¡ Viva Cristo Rey !

Blessed Miguel Pro,
pray for us!


The Bl. Miguel Pro
Shrine in Houston, Texas.

Bl. Miguel Pro on Wikipedia.


¡ Viva Cristo Rey !

Prayer of Cardinal Kung

For the Priests

All powerful and eternal God, through the merits of Your Son, Jesus, and through Your love for Him, I implore You, have pity on the priests of the Holy Church. In spite of their sublime dignity, they are fearful and weak, like all created beings. In Your infinity mercy, inflame their hearts with the fire of divine love. For the sake of Jesus, Your Son, bestow grace on the priests and uphold them. Do not let them fall into temptation and tarnish their noble vocation.

O Jesus, we implore You, look with pity on the priests of the Holy Church; those who are serving you faithfully and proclaiming Your glory; those who are persecuted for tending Your flock; those who are abandoned, weary, and sorrowful; those who are lukewarm, confused and who have denied their faith; those who are sick, dying or in Purgatory. Lord Jesus Christ, we entreat You, listen to our supplication, have pity and console them.

O Jesus, we entrust to You the priests of the whole world: the priests who baptized me, absolved my sins, offered Holy Mass and consecrated the Holy Eucharist to nourish my soul. We entrust to You the priests that instructed me when I was ignorant, gave me strength in my weakness, showed me the Way and the Truth and comforted me in my sorrow and affliction. For all the blessings they obtained for me, I implore You to support them in Your loving kindness.

O Jesus, shelter our priests in Your Sacred Heart. Let them take refuge in Your mercy and love, in this life and to the hour of death. Amen.

+Laus Deo.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols

Ruth Gledhill interviews the Archbishop of Westminster

Radio KUHF Report on Walsingham in Texas

Today I am sharing a link to a splendid report by Melissa Galvez on Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Anglican Use). She interviews three of my favourite people: Fr. James Ramsey, Pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham, and Nancy Macarthur and Don Dean.

One can listen to the radio broadcast or read the transcript.

Applause and the tipping of my former Anglican biretta to Melissa Galvez for her excellent reporting.

From Fr. Longenecker's Excellent Blog

Standing on My Head

I wish to commend this article by Fr. Dwight Longenecker which is an extremely important reflexion upon the vocation of the new Anglican ordinariates and those being called by God to the Unity of the Church for which Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed.

A New Missionary Martyr Spirit

What is going to be required for Benedict XVI's Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans to succeed?

First and foremost, I believe that what is required is a 'paradigm shift' on the part of Anglicans.

Very often Rome is perceived as ossified, inflexible, unimaginative and legalistic. Both Pope John Paul II ("Be generous to these men.") and now Pope Benedict XVI have been exactly the opposite. They have put together daring initiatives. They have stepped out in faith and made amazingly generous offers. They've taken risks for the unity of the Church. As the successor of Peter and the focus of unity this is part of their job and they have taken it very seriously.

Now we await the response of Anglicans. There are going to be huge difficulties for many, and this is where the paradigm shift is necessary. There are two seismic shifts in understanding that will be required for many. The first of these is a fresh missionary spirit. Instead of seeing themselves as members of an established, educated and well financed church Anglican clergy and people who hold to the historic faith will need to re-imagine themselves as primarily a missionary people.

To respond to the Holy Father's offer they may have to walk away from their buildings. They may have to set up and 'do church' in a living room, a school hall or a borrowed or rented or abandoned church building. Priests may have to walk away from a salary and do some other work to get their congregation started. (The Apostolic Constitution provides for this possibility) The priests will need to take leadership and may need to start again and 'plant a church.' They might do this with a remnant of their people from the parish they walk away from or they might have to move to another part of the country or even the world to serve a congregation of like minded faithful.

This new missionary spirit will have to be part of the people's step of faith as well for they will have to work hard and dig deep to finance the Personal Ordinariate. Sacrifices will have to be made. They will have to find a way to pay for their priest and support his family. If they own buildings they may have to hand the keys over to the ordinariate. If they enjoy a congregational form of government they may have to sacrifice some measure of their power. (However the Constitution does provide for a conciliar form of government for the ordinariate)

To do this they will be doing no more than our ancestors in various ages did. Furthermore, they are following in the footsteps of the courageous recusant families who kept the faith in England alive during the penal times. They are following in the footsteps of the courageous, humble and hardworking 'slum priests' of the Victorian Oxford movement. They too stepped out and endured misunderstanding and persecution for their faith. They went into the places nobody else wanted to go and endured poverty and difficulties for our glorious faith. They are following in the footsteps of the great Jesuit missionary priests and the apostles and all the greatest of the Catholic saints.

Please do read the remainder of his very fine post A New Missionary Martyr Spirit.

+Laus Deo.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

With thanks to Father Mark Daniel Kirby for his wonderful reflexion on St. John Lateran today on his blog Vultus Christi, I borrow the closing from his beautiful post:

The Gate of Heaven Upon Earth

Listen to Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914), a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and celebrated convert to Catholic Church. He describes the Church I love: the Church he came to love:

Her arms are as open to those who would serve God in silence and seclusion, as to those who dance before him with all their might. . . . There is nothing to fear for those who stand where we stand; there are no precipices to be climbed any more and no torrents to be crossed; God has made all easy for those He has admitted through the Gate of Heaven that he has built upon the earth; the very River of Death itself is no more than a dwindled stream, bridged and protected on every side; the shadow of death is little more than twilight for those who look on it in the light of the Lamb.

+Laus Deo.

Reports from Ukraine

I have become increasingly alarmed by news reports regarding the variant of flu that is infecting Ukrainians with the majority of the infections and deaths coming from the Ukrainian western provinces. Here is a statement from the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is in Communion with Pope Benedict XVI:

Appeal from His Beatitude Lubomyr

Dearly beloved in Christ!

The flu epidemic which for already some time spread in different countries of the world has arrived. A few dozen victims of this flu are already registered. It is a great test which the Lord gives our people. From one side we need to use all the facilities in order not to fall victim to this epidemic, and from the other side, as it has been done throughout history during such misfortunes, we need to pray hard so that the Lord may divert this misfortune from our people, if it is His will. I express my deep sympathy to the families of those who already suffered and once again I cordially ask you with prayer and joint efforts to overcome the danger. Let’s pray, dearly beloved in Christ:

“The Lord our God, you sent Your Son in the world so he could encumber Himself with our sufferings and wear on Himself our illnesses, do good and heal all. With obedience we ask you: bless these sick people, give them physical strength, strong Spirit, and patience in the illness. Return to them full health so that they overcome their weakness and, supported by Your help, live with enduring health, and with joy You may be glorified in the community of faithful in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, always, now, and forever and ever. Amen!”

From the Anglican Patrimony

From Enid Chadwick's "My Book of the Church's Year"

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord.
Let light perpetual shine upon them.

Excerpts from Bishop Nickless' Pastoral Letter

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda
(The Church is Always in Need of Renewal)

A Pastoral Letter on the Future of the Church in the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa

To the Priests, Deacons, Consecrated persons and all the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Sioux City

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Greetings of peace and joy to you and all your families. By God’s providence we are privileged to live in northwest Iowa and practice our faith in the Diocese of Sioux City. I am honored to serve you as your Bishop.

I take great joy in sharing with you my first pastoral letter for our Diocese. It is my hope that this document be a source of instruction and direction for all of us: priests, deacons, consecrated persons, and faithful laity. The points shared in this pastoral letter are basic to the celebration and faithful living of our Catholic faith. They are the foundation of all that we are called to do for the Lord in our Diocese and beyond.

As I publish this pastoral letter, I do so on the Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus. On this day, the Church prays: “O God, you raised up Saint Teresa by your Spirit so that she could manifest to the Church the way to perfection. Nourish us with the food of her heavenly teaching and fire us with a desire for holiness.” May Saint Teresa be an inspiration to all of us in our desire to grow in holiness.

This is the Year for Priests promulgated by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. I express to each of the priests in our Diocese my profound gratitude for their faithful witness of holiness and dedication to you, the People of God and to me, their Bishop. Priests are co-workers with the Bishop in the mission given to us by Christ. Please pray for us.

May all of us, united in love, continue to grow in the same holiness of Saint Teresa and Saint John Vianney as we continue to live our faith in hope and love.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City

EXCERPT:

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!

... [snip] ...

The primary purpose of all liturgy, and especially of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the worship of God. We sometimes forget this. We go to Mass to worship God, simply because He deserves to be worshiped, and we, his creatures, ought to worship him. Too often we forget that God is transcendent and ineffable, incomprehensibly greater than we can imagine. He is infinite truth and goodness shining forth in radiant beauty. He has created us, keeps us in existence, and redeems us from our sins. In short, He is worthy of our worship. He comes to us at Mass as a Father through His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. He makes Himself tangibly present to us in the assembly, the ordained ministers, and the proclaimed Word of God. He is also present most especially and immediately in the Eucharist, which has a perfect and infinite value before His eyes. He graciously comes to us, not only to be with us, but also to raise us up to Heaven, to the Heavenly liturgy, where we worship in union with all the angels and saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the eternal offering of Jesus Christ to the Father on our behalf. Thus we enter the heavenly sanctuary while still on earth, and worship God in the full manner that He laid out for us!

When we worship God in this way, He sanctifies us, that is, He makes us holy. This is the second purpose of the Liturgy. We are made holy by Jesus when we participate in His divine Sonship, becoming adopted sons and daughters of the Father. We are changed, transformed from the inside out. This comes about through hearing and acting on His Word and by being strengthened and steadily sanctified by a worthy reception of Holy Communion. This in turn leads to a true communion of saints within the local and universal Church. Too often, the purposes of our participation in the liturgy, worship and sanctification, are passed over in a misplaced attempt to “create community,” rather than to receive it as a fruit of the Holy Spirit’s activity within us.

Since, in the Church’s liturgy, we meet God in a unique way, how we worship – the external rites, gestures, vessels, music, indeed, the building itself – should reflect the grandeur of the Heavenly liturgy. Liturgy is mystical; it is our mysterious encounter with the transcendent God, who comes to sanctify us through the sacrifice of Christ made present in the Eucharist and received in Holy Communion. It should radiate Heavenly truth and goodness. This radiance, the splendor of truth, is called beauty. Our liturgy should radiate true beauty, reflecting the beauty of God Himself and what He does for us in Christ Jesus. It should lift up our soul—first through our intellect and will, but also through our senses and emotions—to adore God as we share already in Heaven’s eternal worship. In this vale of tears, the liturgy should be a lodestar, a transcending place of wonder and comfort in the midst of our day-to-day lives, a place of light and high beauty beyond the reach of worldly shadows. So many people only connect with the Church, and sometimes with prayer and God, through Sunday Mass. Should we not offer an experience of beauty and transcendence, compellingly different from our day-to-day lives? Should not every facet of our offering be proportionate to the divine reality?

Many small details can make liturgy either beautiful or banal. In recent decades, in place of beauty and “noble simplicity,” our main principle for discerning and choosing the “little things” has tended toward utility, ease, and even cheapness. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, before his election as Bishop of Rome, wrote the following about Church music, that is easily applicable to all parts of the liturgy:

A Church which only makes use of “utility” music has fallen for what is, in fact, useless. She [the Church] too becomes ineffectual. For her mission is a far higher one. As the Old Testament speaks of the Temple, the Church is to be the place of “glory,” and as such, too, the place where mankind’s cry of distress is brought to the ear of God. The Church must not settle down with what is merely comfortable and serviceable at the parish level; she must arouse the voice of the cosmos, and by glorifying the Creator, elicit the glory of the cosmos itself, making it also glorious, beautiful, habitable and beloved…. The Church is to transform, improve, “humanize” the world - but how can she do that if at the same time she turns her back on beauty, which is so closely allied to love? For together beauty and love form the true consolation in this world, bringing it as near as possible to the world of the resurrection.

Pope John Paul the Great, addressing some bishops of the United States on October 9, 1998, recognized the same urgent spiritual needs:

To look back over what has been done in the field of liturgical renewal in the years since the Council is, first, to see many reasons for giving heartfelt thanks and praise to the Most Holy Trinity for the marvelous awareness which has developed among the faithful of their role and responsibility in this priestly work of Christ and his Church. It is also to realize that not all changes have always and everywhere been accompanied by the necessary explanation and catechesis; as a result, in some cases there has been a misunderstanding of the very nature of the liturgy, leading to abuses, polarization, and sometimes even grave scandal. ... The challenge now is to move beyond whatever misunderstandings there have been . . . by entering more deeply into the contemplative dimension of worship, which includes the sense of awe, reverence and adoration which are fundamental attitudes in our relationship with God.

It is imperative that we recover this wonder, awe, reverence and love for the liturgy and the Eucharist. To do this, we must feel and think with the whole Church in “reforming the reform” of the Second Vatican Council. We must accept and implement the current stream of magisterial liturgical documents coming from the Holy See: Liturgiam Authenticam (2001), the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal, and its new General Instruction on the Roman Missal (2002), Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2002), Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), Spiritus et Sponsa (2003), Redemptionis Sacramentum (2004), Sacramentum Caritatis (2007), and Summorum Pontificum (2007).

It seems that all is not well with the Liturgy, and the Church is trying to help us. The pendulum swings, the hermeneutic of discontinuity, and the divisions within our Church have been seen and felt in the Liturgy more than anywhere.

The Church’s Magisterium, not our private opinions, is our authoritative guide in this ressourcement. The liturgy belongs to the entire Church, and in a special way to the faithful – not to a particular Diocese or parish, and certainly not to individual priests. I exhort everyone, especially our priests, to keep up with the Church. I expect them to read, study, and understand the above documents and their inner logic and place within the ongoing reform of the Church. It is vitally important that we offer resplendent worship to God alone, with understanding and excellence, obedient to the Church. My own liturgies at the Cathedral, though imperfect, are also meant to be exemplary for the whole Diocese. It is a grave error and a form of clericalism, whether by clergy or lay ministers, to change the liturgy, or even to choose ungenerously among legitimate options, to suit only our own preferences and opinions. This respect for the whole of Tradition is not simply for the sake of “rules and regulations”; this is not legalism, as some have said, but our love for Christ, so that from His Eucharist with all its preeminent beauty and sanctity, He can shine forth for all to see and love.

The Council’s goal in reforming liturgy was, of course, to facilitate the “fully active and conscious participation”17 of all the faithful. We have made great strides in this area. In the same address to bishops cited above, the Holy Father said:

Full participation certainly means that every member of the community has a part to play in the liturgy; and in this respect a great deal has been achieved in parishes and communities across your land. But full participation does not mean that everyone does everything, since this would lead to a clericalizing of the laity and a laicizing of the priesthood; and this was not what the Council had in mind. The liturgy, like the Church, is intended to be hierarchical and polyphonic, respecting the different roles assigned by Christ and allowing all the different voices to blend in one great hymn of praise.

Active participation certainly means that, in gesture, word,
song and service, all the members of the community take part in an act of worship, which is anything but inert or passive. Yet active participation does not preclude the active passivity of silence, stillness and listening: indeed, it demands it. Worshippers are not passive, for instance, when listening to the readings or the homily, or following the prayers of the celebrant, and the chants and music of the liturgy. These are experiences of silence and stillness, but they are in their own way profoundly active. In a culture which neither favors nor fosters meditative quiet, the art of interior listening is learned only with difficulty. Here we see how the liturgy, though it must always be properly inculturated, must also be counter-cultural.

Conscious participation calls for the entire community to be properly instructed in the mysteries of the liturgy, lest the experience of worship degenerate into a form of ritualism. But it does not mean a constant attempt within the liturgy itself to make the implicit explicit, since this often leads to a verbosity and informality which are alien to the Roman Rite and end by trivializing the act of worship. Nor does it mean the suppression of all subconscious experience, which is vital in a liturgy which thrives on symbols that speak to the subconscious just as they speak to the conscious. The use of the vernacular has certainly opened up the treasures of the liturgy to all who take part, but this does not mean that the Latin language, and especially the chants which are so superbly adapted to the genius of the Roman Rite, should be wholly abandoned. If subconscious experience is ignored in worship, an affective and devotional vacuum is created and the liturgy can become not only too verbal but also too cerebral.

Full, active and conscious participation: we have made great strides in this over the years. But often this has happened in a superficial, partial way resulting from a narrow and truncated interpretation of these terms. It is time to dig deeper, “to put out into the deep,”19 into a new and authentic liturgical spirituality that is both old and new, active and contemplative, historical and mystical, Roman and Iowan, familiar and challenging. All of this also applies to our “fully active and conscious participation” in liturgy outside the Holy Mass, especially in Eucharistic Adoration, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Marian devotions, and the Liturgy of the Hours.

The full text may be found in PDF format HERE.

Still Enjoying the View from Earth

A very close friend of mine asked if I wasn't fed up with the chronic illnesses and ready to go home to God.

My answer is that I am already home with God. The Blessed Trinity is here with me now, and there is no where I can go on Earth or even into outer space where He would not be right there with me.

As difficult as it may be for some to imagine I still love the view from Earth and I rejoice to have the opportunity to offer up my condition to God as part of my prayer for many important things in the life of the Church and for souls everywhere.

I suspect being born with a form of spina bifida I have never been very far from pain in my life, but I reckoned my life a miracle from the start because I was able to walk, and although I had to wear heavy steel braces on my legs to keep them growing straight, my legs did grow more straight. And I was even able to run and to dance in my youth. And as I have grown older with a syrinx within my thoracic spinal cord, the syrinx has not grown so large as to render my legs immobile. Yes, the pain is sometimes excruciating, but at those points our Blessed Mother and St. Anne have always been very close to me and helped me through. And on one occasion I was in so much pain that I found myself somehow in the arms of St. Joseph who told me that I would not die but that I would live for many more years serving God.

And yes, the strokes were an enormous challenge to me and would have taken me from this world but for the intervention of the Holy Virgin, St. Raphael, and Mother Teresa. I survived and by God's gift largely regained my speech and the use of the left side of my body. Yes, I am at times very frightened by my brain continuing to atrophy and nerves to suffer loss; but, nonetheless, I continue to type, albeit slowly and painfully, and that in spite of also suffering from psoriatic arthritis.

Strangers to the holy Faith see only that I am afflicted and it is distressing to them because as my friends they love me but they cannot see the value in this vocation the Lord has given me. I expect most Catholics would understand that I count myself blest to serve God in this way and to give testimony that life is always worth it, that life is the most profound gift of all, and the life of an individual must be preserved from conception to natural death because it is a gift that comes from God and only God has a right to draw that life to a close.

I hope this entry does not alarm my readers, but rather I hope to offer encouragement to everyone no matter what Cross they must bear. In everything that happens in life, turn to Jesus, and you will find Him right there ready to comfort you and to give you hope for a future of immeasurable joy.

It pleases God that I am here, and so it pleases me. When Christ is pleased to call me away, then it shall be my joy to follow Him beyond this world toward what He has next for me.

In all things and in all people, may the Father's will be done. And may the Lord especially bless my parents who, as Anglicans, gave me the Catholic faith as they knew it and who entered the Roman Catholic Church when I did on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter a number of years ago.

And may God bless you, gentle reader, in everything that you do for love of Him.

+Laus Deo.

Pope Establishes Structure for Uniting Anglicans

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has established a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving aspects of their Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage, said U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada.

The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said a new apostolic constitution would establish "personal ordinariates" -- similar to dioceses -- to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them.

Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but married Anglican bishops will not be able to function as Catholic bishops in keeping with the long-standing Catholic and Orthodox tradition of ordaining only unmarried clergy as bishops, Cardinal Levada said.

The cardinal announced the new arrangement at a press conference Oct. 20 at the Vatican. He said the pope's apostolic constitution and norms for implementing it were undergoing final revisions and would be published in a couple of weeks.

In establishing the new jurisdictions, Pope Benedict is responding to "many requests" submitted by individual Anglicans and by Anglican groups -- including "20 to 30 bishops" -- asking to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, the cardinal said.

At the same time, Cardinal Levada said the new provision does not weaken the commitment of the Vatican to promoting Christian unity, but is a recognition that many Anglicans share the Catholic faith and that Anglicans have a spiritual and liturgical life worth preserving.

The remainder of this article can be read HERE.

Here are some important points from the rest of the article:

U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and former undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, spoke at the press conference with Cardinal Levada.

"We have been praying for unity for 40 years. We find now that the prayers we have had are being answered in a way that we did not anticipate. So the Holy Spirit is at work here and the Holy See cannot not respond," the archbishop said.

... ...

Archbishop Di Noia said, "The ecumenical movement has changed. There has been a tremendous shift" in the prospects for full, complete union.

Many Anglicans already consider themselves to be Catholic, Archbishop Di Noia said, and the pope's new initiative will make "explicit the bond that is already implicit."

+Laus Deo.

Daniel Cardinal DiNardo: A Shepherd's Message

23 October 2009

"Each human being has full human rights. The freedom we have been given for self determination only exists along with respect for the common good and for the development of virtue in every individual – virtue that directs and guides freedom."

On March 25, 1995, Pope John Paul II published his encyclical on life issues. Aptly named “The Gospel of Life” (Evangelium Vitae), this text is a very careful and comprehensive analysis of the inestimable worth and dignity of the human person. Each human person is a singularity and is not subject to other goods, as though they took precedence over the human person. Each human being, from conception to natural death, is a subject, not an object, and cannot be put at the disposal of other human purposes.

At one point in its treatment of human life, the encyclical notes the increase of the language of “fundamental rights” and applauds some of this language: “Various declarations of human rights and the many initiatives inspired by these declarations show that at the global level there is a growing moral sensitivity, more alert to acknowledging the value and dignity of every individual as a human being, without any distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion or social class.” But the encyclical also notes a very menacing threat in “rights language” being used to justify crimes against human life itself. Further, the “rights language” in some instances seeks authorization by the State so that assaults on human life can be done with total freedom. As the Holy Father made clear, this happens where the language and activities of the “autonomous” individual outflank a more important consideration: Each human being has full human rights. The freedom we have been given for self determination only exists along with respect for the common good and for the development of virtue in every individual – virtue that directs and guides freedom.

What is genuinely necessary is that freedom be directed to and shepherded by truth.

“Freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. (…) (T)he person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion, or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.” (EV, # 19)

Each year, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Pro-Life Month during October. This yearly reminder is a call to us to intensify our commitment to the human person, most especially towards those who are vulnerable. Among the most vulnerable in our country right now are the unborn, the disabled and the seriously ill. The right to life makes other rights possible; where that right is diminished or denied, the structure of our common life together as citizens is seriously wounded and distorted. The other human rights involve something more than life itself. They are very important but presume the fundamental core of the existence of each human person as both right and gift. The right to life expresses a conviction that there is a God-given inalienable human dignity to each human being; this is bedrock! In our culture that right to life has been compromised. The assault on the gift of human life has taken place gradually and has been fueled by an excessively individualist sense of personal freedom untethered from a responsibility for truth. Our culture is in a very dangerous situation.

I ask the faithful in this local Church to become men and women of prayer, convinced of the meaning of the dignity and worth of each human person. Each of our own hearts has to be deeply converted to a culture where human life is treasured and upheld and supported. I pray that our ongoing conversion will lead to action in defense of and commitment to human life. Such action has a wide range of possibilities, from volunteering in pro-life pregnancy counseling centers to work on the pro-life committees in parishes to political action. Our current situation about respect for human life and its inestimable worth is one that calls for great concern, prayer and a clear commitment. Many of us have become too vague and complacent about the threats to human life. Our annual Pro-Life Month celebration urges us to prayer, thought and action.