis of Assisi Parish has gathered support to join with other parishes throughout the Seattle Diocese.

Please click on the photo to the right to view pictures from the January March For Life.

WE PRAY FOR

We prayerfully hope to bear fruit by:

1) Committing ourselves to faithful and fervent prayer, interceding for the needs of the most vulnerable.

2) Raising awareness concerning the dangers of reproductive and research technology which ignores the right to life of the pre-born and/or violates the natural process and integrity of the marriage act.

3) Lending support to organizations and events which champion the rights of the unborn and those nearing the end of life and to those who minister to women in crisis pregnancy.

4) Educating our community on the miracle and dignity of human life.

IMPORTANT LINKS

40 Days For Life - Seattle: 40daysforlife.com/seattle/

Birthright: www.birthright.org

Helpers of God's Precious Infants: www.seattlehelpers.org

Human Life of WA: www.humanlife.net

Priests for Life: www.priestsforlife.org

Project Rachael: www.hopeafterabortion.com

Pro-Life WA/Across America: www.prolifewashington.org

USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities: www.usccb.org/prolife

Human life is Precious

"A person’s a person, no matter how small." This is a verse from Dr. Seuss's book, "Horton Hears Who." This phrase is completely right! A person is a person no matter how small or weak they might be! Often, people in our society commit suicide, abort babies, or take harmful drugs because they feel unimportant or they don’t care about life. But I’m here to tell you that all human life is precious.
First of all, God creates and entrusts us with life; we are not the creators of it. I see stories in the news which tell me that we are not doing a good job of preserving life at all! People are getting killed, committing suicide and having abortions. This is anything but protecting life! We need to treat human life with respect; not abuse it! God doesn’t like that at all. I imagine it breaks his heart to see us killing each other and ourselves. If we are his sons and daughters why do we kill and hurt each other?
There is a Catholic Social Teaching that relates to this topic: Life and Dignity of the Human Person. We are all made in the image and likeness of God, all persons are sacred. Today this value is threatened by abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, the death penalty, and the many ways that people are treated with disrespect for their human dignity. We believe that every person is precious and that people are more than things.
Abortion is the killing of a baby inside the mother’s womb. In my life I’ve gone to pray outside abortion clinics when there's an opportunity. Often when my family and I are standing there, people walk by not even noticing us and sometimes ignoring what's happening inside the building! People drive by and don't know what's happening in their own neighborhoods! I think that's very sad. This is similar to what happened when the Jews were being held in concentration camps by the Nazis. If this were a concentration camp wouldn’t there be tons of people coming to protest against the killing of innocent Jews? So why is this any different? People are being killed based on their human dignity. That's wrong. In the United States we have laws against killing or murdering people. If you think about it abortion is a criminal act! It’s the murdering of an innocent human being.
We wouldn’t kill a person outside the womb, why should we kill someone inside it? We are being discriminatory because one person is inside the womb and the other is outside it. Shouldn’t we have learned by now that it's wrong to be discriminatory because of a person's human dignity? That happened back when we had black people as slaves, and look how that turned out.
As people who believe in human life it’s our right and responsibility to know what is happening in our own world. We should know that there are thousands of innocent people being killed every day, and it's our duty to stand up against that! Take a stand against killing human life. It's wrong and should not be permitted. After all, "A person's a person, no matter how small."  

-Peter Herold
February 13, 2011

Knights of Columbus Washington State winning entry 2011.