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The Respect Life Ministry: Making a Difference and Upholding the Sanctity of Life
All life is sacred — and as Catholics, we have a responsibility to protect life and share the truth with and years when I took over the ministry, so I thought it was important to continue it. Usually, we have anywhere others. All Saints’ Respect Life Ministry aims to bring awareness to the atrocity of abortion and promote a pro-life culture in which all lives are treated with respect and dignity.
“Our society has degraded the value of life, regardless of who it is — there are so many different things going on that are so egregious,” says ministry leader Jack Falloure. “When it comes to abortion, we’re talking about 63 million children in the United States alone. This is such a large population and it’s just awful. We want to spread the message that all life is valuable.”
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The ministry, in conjunction with the pro-life efforts of the parish’s Knights of Columbus council, has been active for over 15 years. When previous ministry leader Jim DeSmet began his tenure with the ministry, he and his wife began to pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of local abortion facilities. They — and whoever chose to join them — would pray at an abortion facility every Saturday on all 52 weeks of the year.
“Regardless of weather, regardless of anything, they were always in front of an abortion facility praying every Saturday,” Jack says. “They had been doing it for years from five to 20 people that go every single weekend — sometimes it’s a good number and sometimes it’s a small number, but I always say that as long as there’s even one person, it’s okay.
“We’re not there to prevent anyone from doing anything, but we’re there to encourage them to have their child,” he adds. “We do it all through prayer — we don’t get in their faces, or do any kind of counseling. We just want to work through prayer.”
Ministry members will meet on Saturdays for the 9 a.m. Mass, and then receive a blessing — as well as the rosaries — before caravanning to the abortion facility. After finishing their prayers, each person receives a blessed rosary, which they then place on a nearby crepe myrtle tree. “We call it the Tree of Rosaries, and it has become very special because we’re trying to fill the tree up with rosaries,” Jack says. “We recently bought 100 rosaries from a local store and will continue to do this until we have used up all 100 — and then we’ll buy more. We really want to cover the entire tree with rosaries as a sign of what’s going on there, and it’s already beautiful to see how many rosaries are already on the tree.”
In addition to this initiative, the Respect Life Ministry also participates in the diocesan March for Life, as well as any pro-life activities, events, or fundraisers held through the diocese or parish. They have also recently begun to branch out into other pro-life issues in addition to abortion — for example, in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus, they have worked on initiatives to support and pray for the sick and homebound.
“We were working with the Knights to do a Rosary for the Sick just before the parish’s weekly adoration, along with a meditation,” Jack says. “So we decided it would be a good idea to stream this ‘healing Rosary’ and adoration so that the sick and homebound would be able to see it since we’re not able to go to their homes. We have always done Rosaries for the Knights who have passed away, so we thought we should also be doing it for the living. We should be helping them, not only in a physical way but also emotionally and spiritually. We need to be involved and do that for them.”
Those who have participated in ministry activities have been able to strengthen their own faith, as well.
“We have a family of five who come to pray on Saturdays, and those three children know the Rosary better than you and me — they love praying the Rosary with us,” Jack says. “It’s so important of an issue, that I think it’s impossible to participate for any length of time without it having an impact on your personal faith. It increases your faith significantly, and I think it’s really impacted people in that way.”
