Be a Sign of Hope in a Broken World

“How important it is that each and every baptized person feel himself or herself called by God to be a sign of hope in the world today.” Pope Leo XIV

October is Respect Life month in the Catholic Church nationwide, this year sharing the theme of “hope” with our Jubilee Year of Hope. Catholics are encouraged to spend extra time in prayer, fasting, and study to better understand and peacefully but actively oppose threats against human life. In order to be signs of hope to a broken culture, we must be able to share the truths of our Catholic faith with charity, clarity and confidence. Church teachings on God’s plan for lifeaffirming vocations and family are beautiful and offer freedom and dignity, but they are often misunderstood as restrictive and oppressive. If we can witness effectively to God’s goodness, love and mercy, we can bring hope to the hopeless. We can empower a pregnant mother to make heroic sacrifices for her unborn baby even in seemingly desperate circumstances by offering love and support. There is an abundance of material, physical, mental and spiritual support for women and families in need within our community. The Respect Life, Social Action, Knights of Columbus, and Neighbor Outreach ministries within the Mother of God parishes are happy to help and connect those in need with community resources.

While we strive to bring awareness to all life issues, as the Church upholds life as sacred from conception to natural death, there is commonly more attention directed toward abortion simply due to the number of lives lost through abortion. Taking the life of an unborn is currently legal in most states, including Ohio. Last year, 21,829 babies were aborted just in Ohio, many at the abortion facility in our neighborhood. By comparison, 56 lives have been lost in Ohio in the last 50 years due to capital punishment, which the Church also opposes. Each parish offers resources on a variety of life issues that will be refreshed weekly, so check back often.