Stewardship Minutes

Stewardship Talk – Respect Life Committee

I’m Marty Giese, and Billie Sullivan and I, are co-chairmen of the Respect Life Committee. Carl and I have been in the parish since 1977. I was one of the founding members of the Respect Life Committee in 1992, and Carl joined in ’99 along with Denny Sullivan.

Why this ministry?
In 1990 I learned that one of my sons had a son born out of wedlock in another country. I asked if I could know the child and his mother, and they came and lived with us for six months. I grew to love my grandson and his mom and I am eternally grateful to her for giving life to Garth Matthew. They left alone for South Africa in 199l and shortly, thereafter, I saw an ad in our church bulletin asking for volunteers to train as counselors at a local crisis pregnancy center. This was the beginning of my involvement. There, I met three other parishioners in the first training session, and ultimately, our Justice and Peace Minister asked if we would form a Respect Life Committee here at St. Nicholas. Our members were passionate about protecting the unborn and supporting mothers-to-be. By 1999 our ministry was on the wane and in September I met Billie Sullivan who also had been a peer counselor at a crisis pregnancy center. Billie would say I was relentless in recruiting her. And I was, because I saw that she shared a common vision on the sacredness of human life, as do all the nine other members who bring their stewardship talents to this committee.

Our Mission Statement is to cultivate a reverence for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. The National Respect Life Committee was organized as a direct result of the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized abortion. Consequently, our committee focused on abortion and supporting girls and women in crises pregnancies. As Catholic Christians, we simply tried to educate and let God do His work to change hearts, one at a time to reverence and respect human life. Now the Catholic Church promulgates the concept of The Seamless Garment, which broadened our vision, properly, to honor and support ALL stages of human life. Our mandate has not changed. It has simply become more inclusive. These are our challenges: to protect the unborn, collect clothing for the newborn, educate young parents to prevent child abuse, support institutions which house battered women and children, learn more about the growing problem of abuse of the elderly……..disseminate information about the morality of cloning and stem cell research, the challenge of assisted suicide, euthanasia, and the death penalty.
These are lofty goals, but we invite you to accept the belief that life is awesomely worthwhile no matter how imperfect and heart rending it is at times. If one of the above issues speaks to your heart, we invite you to help us. We will be available in the Commons if you have any questions. Thank you very much for listening.