HOMEPAGE for this issue: November 10, 2010

Respect Vigil to 'storm heaven' for return to culture of life

By Julie Filby

In an unprecedented request, Pope Benedict XVI has asked all Catholics worldwide to join him in prayer on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend to demonstrate their commitment to life.

On Nov. 27 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope will celebrate a Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, coinciding with the start of Advent. At 6 p.m. the same day, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., invites the faithful of northern Colorado to join him in a vigil at Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

“The Holy Father wants us to join in prayer for life—on the same date and time in all dioceses,” said Mimi Eckstein, director of the archdiocese’s Respect Life Office. “We are to storm heaven for a return to a culture of life worldwide: all Catholic voices in unison on Nov. 27 praying with their bishops.”

There are 195 Catholic dioceses in the United States.

The Denver Vigil for All Nascent Human Life will consist of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with evening prayer, recitation of psalms, singing of Gospel canticle, silent prayer and Benediction, according to John Miller, associate director of liturgy for the archdiocese.

“The vigil coincides with first vespers of the First Sunday of Advent,” Miller said. “It’s significant because (Advent) is a time of waiting for Our Savior to come; a time of waiting with patience and dignity for a child to be born.”

Eckstein echoed the importance of the vigil taking place at the start of Advent.

“Advent brings to mind many images and prayers about Our Lady and St. Joseph waiting for Christ’s birth—and how we were saved by Christ coming into the world,” she said, “making manifest God’s love for each of us.”

In a statement released Sept. 28 by the U.S. bishops’ committee on Pro-Life Activities, chairman Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston encouraged participation in the worldwide vigil.

“I heartily encourage all Catholics, whether at home or traveling over the Thanksgiving holidays, to take part in this special prayer whose purpose according to the Holy See is to ‘thank the Lord for his total self-giving to the world and for his Incarnation which gave every human life its real worth and dignity,’ and to ‘invoke the Lord’s protection over every human being called into existence,’” he wrote.

Cardinal DiNardo cited three particular risks in today’s society: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and “a renewed campaign for legalizing physician-assisted suicide.”

He also noted recent surveys demonstrate that a “rift continues to widen between the moral principles expressed by a majority of Americans and the actions of government” on public policy issues such as federal funding of abortion and government support for embryonic stem-cell research. In a recent poll, 67 percent of those surveyed indicated they oppose federal funding of abortion in health care. However in March, Congress passed a health-care reform law that allows for federal funding abortion in some programs.

“With each passing year, the need for personal and public witness grounded in God’s boundless love for each and every human being grows more urgent,” he wrote.

Cardinal DiNardo urged every Catholic to be “a voice for the child in the womb, and for the embryonic human being at risk of becoming a mere object of research, and for the neglected sick and elderly.”

In addition to every bishop in the world observing the vigil, the pope asked “all parishes and religious communities” to participate as well.

For more information about the Vigil for all Nascent Human Life, contact the Respect Life Office at 303-715-3205 or e-mail RespectLife.Office@archden.org.