-->
|
| Promoting Life Issues |
| Fertility Awareness |
| Responsible Parenthood |
| Human Growth & Development |
| Adoption |
Feature Articles
From the National Coordinator |
 |
|
...Sr. Mary Pilar Verzosa, RGS
“Be not Afraid” These were the words of our dearly beloved Pope John Paul II at the turn of the century - a past era of a world that was wrought with so much disaster, tragedies, falsehoods and confusion, and a new century facing the unknown. |
|
His Holiness was quoting one of the last words of Jesus Christ to his apostles who were trembling in fear as they thought they had lost Him forever after he was crucified, died and was buried.
But the miracle of the Resurrection was what John Paul II was presenting to us in his encyclical Tertio Millennio Adveniente. A miracle that he himself believed and trusted and left as a legacy to the Catholic world. And I believe that we are living that miracle even now – the miracle of life, the miracle that so many still believe in the family, in marriage, in love and goodness and unity. Indeed disasters and tragedies continue to happen. Greed and corruption wreak pain and helplessness especially among the poor. We seem to be unable to catch up with providing services for education, health and welfare because so many emergencies and priorities grab our time and resources. I see this miracle each time that we receive a call in our hotline telephone counseling center from a young woman seeking strength to able to give birth to her baby and avoid abortion. I know that a miracle is about to happen when volunteers walk into our pro-life resource center and commit themselves to a more meaningful management of their time, instead of the boredom of a consumerist lifestyle. There is a miracle when a couple call us up to express how they have moved away from a contraceptive orientation and are now happily expecting another baby. And it certainly is a miracle when hundreds of teens sign the True Love Waits Pledges during a pro-life forum on Love, Sexuality and Chastity. “Promote a Culture of Life”. These words of Pope John Paul II will also be immortalized through another one of his encyclicals – Evangelium vitae or The Gospel of Life. While the encyclical of Paul VI Human vitae (Human Life) that defined contraception as immoral left some liberal Catholics disappointed, this one written by John Paul II affirmed and strengthened the silent majority that believed deep in their hearts about the sanctity of the marital act and no arguments on the socio-economic level can ever rationalize the use of contraceptives. John Paul II, we love you! And as our new Pope Benedict XVI said in his inaugural homily, we echo your words - “Be not afraid”….to love, to live, to speak the truth, to care for one another. |
