The Culture of Life Ministry: Living out an Essential Mission, Upholding the Sanctity of Life

The Catechism teaches us that it is a moral obligation to defend and uphold the dignity of the human person. But what does that look like? We see and hear much about the abortion debate and that side of the pro-life movement, but what about after the child is born?

The Culture of Life Ministry at St. Patrick’s has a heart and a mission to promote and educate others on what it means to uphold the dignity of the human person, from conception to natural death.

Parishioner and active member of the Culture of Life Ministry, Ruth Peterson shares about their history and mission.

“St. Patrick’s has had a pro-life presence for several decades,” Ruth says. “Participation has ebbed and flowed over the years but in 2017, Colleen Deneen revitalized this ministry. Along with the events that we take part in, we really try to do a lot of educational things to inform the community about the issues that we are facing. We call them to action on signing petitions, writing to our elected officials and we keep people informed on legislative bills pertaining to these topics.”

The ministry has put together information fairs where parishioners can come and learn about many different pro-life issues.

Ruth reflects on what brought her to be involved in this ministry.

“I graduated from college in the late ‘70s and, in retrospect, I can see that I was fairly well indoctrinated in the pro-choice point of view,” she says. “I never really questioned that point of view until I met Pete, my husband-to-be. He was Catholic and of course, he strongly questioned the pro-choice stance. Once I became a part of his family and joined the Catholic Church, I was gently and lovingly led to understand and believe in the child’s right to life.”

From there, her passion for defending life at all stages has grown and a key part of that is not only defending life but educating others on what the major issues are surrounding the Culture of Life movement.

“We have a whole generation of people who don’t know that there are better solutions,” Ruth says. “The news quit talking about the pro-life side. There is a need for more effort on the part of Catholics and Christians to keep working towards this goal.”

The Culture of Life Ministry promotes and hosts many events along with the education that they provide. One of their events centered on the right to life is Spiritual Adoption. Parishioners are invited to spiritually “adopt” an unborn baby and pray daily for them. This daily prayer takes place for nine months, the full length of a pregnancy. At the end of this nine months, they host a baby shower and donate the items to the LivingWell Medical Clinic, a local pregnancy resource clinic.

Another current issue is that of suicide and physician-assisted suicide. On God’s Time, In God’s Care is a spiritual advocacy prayer program. Similar to spiritual adoption, parishioners are asked to pray for those who are despairing and planning on taking their own life or planning a physician-assisted suicide. They pray to give them hope and courage to face their struggles.

“We are spiritually advocating for this person who is unknown to us — someone who is elderly, terminally ill, or depressed,” Ruth says. “They are considering suicide as a way to end their suffering. We pray for them daily for six months. If we listen to the teachings of the Church, we are going to be able to accept the challenges and sufferings that we experience. We can offer them up, or pray to St. Joseph, the patron saint of a happy death.”

The group participates and promotes the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco, the Life Chain events, and many more local, regional and statewide events.

“We had a movie showing on Venerable Jerome Lejeune, the French physician who discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome,” Ruth says.

Venerable Jerome Lejeune is a great model of Catholic bioethics. He made this discovery and then spent the rest of his life defending the dignity and rights of the unborn. He vehemently opposed prenatal genetic diagnosis which is then followed by abortion of the unborn children with chromosomal defects. The Culture of Life Ministry is active in making sure that others understand that the pro-life stance of the church extends far beyond opposing abortion. There are many issues that we face in the defense of the dignity of human life. Be sure to refer to the bulletin for announcements on upcoming events.

The Culture of Life Ministry meets the first Monday of the month at 6 p.m. in the parish hall. For more information on getting involved, please contact the parish office. To keep up with events and current news, visit the website at www.stpatrickgrassvalley.org/news/culture-of-life.